Creepy stuff. Sounds like they want a return to a "kinder, gentler" version of the prewar era...
Whoops, I put the link where no one will see it.
ttp://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=2&id=329230
>"It should be permissible under the law to restrict or ban publication or sale of books that have a detrimental effect on young people's upbringing" — an apparent reference to obscene books or videos.
Ridiculous. Detrimental effects are defined by the whims of the status quo. Is it detrimental to grow up with an appreciation for foreign literature (and consequently develop inconvenient opinions about the nature of one's own heritage)? Is it detrimental to take interest in collaboration-oriented (as opposed to competition-oriented) economical or organisational models (zOMG communism)? Is it detrimental to be aware of negative side-effects associated with frequent use of contemporary technologies (cars and pollution, cell phones and radiation, encryption and illegal filesharing? Easily abusable subjectivity as such doesn't belong in a country's constitution.
Those who complain about the two-party system in the US should take a gander at Japan, which, although it is democratic and doesn't squash smaller parties, is, in practice, a one-party state; the LDP holds all the power. And when that happens, shit like this can occur. Shame on the so-called "conservative" LDP.
I don't think the LDP holds as much power as us outsiders think. A lot of power is held in the ministries.
Can anyone with more than a passing familiarity of Japanese politics comment on Japan's power structure?
This new constitution looks disturbing, yes.
I am an American, and know less than I should about politics in Japan, so I'm not trying to be a wiseass when I ask: is this for real?
When I say that, I mean that in the US, from time to time the far-right ideologues in the Republican party go through the motions of preparing a Constitutional amendment as a response to some controversial issue of the day. The amendment is always quietly forgotten, or dies in committee. They aren't for real. They aren't serious, it's just play-acting for the benefit of certain groups of voters.
So, is this new Japanese constitution real? Or are the politicians just play-acting to get attention in a slow news week, and make the voters think they care?
>Can anyone with more than a passing familiarity of Japanese politics comment on Japan's power structure?
I just did some quick research on Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Japan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_of_Japan
...and things don't really look that different from other democracies in the world; the three branches are separate, a bi-cameral parliament creates legislature, an emperor who is even more of a figurehead than the Brits', and so on.
What did you mean by "ministries?"
>>6: Good point; this could be just a small clique of nuts that are either trying to make some sort of half-assed statement (like the Democrats who sponsored a bill to reinstate the draft a few months ago) or sincerely believe this blather but will be ignored by the rest of the diet. As a future resident of Japan (yes, old otaku-bashing Albright is moving to TEH AMINE PARADISE!!! later this month), I can only hope...
Ministry: department of government. The most well known is probably MITI (Ministry of International Trade and Industry).
The Ministries used to wield so much power that the Diet could jump up and down but actually achieved nothing. In a sense, perhaps, you could claim that democracy was just an illusion, all real decisions occurred in backroom deals within the Ministries themselves.
The question is whether that's an accurate view, and if it's still the case.
Greetings, everyone.
I'm posting from Japan.(Sorry my English is limited)
Let me tell you what's going on in the Japanese diet.
First, as Japan Today said, the amendment was just proposed,
and I think it sure is silly and ridicurous in that it's
very ambiguous whoever ecercises the power, how they
determine what's detremental to young people, etc.
But it still isn't decided(and I hope it's canceled).
What's more urgent matter is, however, that the Japanese
diet tries to apply a new law that violates freedom of
speech and the Japanese mass media still haven't broadcast it.
So most Japanese people haven't known such a law will
be introduced in 10 days! I myself didn't know about it
when I read 2ch.
When the law is made effective,
plivilage will be given to a committee which is not
elected by Japanese citizens but by only a part of persons
who own power. We're concerned that the committe will
grow and have more power than expected because
no law can deter them from doing justice on their whim.
That's why some of us started to ask help from abroad
not to make the horrible law effective.
As a matter of fact, there're lots of threads in 2ch
that deal with this urgent problem.
And here's the thread I read.
http://academy3.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/english/1109953635/l50
Some guy translated what the law is like.
Thanks for reading.
I find it unfortunate that your media isn't reporting about this... Are politics not a big point of discussion in the Japanese media? In the US, radio and TV shows about politics and political debate are very popular...
Why did the eighth post in that link you provided give the address of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)?
Anyway, we have a saying in American politics: "Throw the bum out!" I hope you can contact your politicians and make sure that this bill doesn't pass, but if it does, I hope you can vote out of office the people responsible for it. Good luck!
>>10
Concerning politics, yes, it is a big point.
But they seems to like to hide from people what's scheduled to
take place in the diet. I usually don't want to complain about my media but not this time. Actually, those who happened to know about the law from the online media are feeling a bit rebelious now.
As is often the case with the Japanese media, especially
TV news, they are more concerned about ratings than
news quality, I mean, they often get sensational to attract
audience and tend to report only about something appealing
to someone with no interest in serious matters or no
knowledge on politics.
About diplomacy, their reports these days are convergent on a North Korean abduction case.
No doubt it's a big problem, but we are guessing some authoritarian power put a pressure on the media, leading
they won't broadcast about the law.
History said that corrupt leaders often use diplomatic problems
to distract their citizens' attention from what they really intend to do in their nations and urge thier people into doing what they want. And now, the amendment draft of the onstitution tells us the history is right(If the Constitution bans assembly or freedom of speech, no Japanese will speak up when the Japanese diet goes mad and out of control.).
So we're absolutely against it.
P.S.
I'm sorry I don't know about KKK stuff.
I'll ask the person who post it.
Please allow me to post once more.
I have some more background imformation.
As you see, the Japanese media is slanted and off-balance.
Many of us aren't sure what we are supposed to believe.
For instance, NHK, the national broadcasting media, was
reported allowing big politicians to cut in to their program,
which should've delt with warfare, by Asahi shimbun, or a kind of newspaper company in Japan, in return of which the politicians denied what's said in an article was true. As a result, those two media have attacked one verbally or in their articles after another. Which should I believe?
What made us irritable this time is, Japanese politicians permitted only the media freedom of speech in order not to make them complain. As a matter of fact, before the media people was sure they had the right of free speech, they sometimes spoke against the law, saying it was absolutely against the Constitution, which allows people to speak freely. But now...
Can you believe any media if they wanted their own freedom?
This is madness...
Thank you for reading.
> "Throw the bum out!"
> if it does, I hope you can vote out of office the people >responsible for it.
No, we can't if the law is effective.
We couldn't know who's responsible for it because the committee
would have a wide range of power. If we try to rumour about it
online (or offline), they'll sweep us out.
It's nothing but an autocracy, is it?
Ah, yes, we Americans are also familiar with the mainstream press not doing a very good job sometimes... Thank goodness we have the internet nowadays.
Yes, it can make people stand up.
We are getting together and sending e-mails to our ministries.
>>1
Actually, there're some Japanese people who's afraid of
Japan adopting fascism, though I think it's a slight
exaggeration.
"Human Rights" bill includes "includes contentious media controls that will be frozen and wielded over the media for possible invocation whenever the government sees fit."
http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050309f1.htm
Oy. What's going on over there?
>>17
To put it this way, "Human Rights" bill violates freedom
of speech. The goverment freely chooses the members of the human rights commitee who I think must be puppets.
The Japanese media sounds to me as if the bill is OK except for the media cotrols. In my opinion, however, the bill is horrible even if the goverment crosses off the contentious articles.
One reason is because the media is very short-sighted and prejudiced, doing nothing for the cancellation of the law. And the most terrible thing is that the law must be aimed at the Internet, especially the like of 2ch. What will become of our rights of free speech?
I'd best tell you overseas people that 2ch helps shape mass opinions in Japan now and some people can leak information that they wnat to keep people away from.
What do you think you would do if your administration tried to regulate your rights?
I heard an American radio personality was kicked out after she made a comment againt the Bush administration. Didn't American people get angry about that, such as supporters of the democrat
party?
>>20: I'm not sure who you are referring to. Actually, most radio talk show hosts are conservative and are in favor of Bush, although there are exceptions... Maybe she said something violent or over-the-top, like "I want to kill Bush?" Do you remember what her name was?
>>21
Well, no, I don't, sorry.
But I think it's reported before the presidential election last year. What I remember is she spoke againt Bush before she was thrown out and a financier of the radio station urged her boss to get rid of her. The details of the event escaped me, though.
(I didn't mean to offend you at all to write this, OK?)
http://www.amconmag.com/2004_02_02/article3.html
"Roxanne Cordonier, a radio personality at Clear Channel’s WMYI 102.5 in Greenville, S.C., didn’t have it as good. Cordonier, who worked under the name Roxanne Walker, was the South Carolina Broadcasters Association’s 2002 Radio Personality of the Year. That apparently wasn’t enough for Clear Channel. Her lawsuit against the company alleges that she was belittled on the air and reprimanded by her station for opposing the invasion of Iraq. Then she was fired."
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/entertainment/9701134.htm
"Maloney, whose weekly show aired for three years on KIRO-AM Radio, said he was fired Friday after telling listeners on Sept. 12 that "Rather should either retire or be forced out" over the memo controversy."
http://www.surfingtheapocalypse.net/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?noframes;read=1188
"the Clear Channel-owned radio station KMEL in San Francisco fired its popular community affairs director, David "Davey D" Cook, shortly after his show aired the anti-war views of Rep. Barbara Lee, the lone member of Congress to vote against military action in Afghanistan, and rapper Boots Riley of the Coup. The station claimed it did so for financial reasons."
http://www.pastpeak.com/archives/2004/06/the_stern_facto.htm
"Stern, who was recently fired from six Clear Channel stations after criticizing President Bush,"
And a bunch of others who got fired too.
http://www.peacefulresistance.com/article.php?story=2005030114523057
"Bush replied: "People do get fired in American press. They don't get fired by government, however. They get fired by their editors or they get fired by their producers or they get fired by the owners.""
I'd say the bill we've been talking about is a worst version of
the Clear Channel-owned radio station.
The goverment-owned committee can decide what Human rights are.
Guess what!
Our tenatious efforts seem to be slightly repaid.
http://www.sankei.co.jp/news/050310/morning/editoria.htm
Here's what I'd translate into English:
The human rights bill needs to be canceled that has a lot of problems.
Sure, any distinction according to people's nationality or people's ancestry must not have to be made. But the difinition the bill decides on about human rights is so ambiguous that the committee members can use their power on their whim to the extend that the Japanese community is full of anonymous tips. The committee is conprised of 20,000 members, looking for any
violation against the law, and have powers as if it's the police such as when they search the houses where violators live. That can violate human rights that the Constitution promises.
Any bill that is thought to violate the Constitution must be given up.
It's important to note that in all of Sling's cases, the broadcaster was fired by the company, and not silenced by the government. Clear Channel is the biggest single source of radio content in the nation, but they're not the only one. Not yet. However, I'll admit that often the things Clear Channel does leave a bitter taste in my mouth as well.
Anyway, congrats, >>29, on the exposure. Good luck in the future.
Well, yes, it's true the goverment didn't fire the person, but if the company was connected with it, it was a different story, wasn't it? Indeed, it'd depend on the company whether they follow the authority or not, given that such a creature existed.
The X day is just put off until we calm down and forget about the dumbfounding law. I found it so optimistic that we felt as if we achieved our goal, though I think the fact that one of the media said No against the bill did make a difference indeed.
There are lots of news everyday like trantial rain, big or small. But we are faced with the point from which we live peaceful lives or harsh ones. And I hope overseas people also continue to keep an eye on this matter.
http://academy3.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/english/1109953635/258
Someone introduced an article on Burakumin from NewYork Times.
A little bird told me a big group of Burakumin is pulling a string behind the scene this time.
What is/are burakumin? I tried looking it up in a dictionary, and all I could find was "buraku," which is a "subunit of village." That's not too helpful...
burakumin are equivalent to the indian untouchable class. japanese who handle bodies or work in slaughterhouses or work with sewage are considered burakumin, and it is a status that can be carried down for generations through the family. i knew a girl whose parents had private detectives follow all of her boyfriends to find out if they or their family were burakumin.
its part of buddhisms influence on japanese culture.
I don't know about the indian class vry much.
All I know is they've dominated Japan's underground organizations known as Yakuza, etc. Even almost all of the Japanese media haven't mentioned them publicly. So they have been treated with great caution, which made them more influential behind the scene, sometimes blackmailing buisinesses or some of the Diet members. Horrible..
Ah, "dominate" may be too strong a word. Let me correct it. I'd say they make up a large propotion of the underground communities.
Help!
Koga Makoto is going to sell Japan,and he is going to let Japan war again.
Hey, >>39, I strongly disagree with your "let Japan war" thing.
"Make" or "force" would explain their wacky attempt to regulate our freedom the Constitution gives to Japanese citizens.
Anyway, people, as you may or may not have believed what we said about some horrible politicians pulling strings behind the scene and trying to make the bill effective, I found out that a broadcaster explained what was going on in the diet. Here, someone uploaded a movie file running by media player.
http://www.dela-grante.net/michelin/up/so/No_2847.wmv
In the program, he was greatly concerned not only about the regulation against freedom of speech, but also whoever makes up the Human Rights committee. He suspected the would-be members are picked up from some political body, and that they use their power to squash whoever they don't like. I'd say it's like Gestapo, do you?
>>39
I hope he will fall out of favor and never win a general election even if he has the balls to stand in the next one.
>>36
You're wrong.
I swear we don't discriminate against any minority in such a gratuitous manner. Let me put you straight. Burakumin pretend they're weak and live a hard lives, but in truth, some of them have expensive cars such as Mercedes, while they take social benefits and never pay a tax. Why? As they've formed horrible organizations, the fact won't easily come to light in public.
If the bill we've been talking about is effective, we'll lose ways to objectively say something against such a organization.
To sum up, the USA Patriot Act is silimar to the Human Rights bill except that the idea of the bill is to give minorities a wide range of privilages.
This law is pleased by only a few people who have strong privilege.
Because the law protects them and punishes Japanese who wants and talks the Fact.
this law can make Japanese become silent like north corea.
This law surely deprives Japanese people of freedom of speech.
Privileged peple can easily punish the obstruct people for them by this law.
This law is like "Chian-iji-hou(1923)" the fasism law.
>>44
I'm afraid I don't think English-speaking people know a lot about North Korea save that the nation said it has nuclear weapons now.
Most Americans probably don't know much, but I personally find the situation on the Korean peninsula very interesting and have done a lot of research on it. This web site links to a lot of cool sites about NK, and has often-updated news as well:
http://www.nkzone.org/nkzone/
I find the Soviet-style propaganda music and artwork NK is putting out very interesting... It's like stepping back in time fifty years.
That being said, is there an English translation of this bill available anywhere? I find it hard to believe that it could make things as bad as North Korea... Even the PATRIOT Act, for all people complained about it, didn't effect hardly any Americans at all, though many middle-Eastern immigrants with suspicious backgrounds were more closely scrutinized.
>>47
I'd say there's not been an English translation yet, because some of the Diet members want to keep the contents of it a secret and even to keep away as many Japanese citizens as possible. As a matter of fact, major broadcasting stations haven't(or couldn't, maybe because of the authoritarian control) reported about it, as I said before. But some Japanese websites deal with/make open to us what's written in the bill. Here, take a look:http://blog6.fc2.com/kirakiraseed/blog-entry-8.html
And this is another site referring to the ploblems which, acording to the Paris Principles, violate human rights:
http://www.jca.apc.org/jhrf21/Campaign/20020417.html
If you want me to translate the ploblematic points of the bill, I'll try doing it as far as I can(of course, I will avoid my subjectivity).
>for all people complained about it
So most of the American citizens know about the act, don't they?
I guess the American media is fair and balanced in a way.
But it may be a different story in Japan even now, compared to the States.
And I should've explained something. Unlike in the USA, Cable is not well developed in Japan, so most people watch only major broadcasting stations. As a result, most people don't know about the bill except for those who read about it online.(some information became available/accessible in the newspaper recently, though there're not so many readers as opposed to TV watchers.
>it could make things as bad as North Korea
You have a point, but in my opinion, things could change little by little like rain poured into a river before a great amount of flood hits a town. It's anybody's guess what things will be like in Japan, though.
>I find the Soviet-style propaganda music and artwork NK is >putting out very interesting... It's like stepping back in >time fifty years.
Yes. We japanese know very much about them because the Japanese media love to broadcast them. I watched them on TV many times indeed. But I find it very ironic that the media have pointed out how ridicurous the autocracy of NK is while they've been concealing the fact that some Diet members try to pass the bill which may lead to an autocracy-like community...
I wonder there're other cases around the world in this era like this one in Japan.
>So most of the American citizens know about the act, don't they?
Very much so. It's been the topic of much debate, online, on TV, and in real life. Many of the anti-war protesters also protest against the PATRIOT Act, though I believe that much of their energy is misguided. (Incidentally, the 19th is going to be the anniversary of the war on Iraq, so there are going to be many protests around the country on that day... It's strange that anti-war protesters can be so full of hate sometimes.)
Indeed, there really isn't much to the PATRIOT Act that most people would find objectionable. Most of the people who don't like it probably don't know much about it, in fact. A lot of the Act is pretty boring stuff; stuff like giving the federal government the ability to wire-tap suspicious citizens' phone lines, something that most state governments could already do. Also, most (if not all) of the provisions in the bill were set to expire in time, so those that haven't already expired will soon do so.
Still, it was a bill that was passed in the midst of the panic after September 11. I'd like to think that, if the Congress were to go back and work at passing a similar bill today, we could make it to be a bit less objectionable to those concerned about privacy.
america is the nicest, friendliest country i've ever lived in. considering how tightly shackled their government is, its amazing that there haven't been more sept. 11th level attacks.
it makes me wonder if the reality of games like splinter cell and rainbow six doesn't have some truth to it. perhaps there really are super-secret nigh-omniscient assassin squads running around killing america's enemies and never letting anyone find out that there was any danger at all. but i actually just think that you're all a bunch of lucky bastards.
There actually are. Well, the stuff that really goes on is probably a lot more mundane than what happens in video games, but we definitely have agents out there keeping the pulse of some particularly nasty spots of the world whilst remaining incognito. (Whether that's scary or comforting, I can't decide, but it's nonetheless pretty cool.) One of the unfortunate realities of a lot of the stuff the CIA and its equivalent organizations around the world does is that we can't really hear about their successes; but when something slips by them, well, 9/11 happens, and then people stand around and wonder why the government didn't protect us.
Just recently there was a bust on the east coast of a gang trying to sell old Soviet rocket launchers and other nasty things; the "buyer" in this deal was posing as a thug who had ties to Al Qaeda. And this was just one of the things we do get to hear about...
Hmmm, I understand why the Patriot Act was applied after 9/11.
I would have feared what would happen next such as another hijack or something if I'd lived in the States then.
If NK attacked and bombed Japan, what would we do? Could I say, "we'd never scurutinize any suspicious person(or agent) because of thier nationality? That's tough to answer.
By the way, people, who's responsible for the Act? I mean, who has the power to interrogate or look into people? In the case of the Human rights bill, oddly enough, people who come from NK and represent the nation can join in the Human Rights committee. This is mad. They can suppress any objective report on NK if they think it's a distinction. Where can I find out freedom of speech? As in >>29, any gratuitous distiction must not be made, but that doesn't mean it's fair to take away our free speech by any political body's norm.
Not to change the subject, but I'm curious to know whether your nation gives suffrage to whoever live in it but doesn't have the nationality.
I must've made a mistake, Albright!LC/IWhc3yc san.
(san means a general title of respect in Japanese)
>stuff like giving the federal government the ability to wire-tap suspicious citizens' phone lines
So they don't have the abilitiy to interrogate any person and put him behind bars? Then I have to emphasize the equivocal provisions of the human rights bill and let you know what deserves punishment depends on the committee, so we suspect there's possibility the members will have the right to incarcerate anyone whose ideology isn't to their tastes..