Japan to become 'Britain of the Far East' (This Should Be Interesting)

Asia Times ^ | 24 Feb 2005 | Kosuke Takahashi

[TheForceOfOne]

As long as the collection of noses is a faded memory.

[theFIRMbss]

>BullS...on the Princess, she was done in by overweaning stupidity of her choice friends. Get real.

Princess Diana's Death : Did MI6 Kill Her?

[LibertarianInExile]

"I hope you aren't saying Japan is a potential North Korea." First you ask me to use a crystal ball and tell you what a militarized Japan might find worth using that military to get...or regain. Now you ask me to affirm that Japan isn't a potential North Korea. I simply can't do that, because who knows what the new Japan would bring to the table that would change its basis for intervention? The mainstream perception of Japan is as a nuke-hating democracy. I disagree with that perception, but I don't think they're just going to up and threaten South Korea or Taiwan as they rearm. Situations change, however, and I simply won't say that they are going to be that Kyoto-on-the-Pacific you'd like to imagine forever if they get the big guns in their hands again.

Additionally, in my experience, what we've seen from a militarized Japan was far worse than North Korea--North Korea hasn't invaded anyone recently. As a regional military power, Japan invaded how many countries, how many times? No, I think I'll remain biased against Japanese rearmament, especially with nukes, thanks. They aren't North Korea NOW, but any country with a tradition of oligarchy and big man government, backed against the wall, certainly could be.

When you witness the truly stunning xenophobia inherent in Japanese daily life, you don't think, you KNOW it's a possibility. Some prefer to call it racism, but every time you hear a Japanese tour guide call whatever's a Japanese landmark the 'biggest in the world,' even if any regional visitor knows darn well it isn't (I have heard this about bells, temples, mountains, subways, trains, and department stores. And it ain't puffing. And as gringo noted, hearing them explain Western 'shortcomings' based upon Japanese racial superiority, you know there's a bit of us-against-the-world xenophobic mentality that Japan simply has never left behind. I have heard said too many times "They could NEVER do this in America, too many ____ people," ____ being any group you care to plug any--usually "black" or "lazy." I can't be happy about the idea that we just arm them and hope for the best, knowing that is the case. I would rather the U.S. defend Japan until my kids are grandparents than seriously entertain the idea that we give a power that so viciously mistreated its prisoners and neighbors a second chance to do it again, before it's eradicated that superiority complex. The potential pitfalls are simply too much given the payoff, and I haven't even addressed the negative impact the U.S. rearming Japan would have on other countries' view of us.

[Terpfen]

"First you ask me to use a crystal ball and tell you what a militarized Japan might find worth using that military to get...or regain. Now you ask me to affirm that Japan isn't a potential North Korea. I simply can't do that, because who knows what the new Japan would bring to the table that would change its basis for intervention?"

I never attempted to use you as a crystal ball. I'm simply trying to discern the reasoning you used to arrive at the conclusion that a Japan with an improved military is a bad thing.

I know full well the "we're the best" nature of how the Japanese think. However, to use that as the basis for arguing that Japan should be left within its cage, given the current situation in east Asia, is a little too shortsighted. The idea isn't to make Japan a military superpower, it's to restore a counterbalance that has existed in that region for centuries.

Koizumi knows who's got the nukes pointed at Japan, and it isn't the United States.

[LibertarianInExile]

We'd be putting a scalpel in the hand of a quiet crazy that has the same fundamental mental illness as the others in the ward--and the others have scalpels already. Maybe we want to keep an even keel in the psycho ward and he's all for us doing that right now. But who knows when he'll act off his rocker, and what damage he'll do then?

I'd rather just keep my thorazine dart gun in hand, and be happy that at least one of the crazies can't cut me up.

[sanchez810]

Good good. Japan is our Tower in the Asian Chess Board. Yet to exploit its full potential a Korean war is necessary.

[Al Gator]

Look up the definitions of racism and xenophobia.

What you have described in this post is racism. Not xenophobia.

How many foreign workers are now in Japan? In the '70s and '80s, there were very few. Now, Ueno koen looks like a middle east bazaar. Not very xenophobic.

Again, racist? Yes, xenophobic? Not really.

[gringo_in_Akita]

Perhaps some of my examples were a bit fallacious in trying to cite xenophobia. But have you ever met a Japanese person who has spent a considerable amount of time working or studying abroad, yet returned to Japan? They catch all kinds of subtle flack from people. God forbid they were exposed to new ideas overseas. They are sort of shunned and distrusted back home, having somehow become 'less Japanese'.