5th Online Session

New Step forward!

As many people know, Japan is one of the biggest and most influence countries in the world. There are many factors that make Japan as a strong country like economics, high developed technology, culture and etc. Politics can be one of these factors since Japan has very unique one.

Japan is only country which still has emperor unlike other countries. Moreover, Japan is ruled by one party, LDP since 1956 even it is democratic country. Those things can be Japan’s advantages but at the same time disadvantages. I think that these factors make people to try reform their politics.

Political reformation in Japan?

I do not think that it will be easy to them. Actually, there is a movement to reform Japan’s politics since long time ago but for several reasons, it always failed. As I wrote in previous articles, Japan has some unique features. One thing is that Japanese people are afraid to change something. It makes Japan to keep their culture and tradition well but hesitate to change something. Indifference of politics can be another reason. Japanese people especially, young people are not interested on politics anymore. It does not mean they do not love their country rather they do not know how to contribute and love their own country. If people do not participate, politicians repeat their past and it is hard to reform. Government also should endeavor for reformation. It is difficult to reform under same law, system and attitude.

When government and people love their country and cooperate for this, there will be a good result for them.

It is time to step forward!

4th Online Session

One Party in Democratic Country

As many people know, there is only one party in Japan. There are small parties but it is more true that one party, LDP (Liberal Democratic Party), dominates Japan's politics. This party has been dominating since1955. It is quite long time and even now there is only one party in Japan.

Basically, democratic country has no sole party but different parties and it helps political power to distribute to everyone. Thus, many democratic countries try to have different parties and keep holding each other in check. However, Japan has only one party which is LDP. Ironic factor is that Japan is one of the first modernized and democratic countries in Asia. I can not say that whether it is right or wrong but I think that there is no change in Japan because Japanese people still want to have only one party or they do not feel any need to change it.

However, there are problems because of one party system such as corruption and abuse of power. Japanese politicians know that being a member of LDP is the fast and best way to promote and extend their political power. Thus, they join to LDP rather than work with other small parties and it makes same problems again and again.

If Japanese people feel corruption of LDP, it is the time to move and change it. I think that the best way to change it is participation of Japanese people rather than politicians. If people vote for the true person who will work for Japan even he or she is not a member of LDP, politicians will realize that being a member of LDP is not the only way to be elected. They need to put more effort and interest on politics and the best way to participate for politics is voting. It is true that Japanese people especially, young people do not want to know about politics anymore. It is also one of the biggest problems in Japan in these days. Of course, the government also needs to start change and reform it.

One party in Japan, modernized and democratic country. It is so ironic and unique. I think that it is one reason of that why people say that Japanese politics is unique. Change or not. The key is on hands of Japanese people. It is their choice. They need to do something for their country's future.

3rd Online Session

Change for Whom?

Why have persistent efforts to revise Japan’s constitution failed, thus far?

Whether Japan agree or not, it is true that Japan built great basis by military power and Japan was well known as ‘Strong Army’. But after World War II, the Peace Constitution was built under the U.S. to build peaceful and democratic country. Under the U.S., Japan achieved many things and made a step to be a developed country.

However, Japanese people realized that they needed to change their constitution. I think the main reason of it is that they want to make their own country get out of the U.S. This Peace Constitution was built to maintain peace of Japan and the world but it became a stumbling block on protecting the country by itself.

I think that I also need to mention China and North Korea. China and North Korea are the biggest victims of Japan during the World War and they are raising big countries. Japan might be afraid of their history. Moreover, the short video showed how much they love their own country and want to fight for it. In the video that I watched, young man seemed to be very proud of himself about protecting his country as a member of SDF. He also mentioned that he was willing to die for country. I was surprised at his strong patriotism. It is true that many countries have their own military legally. Korea also has a military and every Korean citizenship men must have military training almost two years. Of course not every men likes to attend this military service because two years is not short time. However, at least, Korea has someone to protect and fight for itself. Japanese people also want to prepare for any special situations.

Even if people want to change their constitution, it is not easy as what we think. Especially in Japan, it always failed to change the Peace Constitution because of several reasons.

First of all, Japanese people hesitate to change something. It seems that Japan has a value on tradition and history and, that is why Japanese people can keep their own custom better than other countries. Changing Constitution is a big deal. Some of them are afraid of the change.

Moreover, Japan is also scared with the memory of World War. They might be afraid to happen it again and this makes Japan to fail in changing their constitution. The old people still remember about war and bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was the worst memory of Japanese people and it made them surrender to U.S. Japanese old people don not want to repeat what happened in the past by allowing the existence of military legally.

I do not know how long Japan can be persist in the Peace Constitution because many Japanese people want to change it and international condition is changing fast. Japan needs to make a wise decision.

2nd Online Session

Why is Japanese politics similar to Rashomon?

羅生門

“Nothing is true but everything is true”

This is what I got from the film ‘Rashomon’. Frankly, it was my first time to hear about ‘Rashomon’ which is very famous and known for award from Venice Film Festival. Somehow I was ashamed that I did not know this film as an university student whose major is Japanese studies.

At the first time, I assumed that it is all about politics or somehow it is related with Japanese politics since we had to find the similarities between Japanese politics and this film. However, different from my initial thought it was story of rape and murder that is seemed to be apart from politics rather related with religion or humanity.

Since it is our second online session, I assume that everyone knows synopsis of this film. There are four main characters which are bandit, samurai, samurai’s wife and woodcutter. From the one case of murder, they all declare differently. When we listen what they explain one by one, their claims seem to be right but when we collect all their claims, it does not matched. They all said only in their own situation and interpret or explain the case favorable to themselves. Then they insisted that they are right and others are lying.

At that point, some questions appeared in my mind,
Who is telling the truth? Which one is the real?

But the film did not say anything, furthermore, it is asking me that is there any objective truth in the world.

Take a look this picture,

Let’s set the sun as a ‘objective truth’ and leaves that hide sun are the ‘individual’s subjectivity’.
We cannot see the whole sun which represents ‘objective truth’ but see part of the sun which is hided by ‘subjective leaves’.

Well..

We can adapt it in Japanese politics. Japanese politicians or parties all see one sun and pursuit same thing which is Japan’s improvement and revival but they see it in different ways because of leaves that hide the sun. Someone assert that conservatism is the only way for Japan but another may insists that conservatism never work in the contemporary period. These different perspectives make Japanese politics. They all say in their situation and consider their opinion as the only truth. I think that it is found not only in Japanese politics but also every countries in the world.

I found another similarity between them. I thought Japan is just like one of the characters in the film in the way of its political standing in the world. For example, Japan rationalized their fault in World War and colonization. Japan did not apologize about it rather insisted that they did their best in the situation. Japan interpreted it only in their perspective rather they think in others’ perspective.

Today, Japan and other countries fight for the truth and their own goal for countries.
When we think in others’ perspectives, we can easily understand them. It is same in politics. If we try to see the truth in the objective perspective, everything can be truth.

If you are interested, you can check the trailer of ‘Rashomon’ here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WElLqEDP1Jc

1st Online Session

Why do we need to compare politics?

‘Making comparisons is a natural human activity’.
This sentence is from the book of ‘Todd Landman’ and I agree with it. Comparison, like eating chicken burger or cheese burger, wearing jeans or skirt and studying or meeting boyfriend, makes everyday life. We always compare two or more things and choose one that gives you better result. Even people compare themselves with others no matter if they recognize or not. I also see myself comparing to others in terms of fashion, group of friends, school grads and so on. If we see it in wider view, it will extend to states. States compare about economic status, cultural differences and finally politics. I think that it is natural behavior of human.

So, do we need to compare politics of different countries?
If we need, why?
Why do we have to compare them?

Simply, I answer to this question that we need to compare to know similarities and differences in order to develop our own politics of country. We can see ourselves by comparison. In this book, the author provides four objectives of comparison with concrete explanation. They are contextual description, classification, hypothesis-testing and prediction. They look pretty complex and difficult but actually it is very simple and easy to understand. In my understanding, we can predict or expect that how policies or government systems work in a particular situation without ‘doing it’ by comparing politics of different countries. The countries also can learn or adapt from others by comparison. Of course, all countries have different background and condition thus, we can not follow or do just same things even though they made a great outcome in other countries. However, at least we can predict the outcome from under particular policies or system by comparing many countries. From the comparing few countries, we can see the future based on past and present and find out our own problems. For example, Japan, Philippines and South Korea have similar condition so we can learn from what others did and prevent repeating same mistakes that others made. By comparing many countries, we can generalize theories or statements. Lastly, we can describe something by comparing single country.

Why study Japanese politics?

To answer this question, I need to go back when I chose this major, International Studies major in Japanese Studies. As I mentioned during the first class of JAGOPOL, I want to study about Japan and learn from it because Japan is one of the most influential country in the world. Japanese politics is a part of that I want to learn since it has lots of similarities with my country, Korea and Philippines too. Since Japan is high developed country and has similar condition with ours, we need to study its politics and adapt to it our own country to develop and avoid unnecessary failure that Japan experienced. The process of developing to democracy, policies making and even corruption, we have similar system and problems so it is meaningful to study it. We also need to be aware its position or status in global politics. We cannot disregard its role in the world regarding past and present since Japan is related with WWI and WWII. Shinzo Abe’s statement about the Comfort Women and War Criminals is one of the good examples. Nowadays, Japan moves to forward and starts to re-build. Whether we like or not, Japan and Japanese politics affect to us in many ways and we need to learn and be familiar to it order to ‘catch up’ Japan. I think that I am lucky because I am from Korea, living in the Philippines and studying about Japan. It is a good chance for me to learn more and wider using comparison method.