So how goes your week? Here in Japan there's been a lot of bad shit happening. I could go into details of oddballs crimes (like a guy who allegedly plowing into crowds of pedestrians after getting high on semi-legal drugs). But even worse is the big news: Prime Minister Abe cramming revisions to Japan's restrictions on the use of military force.
How did this all come to pass? It's easy. Abe's party, the LDP, lost control briefly to the opposition party Minshuto a few years ago. They had good intentions, and I personally was hopeful when they came into power, but alas they didn't get a whole lot done, and after the 3.11 earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster and a continuing sense that nothing was really changing in Japan, the voters as a whole told them to get the hell out and voted the LDP back in, this time in a landslide victory that finally gave them enough seats to do basically whatever the hell they wanted.
So that's what they're doing now. Over the past year first they enacted the highly controversial law to make it a crime for public servants as well as journalists to leak "government secrets," a law that is just as scary as it sounds. Read the article I linked to for more info. I'll just say here it's a nasty law that makes it even a crime for journalists (wait, does that include bloggers?) to seek out secrets in certain instances... though of course you can't know what's restricted till you get the cuffs clapped on you.
But back to the war-priming machine.
Up until now, Japan's post war constitution has specifically forbidden the use of arms except in cases of direct self-defense. So in other words, while Japanese jets can't do anything at the Chinese planes flying crazily close a Japanese patrol boat coming under fire from a North Korean vessel can send it to hell with high-speed 20mm cannon-fire (happened several years ago - they put the wreck of the "spy" ship on display, too).
The new rules don't let Japan suddenly take the offensive. But they do let Japanese units come to the aid of allies. According to the Japan Today article I linked to above, and news reports I've read, there are questions about whether the new rules might let Japan take part in overseas military ventures, like what happened in the Gulf War or later war in Iraq. Abe has said no to this, and maybe that's his interpretation, but my fear (and the fear of a lot of people I think), is that it opens the door for future prime ministers to steadily push the rules to let them do whatever the hell they want.
My personal interpretation of the intent of the law is simple: it's to allow the military industrial complex to make money hand over fist by selling even more tanks, guns, and bombs here than they already do. The loosened restrictions on power usage are probably more of an extra bonus. They are the main source of discussion in the media, and that's what the people in charge want.
Just like it's my own personal belief that the anti-whistle blower law's real purpose is to let the govt keep secrets for 60 years instead of 30 (the old time limit under previous law). The ability to persecute whistle blowers and snooping journalists is nice, but a side benefit.
OK, so this has gotten quite long, a lot longer than I'd originally planned, but it's all stuff I've wanted to talk about for a while.
So without further ado, I give you this video to take your mind off the serious news:
OK, that was pretty freakin weird.
That was a remix by some wonderful person of the tearful Ryutaro Nonomura, wailing like a character from a a Greek tragedy in wonderful form. Why is he crying like that? Nonomura, a local assembly person from Hyogo Prefecture, was being questioned about expenses he'd tacked up over the past year for a bunch of trips he took. I'm not sure of all the details and I don't think anyone had yet suggested any wrongdoing... but man, that's some crazy powerful sobbing. If anyone was ever unsure what the line "wallowing in freakish misery" from the Princess Bride would look like, I think this is pretty close.
Oh wait, you haven't seen the real video yet. If you want to see highlights, check it out here. I think the real thing is actually more odd and jarring than the remix.
Or for more info, here's the BBC's take on his crying and how videos of him have now gone viral.
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