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It’s local election time again in Japan. Candidates stand outside train stations wielding megaphones and wishing everyone good morning. Signs are erected with the various candidate’s posters extolling their virtues with winning smiles.

Wait a minute winning smile? That’s a grimace of the first order! Come on man you can do it! Stretch those mouth muscles! No don’t cry, smile! Smile!

In response to Houjin`s great comment (quoted below) left on my earlier post about Yasukuni Shrine and more specifically a right-wing textbook approved for use in some schools :

“The Japanese military drove away the Western powers which had long controlled the Asian countries … Their actions awakened the long-dormant spirit of ‘making their homeland their own nation by their own hands’” The textbook Ch5 p13

I actually enjoyed (well … within reason) reading this alternative interpretation of Japanese action during the second world war … but I’m afraid they lost all credibility (for me) with that remark. I’m curious … do the Japanese actually believe that sort of rationale ?

I am genuinely curious - my Japanese friends have all been here in Korea for almost a year so, as I am sure you can appreciate, they have been (rather forcefully lol) exposed to an alternative interpretation to the one they were originally taught.

But for the average Japanese Joe, how prevalent is an alternative (genuine ?) reading of Japanese history in Japan ? It’s going to be a long road to forgiveness if they keep doing things like this I’m afraid.

This textbook I linked to is used in a real minority of schools. Very very few of the thousands of Junior high schools in Japan chose to adopt this specific nationalistic textbook written by a small minority of very vocal patriots.

Each country has their own view of history - China being a communist dictatorship uses propaganda against Japan to advance its own nationalistic end. Japan undoubtedly did some very bad things last century but in the years since then, they adopted an attitude of pacifism. The use of war is made illegal in Article 9 of their Constitution

Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.

Whilst many Japanese seem to be very anti-Chinese - one reason (among many) being they gave (and continue to give) large loans to China which receive no thanks, few truly believe what the textbook above states. This is why so much controversy has erupted that it was approved and why so few schools are using it.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Osaka, Asia, Quaisi, Kansai, Expat, Yasukuni, Shrine, Koizumi, Textbook

From the linked Japan Times article:

In a move expected to exacerbate already strained Sino-Japanese ties, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi went Monday to Yasukuni Shrine, the contentious Shinto site that honors the nation’s war dead and 14 Class-A war criminals.

Koizumi has kept his pledge to visit the shrine at least once a year since taking office in April 2001, despite repeated protests from China and South Korea, which regard the shrine as a symbol of Japan’s Shinto-inspired militarism through the 1930s and 1940s.

Koizumi however insists he only wants to honour the millions of Japanese killed in the war and to pray for peace. Japan is doing really well at annoying its neighbours including approving right-wing textbooks for junior high school students which gloss over Japan`s militarist past. I`ve found a website which has translations of the textbook approved.

Further reading:

In defence of Yasukuni Shrine
About Yasakuni Shrine
Koizumi`s site
Yasukuni and Donuts

Technorati Tags: Japan, Osaka, Asia, Quaisi, Kansai, Expat, Yasukuni, Shrine, Koizumi, Textbook

Richard Gere won a two thirds majority in the Japanese parliament enabling him to carry out his postal reforms. In the news last night and today we have seen many victorious politicians with these things above. Thanks to Davecat, I learned that it is a Daruma. The politicians recieve these things with one eye only painted in. They make a wish and if their goal is attained, they paint the other one in.

Wikipedia article on Daruma here

Technorati Tags: Japan, Osaka, Asia, Quaisi, Kansai, Expat, English

It`s the Japanese general election today. Thanks to this
post at An Englishman in Nyu Gun, I found out that, “bar a ten month period in the early nineties, the LDP has been in power for over 50 years.” I sincerely hope Richard Gere, leader of the LDP, enjoys another term as Prime Minster of Japan.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Osaka, Asia, Quaisi, Kansai, Expat, English

The general election in Japan is being held on September 11th and the politicians are all out busy campaigning. In typical orderly Japanese fashion they provide boards for politician`s photos to be placed in numerical order. Surely you want positioning on the top rank?
Technorati Tags: Japan, Osaka, Asia, Quaisi, Kansai, Expat, English

I don`t ususally talk about politics in this blog but it`s got really interesting in Japan recently. The Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has been trying to privatise the postal service which is in effect the world`s largest bank. (Stay with me!) His motion passed in the lower house but was rejected in the upper house.

Koizumi - a bit angry it`s safe to say decided to dissolve parliament and call for new elections. To do this the entire cabinet had to agree. One, the agricultural minister, refused to sign the paper and so Koizumi sacked him, temporarily took over the post himself and thus parliament was dissolved. Now there will be elections on September 11th in Japan.

The picture above is from yesterday with politicians already campaigning on buses with loudspeakers drawing large audiences.

Last summer there was also some sort of election going on for some reason and whilst I was in Namba, Osaka , Koizumi was out campaigning. (Sorry for the lack of detail but I barely knew how to get back home once out then let alone politics) He is the one in the white by the banners, dwarfed by his security personnel. It`s closer than I ever got to Tony Blair.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Osaka, Asia, Quaisi, Kansai, Expat, English, Blog, Politics, Koizumi, Election, Elections