The Biggest Draw
January 11, 2008 Politics, World
I’ve been watching the numbers climb higher every day, and I just can’t believe what I’m seeing. The most popular post I have on this site has drawn more traffic since it’s publication than I managed to get for all the posts published in the first three months of this site’s operation back in 2006. That post is, oddly enough, my article on Japan’s proposed attempt at internet regulation.
I find this interesting for a few reasons. One of which is the sheer volume of traffic that has come as a result of StumbleUpon, but the other is due to the topic. I didn’t think there would be that many people around the world interesting in Japan’s internal politics or their plans to introduce flavours of censorship in the name of “the greater good”. There have been quite a few things this country has done (politically) to upset me over the last few months and it makes me wonder if others have grown tired of the status-quo here.
For example, take the recent infighting in the Japanese Parliament.
On one side you have a newly emboldened Democratic Party of Japan with their leader President Ichiro Ozawa hammering away at the partially inept Prime Minister Fukuda and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party. There are times when I really like this Ozawa character because he presses the hard issues, like Japan’s farce of a pension fund system and the dispatching of the national Self Defense Forces abroad.
Ozawa argues that the need to discuss the pension problem is increasingly dire “as the issue affects individuals’ futures and their current living standards.” Who can not like a guy that pushes an issue like this? The Japanese government (and its citizens) have known about this issue since it first hit the newspapers a few years back. Why aren’t people taking this more seriously?
Oh yeah … the government pension system is seperate and handled much better than the national system for the rest of us simpletons. Lord knows that after 50 years of working in a high-stress job (all jobs in this country seem to be incredibly stressful, it seems) we want to get jack nothing from a system we paid into. Heck, it’s only half-a-century’s worth of payments they can’t properly account for, and only 20-million of the 50-million affected people won’t get a pension. In a nation of 133-million, that’s not so bad, right?
Considering how 20% of the workforce is due to retire in the next decade, I’m disgusted to think that a country that touts itself as being technologically advanced can’t even make an effective database. This kind of problem was solved by nations hundreds of years ago. Long before the computer came in and made things “simpler”. So what’s the hold-up?
Unfortunately, Fukuda is a man of talk on domestic issues and a man who makes “appearances” on international issues. Aside from building political bridges with China, which I agree is important, and pushing ahead to give the US what they want in terms of naval refuelling support, Fukuda is nothing more than a sitting duck. He’s not looking at any of the real issues in Japan, and he’s not willing to make the hard decisions that will show that previous leaders of his party made some pretty big blunders.
Nobody in this world is perfect, and Lord knows that there isn’t one great political entity currently in office that other nations could look to as a role model, but how long can a government of the people ignore some of the most critical and crucial issues that are affecting millions of its citizens? Why are immigration laws still so tight in a nation where 40% of the population will retire in the next 25 years and there aren’t enough young people to pick up the work?
Sometimes I compare the government of this nation with the comedy of errors I grew up with in Canada. Both nations have similar government types, and it seems that both nations have similar politicians. The names might be different, but the actions, scandals and grand speeches about nothing are all the same 
Comments (3)
Great post! There was a film on the telly last night called “Bubble e Go!”. It was about a girl living in debt-ridden Japan in 2007, who goes back to 1990 to try and convince everyone of the future’s economic problems. Typically, the people she meets in the bubble era laugh her off as a lunatic: “Banks can’t go bankrupt!” they cry.
Japan’s pension problems are like that. Although people are aware of the problems, they still believe they’ll get their pension when they retire. I’m paying into the pension fund just to appease my family. I don’t expect to see that money again, particularly as a foreigner in Japan.
This whole refueling mission nonsense is beyond a joke. Everyone knows it’s just to please the Bush administration, but like my mother-in-law says, “we have to be thankful to America”. Sadly, it seems most people over 40 share her view.
Japan has been thankful to America for quite a few years, but there’s a difference between being thankful and being a fool. Right now, Japan is a fool
Problems like the pension fubar will be corrected eventually (probably with something like a “flat pension amount” for people who’s contributions have been lost) and, from the sound of some political newspapers, it’s going to involve raising the consumption tax from 5% to 15% over the next 12 years.
Right now there are 2.5 working people supporting each person on pension. By 2025 it will be 1.6 working people. Since this is clearly unsustainable, taxes must go up.
Yay.
I’d like to see the feds spend their money a little wiser on domestic catastrophes rather than international relations boosters. While I agree it’s important to play a role in the international arena, it’s also important to deal with a rapidly dwinding and aging population.
You’ve got that right. The thing people overlook is that pensioners, too, will have to pay these higher taxes, so they won’t be all that better off for it.