"This is the Voice of Moderation. I wouldn't go so far as to say we've actually SEIZED the radio station . . . "
by liberal japonicus Nous commented The capitalist industrial world is very much a materialist paradigm. I wonder, though, if some of the more animistic cultures still retain a bit of that sense of spooky aliveness that might lead to wondering what an object might have to say for itself. I know there’s still a strong … Read more
by liberal japonicus Here in Japan, one reason Takaichi decided to call an election was to support her goal (and the goal of her mentor, Abe) of revising the constitution. link Sanae Takaichi, who was re-elected prime minister in the Diet on Feb. 18, expressed strong determination to pursue revisions to the Constitution and the … Read more
by liberal japonicus Just a quick post. Been reading a bit of Xi’s purge of the military. If it weren’t so deadly serious, would be pretty hilarious. For example, we have Xi’s Military Purge Makes War Over Taiwan More Likely in the same newsfeed as Xi’s military purges will make him wary of invading Taiwan. … Read more
by liberal japonicus Via Language Log, this jaw-dropping article analyzes video footage of appearances of Kim Jong Un’s daughter, Kim Ju Ae, to draw conclusions about her place in the North Korean inner circle. Using facial-recognition technology driven by artificial intelligence, Nikkei identified scenes in which Kim Ju Ae appeared out of 14,115 hours of … Read more
by liberal japonicus This is an illustration from issue 372 of Sino-Platonic papers (pdf link) which consists of S. Robert Ramsey’s book The Japanese and Their Language: How the Japanese Made Their Language and It Made Them. Sino-Platonic papers is “a monograph series…[whose] chief focus of the series is on the intercultural relations of China … Read more
by liberal japonicus Following up on my comment about whatever it is that the US did in Venezuela and what it means to China, some discussion, a couple of links and other stuff as background. This Guardian article and this BBC piece lay out the basics. I don’t have any inside information or special insights, … Read more
by liberal japonicus This paper dropped, which has a lot of interesting stuff for me, but I might have to put it in context for people not marinating themselves in these topics. J. Mark Ramsayer is an American legal scholar who is the Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies at Harvard. He first broke thru … Read more
by liberal japonicus More China stuff. As you’ve probably noticed, I’m skeptical about narratives that argue that China is collapsing because [insert reason here]. One of those reasons has often been that China is corrupt from stem to stern. A few links to get an idea of the arguments, here, here and here There was … Read more
by liberal japonicus wonkie posted an article about a Sanseito rally here, and I appreciate her giving me a reason to rabbit on about this. As a preliminary to writing this, I checked on Mari Yamaguchi, the author of the piece at MuckRack, which leads me to my first caveat. Looking at the link, the … Read more
by liberal japonicus As promised, a selection of youtube videos about Japan along with some commentary from me. First, in the category that the end is nigh, here two videos chosen from many “In 1990, the Nikkei dropped 38% and lost $2 trillion of market value. And even now, in 2024, Japan’s wages have yet … Read more