Japan: An autocracy ruled by bureaucrats

Asia Times ^ | 6-11-03 | Katsuo Hiizumi

[Urbane_Guerilla]

When summit talks between Japan and the United States were recently held at US President George W Bush's Texas ranch, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi put emphasis on the need for "communication and pressure" toward the most worrying factor in East Asia, North Korea. In Japan there has been a general public displeasure with the soft line on North Korea by Japanese diplomacy and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party; therefore, commentators and the public were overjoyed with the prime minister's tougher remarks. However, the diplomatic councilor, Hitoshi Tanaka, was stubbornly opposed to the word "pressure" and demanded and conspired to have the prime minister refrain from using it.

[Urbane_Guerilla]

Read the whole article. Humans are humans, everywhere. Government is a naturally corrupting and corrupt institution. It is necessary, but (as the Founding Fathers understood) the aspirations of a good government (liberty, justice and physical security) are constantly at odds with the aspirations of a free man (personal freedom, comfort, achievement).

[gaijin]

Excellent article!

The only part I disagreed with --and strongly-- was the part about how if Japanese primary school kids take English lessons, they will end up speaking poor Japanese.

What a crock!

[struggle]

i agree strongly with that. the children who learn english early can pronounce it well. my wife started learning english on her own since the age of 5 or 6 and she can speak freely without having to translate from japanese to english as most normal japanese speakers do.

on another note, japanese voters are lazy and too interested in scandal. thats why the politics system here is lax.