Climate Angle in Japan’s Election
Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso seems likely to lose power to the opposition -- unless the robots get him first. (wikimedia)
One of the quirks—well, really, the quirk—of Japan’s political system is that the same party basically always wins. But it looks like that just may change. Prime Minister Taro Aso had been seeking to avoid calling an election because polls indicate the Liberal Democratic Party will lose, but after facing some local setbacks he’s decided to go call one raising the prospect that the opposition Democratic Party will take over. Brad Plumer says there’s an important climate angle here:
The likely winner of the election, the Democratic Party of Japan, isn’t exactly a “liberal” party in the American sense of the word. But it is quite a bit greener than the LDP—or at least it has been in opposition. Earlier this year, when Aso’s government announced a goal of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, the DPJ criticized the targets as much too weak, calling instead for a 30 percent cut from 2005 levels.
Brad also offers a link to this article on robots getting laid off in recession-ravaged Japan. That seems like the kind of thing likely to lead to a robot rebellion.
11 Responses to “Climate Angle in Japan’s Election”
Register
RSSLogin
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog RollAbout Matt YglesiasContact Me
Donate
July 13th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
I realize they’re public, political figures, and thus ripe for humor, but I can’t shake the feeling that Japanese prime ministers are subject to a particularly dehumanizing sort of joke, as above and here. It’s as though the only way to be funny about them is to tie them in to our caricature of Japanese culture.
Not that I really have a problem with that, it just seems odd.
July 13th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
“That seems like the kind of thing likely to lead to a robot rebellion.”
I don’t know that unemployment would lead robots to rebel; though we may well see an uptake in Japanese Robot Cinema (or a Hollywood golden age for robots).
Or an android version of Bruce Springsteen. (”Spare Parts”, “Born to Run on Apple”, “I’m on Firewall”,… or not)
July 13th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
I don’t know about a robot rebellion, but we could see some interesting Robot cinema, if this leads to a Hollywood/Bollywood for Japanese robots.
Or we could just get an android version of Bruce Springsteen, with hits like “I’m on Firewall”, “Born to Run (on Apple)”, or “Spare Parts”… or maybe not.
July 13th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Oops, sorry about the double post.
July 13th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
But it is quite a bit greener than the LDP—or at least it has been in opposition.
When Barack Obama was in opposition, he called for auctioning 100% of allowances.
July 13th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
I realize they’re public, political figures, and thus ripe for humor, but I can’t shake the feeling that Japanese prime ministers are subject to a particularly dehumanizing sort of joke, as above and here.
What dehumanizing joke did Matt make? That the Japanese have a fondness for robots? I think it’s possible to be to sensitive about this sort of thing.
The Onion joke makes me think of the tradition in South Korea where when a party wins an election they immediately go about a massive investigation into the corruption of the previous administration. The President previous to the current one lept to his death into a ravine because of the dishonor he felt at being investigated.
July 13th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
I’d just like to express my approval for Japan’s two major political parties being the Democratic and Liberal Democratic ones. It seems like how things should work in any civilized country.
July 13th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Old joke in Japan, based on the original joke about the Holy Roman Empire: the LDP is neither liberal, democratic, nor a party.
July 13th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
The ”Liberal” (自由） in the Liberal Democratic Party (自由民主党) basically just translates to “freedom”, of which one can see their stance on liberalization of markets and privatization of public services. The most recent group of prime ministers have all belonged to a faction of the party that favored decreasing taxes and also decreasing public services. They’re also one of the hawkish parties in the Diet, supporting the repealment of Constitution Article 9.
As far as the characterization of Aso as a caricature of our subconscious (perhaps techno-orientalist) vision of Japan occupying a robotic cute-culture future: that widely-circulated story about Aso reading the manga Rozen Maiden in an airport never seems to go away in these kinds of discussions. And look, I’ve just brought it up again.
July 13th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Al: He still calls for this, but ultimately it’s the legislative branch which has the job of “legislating” and Congress is a bunch of dickheads.
There is a problem that in our system Presidents (of all parties, even the third parties) campaign on things they don’t actually have the power to do. There’s a certain logic to it, but it’s a confused approach.
Japan is a parliamentary democracy though, so it’s ultimately irrelevant. Parliamentary democracies betray their voters in entirely different ways.
July 13th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
My favorite part about the LDP is their goofy logo with two little children in pajamas dancing around with the sun smiling down on them. It’s like, “well, a daycare center went bankrupt, and the IP rights to their logo was going for cheap, so we bought that as a symbol for our political party.”