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Urban Ranger
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Apolyton Duke of Off-Topic
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On the front page of the website it states
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In general, information available as of 1 January 2001 was used in the preparation of The World Factbook 2001. |
That puts the military expenditure of Japan in fiscal year 2001 an estimation, no? 
quote:
Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
At any rate, you're paranoid about a return of Japanese militarism. |
Paranoid means some sort of baseless fear. Since we, the people of E and SE Asia, have actual basis for this fear, we are not paranoid.
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Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Yes, Japan did some horrible things in WWII, but to assume that any move by Japan to change its constitution now will inevitably lead to the IJA stomping through Asia again is absurd.[/url]
How is it absurd? Consider a mass murder who is in prison. This person has shown absolutely no sign of remorse for his killings. Would you say it is a bad idea to let him out?
[QUOTE] Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
The whole region has changed drastically in the past 57 years. The Japanese public won't support a return to militarism and even if they did, I don't think that Japan would (or could) take military action in Asia. |
Why is the LDP with its massive group od rightwing politicians could be a Diet majority for aeons? Look at what Koizumi has been doing. Going to the Yasukumi Shine no less.
Tell me, why hasn't they stopped whitewashing the Japanese history in WWII? This revisionist history business is making everybody in the region sick.
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Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Why try to conquer regions with military force when you already control them economically? |
That's news. Got any facts to back you up?
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Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Japan has little interest in expanding its military |
That's also news. So what's their budget in 2002, hmm?
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Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
I think that if you would research Koizumi's proposals a little more closely you would find that U.S. pressure is behind them. |
US pressing Koizumi to scrap article 9? Now you have outdone yourself. Care to elaborate on this?
quote:
Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
The U.S. wants Japan to assume more of a leadership role in East Asia, but Japan appears content to leave the military role in the region to the U.S. Why wouldn't they want free military protection? |
Ask the Koreans why don't they want free military protection. It's the same thing. Just look a bit closer to how those US military personnel act in those countries and you will know why the populace is going up in arms.
Historically, the rise of militarism followed close in the heel of prolonged economic recesson. This is the case with WWII, and all signs are pointing to the same thing now.
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Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
I just wish the hardliners in Japan and their counterparts in China and Korea would just bury the hatchet. |
Look, the latest Japnese court rulings still denied compensations to some "comfort women" and still denied the existence of Nanjing Massacre. Japan is still revising history textbooks. It is not the rest of the region do not want to let go of the past, but it will have to be up to Japan that it is willing to face a sordid history.
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Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
The Japanese should apologize for their actions in WWII and the Koreans should stop cutting off digits every time a Japanese PM visits the Yasukuni Shrine. |
Why shouldn't the victims be furious when LDP officials pay tribute to war criminals?
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Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Radicals on both sides are poisoning what should be a peaceful and prosperous new order in East Asia. Just my two cents. |
You wouldn't want an unreformed mass murderer to live on your block, would you?
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Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
But then again, I don't know enough, right?  |
Yes, given the way you have been tossing selected quotes from your beloved CIA Factbook and generalities about this region. 
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David Floyd
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The bottom of a large bottle of beer
Jan 1970
time: 05:18
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I find it curious that people are so worried about Japan, when, since WW2, China has invaded South Korea, India, Vietnam, Tibet, and fought quite large (division-sized) border skirmishes with the former USSR, and has threatened Taiwan on numerous occasions.
Further, North Korea has also invaded South Korea, and routinely inserts military and special forces personnel into the South.
Japan has done....nothing aggressive? No, there was that one time.....no never mind, nothing aggressive since WW2. 
Let's face it, Japan isn't any more likely to invade Asia than Russia is to reclaim Alaska
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Richard Bruns
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NC, USA
Nov 1999
time: 06:18
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The answer to the original poll question depends on your definition of "insane." If you believe that anyone who thinks differently is insane, then yes they are. But if you use a more clinical definition of "unable to properly function in society" then they cannot be classified as insane. Their quality of life is at least as high as anyone else in the western world, and this is less due to the exploitation of other people than is our economy.
The root of the difference seems to be a cultural willingness to subordinate the individual to the society. This can and does lead to abuses and atrocities, but it also leads to a staggeringly low crime rate. [stereotype] If the government and society tell them to commit crimes, they will, and otherwise they won't. [/stereotype] This subordination of individual will is quite an alien concept to most westerners.
I believe that the Japanese militaristic culture is dead, having perished in a cloud of radioactive ash. All of the sources I have read indicate that the recent Japanese increase in military force was dome solely at the demand of the USA. Japanese leaders fear a confrontation between China and America, because that would put them in a very nasty situation. To suggest that Japan has or desires the force projection capacity to threaten China seems rather foolish. There is no possible way Japan could survive a ground war anywhere in mainland Asia.
The culture, overall, seems to be slipping apathy and decadence. As their economy continues to crumble around them, the Japanese seem to have lost any dreams of national glory, be they military or economic. I wouldn't worry about militarism from Japan in the near future.
From The Economist:
quote:
Despite all the economic gloom, the seasoned visitor to Japan these days still finds no shortage of the trappings of affluence. But the old arrogance of the 1980s has turned into a rather British mixture of self-deprecation and fatalism. Asked about the latest downgrading by a credit-ratings agency of Japan's public debt, a senior finance-ministry official simply shrugs: "Oh, it'll get far worse than this. We'll soon be rated as low as the Czech Republic." And why can't he and his colleagues, once thought of as the world's most powerful and gifted bureaucrats, sort this out? "Because our system's no good, and we're no good, and the universities producing new bureaucrats are no good."
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Urban Ranger
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Apolyton Duke of Off-Topic
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quote:
Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
You obviously didn't look at the Japanese information. All of the estimates in the factbook are marked as such. The military expenditures as a percentage of GDP was not marked as an estimate. |
How can it not be an estimate when the fiscal year of 2001 has just ended recently? Really, just because they don't mark it as an estimate might just mean that it could be a little more accurate than most (since the budget is actually announced).
quote:
Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Do you honestly think that a general statement on the first page of the website trumps the citation given after the pertinent fact? You are wrong about this and the fact that you can't admit your error reflects badly upon your intelligence and trustworthiness. |
That's right, taking a book at its face value without just a bit of critical thinking do wonders to your purported intelligence.
quote:
Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
I don't have the time (or the interest) to explain to you all of the complexities of foreign relations in East Asia. |
Hate to break it to you, but I am in East Asia. I have spent most of my life in the region. I know how these things work. I don't need you to tell me.
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Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
If you are too dense to understand that Japan is a totally different country now than in 1931, then I can't help you. |
In terms of technolgy, economy, and production, yes. In terms of social structure, collective psyche, their views of things. No. How many times have you visited Japan? How many Japanese do you know? I don't need you you help me.
quote:
Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
If I can't even get you to agree on facts that are generally accepted (the 1% budget limit, Japanese dominance in the Asian economy, US pressure on Japan to become a regional leader, etc.), then I don't even see the point in arguing with you. |
Says the person who shows no shame when caught with fallacies.
quote:
Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
You can continue to be paranoid about Japan; it is certainly not an uncommon view in some parts of Asia. Just don't expect me to sit here and let your wild theories slide. |
Since you have no evidence nor argument to back you up, and you have no qualms resorting to all kinds of fallacies, it is a foregone conclusion who is out of touch with reality. Since you are unable to respond to my concrete points, really, let the audience decide who's wrong.
BTW, Koizumi visited the Yasukumi Shrine two days ago, and a whole pack of LDP Diet types went this morning.
You are telling me they are somehow different from 1931 in terms of the way they see the rest of the peoples in the region?
You're a joke.
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16-04-2002 18:55
(Yes my friend Makkura found STD porn, for people who like "diseases".)
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