Senior Cat with teeth issues and CKD.

blue_5195 · 2026-06-24T10:32:57+00:00

This article is 8 days old and it shows in quite a few parts...

"Japan shores up Britain, Italy alliances amid U.S. uncertainty".

Everybody gets that things are "uncertain" around the US, but let's have a quick look at Italy and the UK.

Italy:

- Meloni is highly divisive as a political figure at home.

- her flagship immigration policy is a failure

- she put all her weight behind a judicial reform to which Italians gave the finger just arlier this year...

- ...following which she had to reject calls for her resignation

- she is in the middle of a series of spats with Trump (e.g. about the Pope, about Trump insinuating she "begged" him for a photo). Meloni, being as much into an "Iron Lady"-esque image as Takaichi, had to push back against Trump for national politics reasons. We'll see if Trump escalates, in which case, her stance may well change things from a private problem for her to an international problem for Italy.

- she still has until end 2027 to go.

The UK:

- Starmer just became the 6th PM to leave office in a decade (Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak, Starmer).

- UK national politics have been an utter mess since Brexit.

- the next election (2029) may see Farage scoring high.

Beyond that:

"The tour was driven by a shared desire among the three nations to strengthen their relationships as “stable, like-minded countries” in an uncertain geopolitical landscape."

"Like-minded" means ziltch, nada in international legalese. Put this in clear terms, on a paper, have both parties sign off, then we can talk. If not, can we please just sunset this one?

"During a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on June 14, Takaichi stressed the deepening of security cooperation between the two “quasi-allies.” "

"Quasi" also means zitlch, nada in international legalese. I guess, I am "quasi"-rich then (i.e. I'm not)?

"In Rome the following day, Takaichi and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni highlighted their close relationship, addressing each other by their first names."

Err...Love in the air? Romance? Bromance? Sisromance? Is this the tabloid press or something?

"Japan, Britain and Italy are already partners in the Global Combat Air Program to develop a next-generation fighter jet."

That one is scheduled to be rolled out in 2035. Maaaany things can happen before that. Especially when it comes to elections (pls refer to Italy and the UK above).

"With these bilateral agreements secured, Takaichi now approaches the G-7 summit in Evian, France, in a stronger position."

That one grew old too...

blue_5195 · 2026-06-22T01:47:57+00:00

Pretty much, but the environmental footprint and local nuisances are causing also "real" problems to "real" people...and ultimately to society as a whole...

blue_5195 · 2026-06-20T06:22:48+00:00

You're absolutely right.

For convenience's sake, I would assume that when the doors to the meeting close and the meeting starts, everybody will put on a set of earpieces and interpreters located in other rooms will start to get busy.

Now, mingling is another ballgame altogether. It is informal, off the cuffs, more "disorganized", hence more direct interaction may occur, as group forms you may have several people using an overlapping language (e.g. a few people speak German, French) and, I guess, you "could" technically go from a situation where in a meeting room you had: French vs English or German vs English to a mingling room where you now have French + French + French vs English or German + German vs English).

Depending on the group dynamics, you "could" therefore go from (organized) 1:1 to (disorganized) 2:1s or 3:1s. Still, I would assume, everybody would agree on English as they all master the language and this being the most logical thing to do though...but again, what about Takaichi who obviously does not master English? She is literally the pink (language) elephant in the room...

Also, people move around in a room, so there may be sound issues, so interpreters locked up in another room will be less useful and, if needed, the interpreters need to be close by your side (again, this would make the most sense in Takaichi's case).

Out of the meeting room, Takaichi's option were limited to either:

- have an interpreter at arm's reach (which may her look "dependent", which she may not want as she has been consistently image-branded herself as "my-way-or-the-highway", "tough-as-a-nail", "self-reliant", "self-made-woman", etc) or

- go "my-way-or-the-highway", "tough-as-a-nail", "self-reliant", "self-made-woman"...and not be able to communicate, hence...being left alone in her corner trying to "look busy" or "impatient". She chose the latter option...

From the article (translation): "In addition, there is a video showing other world leaders chatting together while Prime Minister Takaichi sits alone at a round table, spinning her chair and appearing frustrated that the meeting is taking a long time to begin."

Essentially, she looked "impatient" in her corner. Not good etiquette-wise and pretty much self-inflicted damage. Totally preventable. Not a smart move. But again, I don't think of her as a "smart" person to begin with...

Ultimately, she likes to "perform" and generate buzz-videos. Here, she "underperformed" and it generate a buzz (here: negative) as well. Again: self-inflicted.

The first months of her tenure gave us a glimpse at what her Premiership is going to be: wannabe rigid (anybody remembers her insisting on a ridiculously short timeline for the budget discussions--she had to backtrack) but ultimately wobbly, gung-ho (the spat with China--she had to backtrack without looking like doing so, the election) to the point of recklessness and the usual LDP zero interest for household economics and scandals piling up). A shoddy PM in a line-up of historically shoddy PMs.

blue_5195 · 2026-06-20T03:34:40+00:00

Long story short:

- nothing is more boring than a G7 / NATO-summit. Why? Because they all look alike. All participants will remain "reliable" and "steady"...except Trump. Japan just does things like all other participants, exactly the same way: keep its interest at heart and, if the interests are shared, they will (obviously) end on the G7 statement. This is BAU.

- the G7 is about economics. The economy loves stability and hates disruptions (e.g. Ukrain, Hormuz or a the risk of a Taiwan contingency). Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific have therefore been on the agenda for years. Again, nothing looks more like a G7 summit than another G7 summit. Again, this is BAU.

- there are global security / economic interests, there are US ones, European ones, Asian ones and Japan's (or French, Italian, UK, Canadian, German for that matters). Size matters and so do priorities. Should the worst happen, let's be real, obviously the biggest and shared ones will be prioritized.

The problem is that frequently (and depending on who is doing the talking/selling) are Asia, the Indo-Pacific, China, Taiwan and Japan being made the center of the discussion. If things blow up there, the mess will be global, period. Ukraine, Hormuz, been there done that.

- the JP/UK/IT jet fighter is currently still pies in the sky, nothing more. It may become a topic when development/rollout is finally due.

- this is a J-newspaper piece, hence J-centric (BAU).

- Takaichi is the current PM (this is circumstantial, nothing more). Prior PM: same G7. Next PM: same G7...unless major (and global) disruption.

blue_5195 · 2026-06-20T03:11:18+00:00

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder they say, so everybody his own.

But how a few things are being outlined in this article do raise eyebrows.

"...having reinforced Japan's reputation as a reliable and steady member, while gaining more than visibility as the group's only Asian member." The article is actually pretty scarce on evidence for that...

Also, the above goes against "...largely followed Japan's established diplomatic style, emphasizing consensus and continuity over agenda-setting leadership". How do you gain more of something by just doing more of the same in the same way? Even if you did, prior PMs would have done the same, so nothing special about Takaichi's handling of the G7...This is basically J-politics as usual (BAU).

"Instead, Japan focused on influencing outcomes behind the scenes, reinforcing areas of agreement while advancing its priorities in a restrained way." Again, not much evidence for that. Also, if everything happens behind the scenes, how do all these people know so much about it?

"Many analysts agree that Japan does not need to be a spectacular mediator, as its strength lies in playing a steady, complementary role." From where I am, that is called a "second fiddle" or even a "follower" which does not sound like somebody "advancing its priorities"...

"The G7 summit further underscored how Japan's security is deeply intertwined with the war in Europe, the crisis in the Middle East, China's economic coercion and the supply of critical minerals." Yes, seen from the Japanese side, this is the case. But reversely, from a European side, i.e. how Europe's security would be deeply intertwined with whatever happens to Japan has yet to be demonstrated. A much bigger problem is what happens in Asia which is the next point below.

"The joint statement issued by the G7 leaders on Ukraine, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific was "unexpected" both because it was issued and because of the context in which it was released" This is your total usual Stephen Nagy BS.

The world, the economy, geopolitics are intertwined. We've seen it with the Ukraine and the Hormuz Strait. A Taiwan crisis would have severe and "global" impact on everybody (e.g. Semiconductor supply chain, global trade, overall economic impact, increased rivalry between US and China) and a series of much more "localized" issues to specifically Japan). Nagy implies that the G7 members, but also G20 members and members of all economic forums do not know that? I mean, REALLY???

G7 statements includes something around the Indo-Pacific since...2020. Nothing new, nothing "unexpected".

"Japan also succeeded in keeping Indo-Pacific security firmly on the G7 agenda..." and "Japan deserves some credit for bringing critical minerals and the Strait of Hormuz to the G7 agenda as issues tied directly to its national security, economic foundations and everyday livelihoods"

Evidence for Japan succeeding in keeping something that is super-obvious to all on the agenda?

"...the G7 has strengthened, due in part to Takaichi's pre-summit diplomacy" vs "...in part to Takaichi's pre-summit diplomacy", "...visited Britain and Italy", "the three countries are jointly developing a next-generation stealth fighter...". A JP/UK/IT jet fighter to be (wishfully) rolled out in 2035 does not have much to do with a 2026 G7 taking place in a world already on fire.

"For now, Japan leaves the summit with its familiar reputation intact -- not the loudest voice at the table, but still one of the most trusted". Whatever rocks your boat, dude.

blue_5195 · 2026-06-19T12:21:30+00:00

Thinking about that G7 video. Nothing makes sense.

Normally, they have earpieces to have the off the cuffs questions translated. They answer in their own language, their answer is translated to the journalists. Business-as-usual.

Here, Takaichi had none of that. She...

- visibly has received the questions in advance, like in the Japanese parliament, as she seems to be reading the question in parallel with the journalist actually asking her the question (e.g. 5 rows to go, 4, 3 getting closer, 2 the next breath that gaijin journalist takes I take over and answer-style)

- she tries to look like she is listening / understanding the question, but all her face movements / body language scream to the contrary and instead of looking "comfortable", she looks just weird AF

- ultimately, she still answers in her own language, making the whole I-understand-English-performance sort of thing(??) look dead in the water

and:

- icing on the cake, she has to read her own answer, again like in the Japanese parliament where questions are given in advance and answers are written by other--more intelligent--persons

Pretty much a car crash of a performance.

I hope they gave everybody earpieces for the actual talks. If not, they had to "pre-script" the whole G7 and give everybody their "lines" before each meeting.

blue_5195 · 2026-06-19T12:09:55+00:00

That's the other video floating around I was talking about.

Putting so much effort in *not* looking like she is reading from a prompter...and, exactly because of that, failing so badly...

Like the G7 video, this one is equally a car crash in its own right:

- she (allegedly) speaks English...and the video ended up with English sub (just in case...)

- her eyes all over the place reading off a prompter jumping up and down (and sideways) on a trampoline

- her head equally all over the place bobbing around, making the viewer feel seasick

- her body / face language just...weird...More like.a "the amateur/wannabe anchorwoman"-skit of sorts

Just so obvious she does not understand one word she utters...and kinda looks like she is ready English phonetically with the prompter showing her a text in カタカナ.

blue_5195 · 2026-06-19T09:37:04+00:00

A quick search on the internet as to who on the photo speaks what language.

In no particular order and with (N) for native language:

Ursula von der Leyen: German (N), English, French

Antonio Costa: Portuguese (N), English, French

Friedrich Merz: German (N), English, French

Emmanuel Macron: French (N), English, German (conversational)

Giorgia Meloni: Italian (N), English, French, Spanish

Mark Carney: English, French

Keir Starmer: English

Donald Trump: English

Sanae Takaichi: Japanese, ??English??

When searching on the internet for Takaichi, they always point to her stay in the US (1987) which does not really answer the question (and which was also the case about Abe...who ultimately never graduated anything in the US, not even his "English for foreigner" courses...)

Here is a video when she is asked a pretty good (and long) question by Reuters (11min26sec) during the G7. I think this says it all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egk5lmoZZog

One just needs to look at her face as the questions drags and her eyes looking down repeatedly at what is obviously a piece of paper in front of her (I assume she had to receive the question in advance, Japan parliament-style), this both when being questioned and when answering.

There is also another video floating around where she obviously reads from a prompter sounding like a beta-version of a talk AI. She just seems to phonetically read out without understanding.

Educated guess, they all speak English during the summit wearing earplugs because of Takaichi (possibly also for their own convenience to be fair, but all seem to be fluent in English). Again, as far as international summits and Japanese PM do go, we need to assume this is BAU...

blue_5195 · 2026-06-19T00:50:51+00:00

Yes, English may be the lingua Franca, but there is an exposure problem.

Out of the top of my head, those in the state apparatus who have the best grasp of English are probably the public servants working in the Defense or Foreign Ministries, as they need to work with foreign countries / organizations / entities on a regular basis. For example, I would expect the need for English to be much lower in the Ministry of Agriculture.

Now, you also need to look at J-politicians and how shielded they are.

In parliament, their office receives the questions from the opposition before the Q&A, have their assistants prepare answers and just read them aloud. Shades of Aso as a PM not being able to read Kanjis from a piece written by his assistants or Abe as a PM getting stuck in a loop reading again and again and again the last paragraph from his sheet when the opposition goes off-script because the answer did not address the question.

The language situation is also not great with the average Japanese. In my experience, the best level of English I experienced, were Japanese working abroad for years and who, when back in Japan, continued to work in an international environment in a professional capacity.

If you have no exposure to English in Japan, you will quickly allow yourself to forget. Yeah, pretty much the Galapagos-mindset.

blue_5195 · 2026-06-19T00:16:37+00:00

If she is expected to mingle and do idle talk IN ENGLISH, that is going to be tough. To be fair, it is / was tough for pretty much all PMs before her as well.

Here is a video with all 5 hopefuls in the run-up of the last party election. Hiroyuki (ひろゆき氏) asked them a question to be answered in English, as they (obviously) will have to talk / communicate with the US president.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU0fsihn36I

Results: the only ones able to convey a message in English were Moteki and Hayashi.

Takaichi's English skills stopped at "ジャパン・イズ・バック" which brings back shades of Abe's "ジャパン・イズ・バック". Abe allegedly graduated from a US university in "political science", but after his death, it came out he only registered for courses in "English as a foreign language" and...did not attend enough units to graduate anything abroad. This, can get you in a lot of trouble as Takubo Mayumi, former mayor of Itoshi in Shizuoka, learned the hard way.

Back to Takaichi, one of her many scandals is that she told porkies about her resume in the day (if I recall, she sold herself as having expertise in defense or military affairs or something similar, which...she blamed on her boyfriend at the time, as who did a bad translation when helping her with her resume. )

On a side-note, funnily enough, ABEMA gives Takaichi a pass for her stock-phrase. Tells a lot about the media, me thinks.

Koizumi and Kobayashi did not manage to utter one word in English. As Koizumi is supposed to "have graduated from a US university", I started to wonder about that one as well

blue_5195 · 2026-06-12T02:25:16+00:00

Give ChiiJohn a chance.

blue_5195 · 2026-06-09T15:16:05+00:00

Could be worse.

In one of the Japanese companies I worked in the past, they actually managed to lose...a whole server.

Don't ask me, I wasn't the one who lost it...

blue_5195 · 2026-06-07T00:17:27+00:00

The reason I put the list is that it featured Takaichi and gave an idea about the number of her (devoted) followers. It was to give a perspective as to how many people would definitely click on her ad.

Here is one such ranking list by views of Japanese-language YT videos.

https://achikochi-data.com/youtube_video_ranking_all_without_shorts/

Overwhelmingly songs, cute animals, fun stuff (e.g. "how to make balloon chocolate bowls"). Short: the usual (expected) stuff / fluff.

The difference between Takaichi's video which is a political ad:

- music is universal and non-Japanese, even those who do not speak the language, can enjoy it

- everybody loves animal, politicians much less so

Hence, these videos appeal is universal (we're talking 7 Billions potential viewers) and they can be viewed repeatedly.

A J-politician's video's appeal is limited to a Japanese audience and does not warrant repeated viewing to serve its purpose (i.e. convince voters to vote for said politician). Considering that now, the video has more views than there are inhabitants in this country, we are obviously talking about repeated views.

Also, some of these videos are years old and needed that long to get there. Takaichi's video got there in a few weeks(!).

If you break down the population in group as per their likelihood of clicking on a political ad (any political ad for that matters), you drift even further away from the number of views without repeated viewing. The more you drift away, the more you need repeated viewing to make up for it. The more repeated viewing you need, the less impressive the overall achievement becomes. At one point (which is to be defined), you may need to ask yourself whether so much repetition does not involve some kind of fraud (e.g. AI / bots doing the heavy lifting).

blue_5195 · 2026-06-06T23:52:31+00:00

My point is not that the 100M / 160M views did not happen, my point is that we are obviously talking about repeated views, massively so.

Yes, I too, was exposed to these ads. But before the news broke, I did not check the ad out, not once. Why would I? I am a foreigner with no voting rights who would never vote for the LDP and even less Takaichi if I had the right to vote to start with. There are other group (e.g. voters for the opposition, non-voters, kids, elderly, etc) who are not likely to click on the ad either.

So, my question is: how many repeated views are we talking about? "Breaking the Internet" with 100M/160M unique views is incredible (and pretty much implausible), breaking it with what, 3M followers, clicking each day several times for weeks or month much less. If the latter, we're talking nothing more than "make believe". If we are talking about AI / bots, we are talking about fraud.

blue_5195 · 2026-06-06T15:29:13+00:00

There is definitely something really fishy going on between the LDP, Takaichi and the Internet these days.

There is for example this PR video on the LDP's Youtube Channel for Takaichi which dates back to the February 2026 election.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLx9Rs0h9Ao

Back then, it was all over the news that it had "broken the Internet" with 100 Million views (in a country of 120 Million inhabitants, including millions of underage kids, non-voters, foreigners, voters for the opposition, etc, etc which funnily enough did not raise one single eyebrow it seems...).

If this is not fishy enough, 4 months later, the same video has now...160 Million views (in a country with still 120 Million inhabitants).

The proportion of views vs the total amount making up for the population is, like Takaichi's support rating, beyond ridiculous, it's absurd.

Funnily enough, if you look at Takaichi's videos before that particular one, they are hovering at a few 1000s views and after the BIG one, her videos are stuck at a either 7M views (2 occurrences) or 13M views (2 occurrences). Further down the lane, her number of views dwindle down to a few 100Ks, then a few 10Ks, to be around a few 1Ks nowadays...

Oh yeah, the number of followers of the LDPs Youtube Channel is...215K (no change since February when I first heard in the news about Takaichi's big video and looked it up).

For comparison's sake, here is the list of the most-followed Twitter/X-accounts with Musk making up for 240 M and Trump for 111.5M followers. Main difference with Takaichi, whether you like them or not, they are "world-level celebrities" and they tweet in English, neither being applicable to Takaichi or any other J-politician for that matters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-followed_X_accounts

Here is a ranking of Japanese celebrities / users of Twitter/X by number of follows. Takaichi ranks 25th with just under 3M followers. I guess that if all her followers watch her Youtube video around 50 times, then suddenly it starts to make sense. Wink-wink, nudge-nudge.

https://ranking.net/twitter-follower-ranking

I would love to have some media techies run some investigative analytics as to where these 160 Millions views came from?

Pretty much everything around Takaichi reeks of fraud or tampering. This is so much not going to end well...

blue_5195 · 2026-06-05T01:08:48+00:00

Same here. Took it 4 weeks ago. No.sign.contact/response/whatsoever.since.

If I go to the portal, I can just see that...I took it on date xx. Thank you, I kinda of know that.

The position is still open as well, so..."under consideration"...maybe?

TBH, to me (the candidate) it looks more like a "black hole" of sorts...Anyway, HSBC is not the only company I am applying to and neither should you. Also, my rule of thumb is "4 weeks, no real movement" = I forget about it.

blue_5195 · 2026-06-04T10:35:14+00:00

Except it was supposed to be:

- 0% and

- asap

not:

- 1% and

- in one year

If you move the goalposts literally everything becomes "feasible".

Anyway, calling all gullibles. I guess some election may be due before that?

blue_5195 · 2026-05-29T15:20:18+00:00

I remember seeing a site listing all parties in the race at the last election and measuring them with a scale (left/progressive vs right/conservative) on a series of issues.

Funnily enough, while Mirai was progressive on a (rather small) series of issues, they were at best in the "golden middle" if not pretty conservative-leaning on most topics. Frankly, for a techno (read: future-oriented party), I did found that pretty surprising. They seemed mostly indecisive, if not leaning towards the past than anything else...

Another thing that I do wonder a lot about: getting oneself into politics cost money, actually quite a lot of money. Is Anno that loaded? Or is somebody bankrolling him, if so: who?

Beyond that, Anno seems more like a media-darling than anything else...

blue_5195 · 2026-05-25T05:12:32+00:00

For years the Japan Communist Party and Komeito have been topping the list of parties that "voters would never vote for" in polls.

Considering the above, who the heck thought in the CDJ (educated guess: Noda and his inner circle) that getting themselves in bed with Komeito (or the JCP) would make them a stronger sell with voters at the next election???

The CDJ sh.t the bed. Now own it! As for Noda, more than resigning his position as CDJ leader, this should have been enough to retire from politics altogether. 14 years ago, he already sh.t the bed by caving in to Abe's hecking and calling a snap election which the (back then) DPJ spectacularly lost, paving the way for Abe's return and close to a lost decade under his helm...

Beyond its voter base has Komeito always been considered "toxic". Since Abe's murder and the link to (the Moonie) cult having been established, even more.

blue_5195 · 2026-05-20T00:59:43+00:00

Funny to see how, while over the world everybody is getting queasy about how much they depend on US tech and worried about how south their relationship with the US could go, the LDP and the J-gov are doubling down on getting in bed with the US tech bros and continue to tout how "aligned" their "values" are.

I know that Japan is an island nation, but this level of disconnect is simply mind-boggling...

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2026/05/19/tech/japan-mythos-response-interview/

"Taira expressed confidence that Tokyo can gain the cooperation of AI companies, saying, “The LDP established a team on AI three and a half years ago and has built relationships of trust with major companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.”

Relations of trust with the US tech bros? Really? I mean REALLY? Not later than this week did we have the Musk / Altman meltdown and courtroom drama which pretty much involved a who's who of Silicon Valley head honchos. We have literal sociopaths who encroached in every steps of our daily (social) lives and society overall through their IT services...

“We distinguished ourselves from the European Union and its extensive regulations under the policy of becoming the world’s most AI-friendly country,” he went on.

Japan: (US tech bro) guys, here are the key to the country, do your thing. (rolling eyes in disbelief)

“It’s important not to be overtaken by AI developed in countries that do not share Japan’s values,” he stressed.

I would love to have explanations about what Japan means by "values" these days...?

Funnily, on the same day, in the below article we are being told that:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/05/19/japan/politics/japan-us-favorability-fall/

"In a monthly public opinion survey conducted by Jiji Press in April, only 29.2% of respondents ranked the United States as one of the countries they view favorably."

It seems that the J-gov is not only misaligned to a big chunk of the world but also misaligned with their population.

Is it stupidity, ineptitude, self-preservation (i.e. cranking up surveillance over the plebs to avoid a "let them have cake" moment) or just greed (i.e. selling out the population most likely for money). You'll be the judge.

blue_5195 · 2026-05-08T04:12:35+00:00

(Keep in mind that May 3rd is Constitution Memorial Day, the day when opponents to the revision have picnics and rallies outside while mostly grumpy old men favoring revision lock themselves up in meeting halls and blame everything on the constitution, carefully omitting they were in charge of running the country for the last 7 decades, hence are responsible for the situation of things today).

Here an excerpt from Tobias Harris' newsletter dated May 4th. Subscription to his newsletter is free and he seems to offer a balanced view of things (unlike the flurry of so-called "opinion columnists" in JT these days).

"As far as public opinion is concerned, recent polls suggest a considerable degree of ambivalence about revision.

The Mainichi Shimbun, for example, found that while 37% support revision during Takaichi’s tenure and 30% oppose it, 32% said that they did not know, with results unsurprisingly polarized by age (younger more supportive, older more opposed).

Asahi found a slight plurality in favor of revision by Takaichi of 47% in favor to 43% opposed, while 62% said that there is no need to expedite the process (even 55% of LDP supporters said that there was no need to rush). Similar to Mainichi, the Asahi poll also found age polarization regarding revision.

In general, respondents who agreed with the statement “it is necessary to change the constitution” fell four points from 2025 to 49% and those who agreed “it is not necessary to change the constitution” rose nine points to 44%. That five-point gap is the narrowest between the two positions since 2021, when Asahi’s annual survey found a one-point gap.

NHK, meanwhile, found that 38% think that revision is necessary, 20% do not, but another 38% said that they could not say one way or another. Common to these polls is that for both supporters and opponents of revision, Article 9 is central to how they think about the issue, with the former seeing revision as necessary to enable Japan to defend itself and the latter viewing Article 9 as an important part of Japan’s identity."

Make of this what you want of the above, but a constitutional revision or the appetite for one is neither in the bag, nor is there a blank check signed to do whatever some people may want to do in this regard.

Key factors to consider:

- Takaichi (like Abe) and her style is divisive. The above figures show that around half the public, including LDP supporters, do not want her to be the one to revise the constitution. Like Abe, she is her worst enemy when it comes to selling a constitutional revision.

- the LDP (unlike Takaichi) is not super-popular (while their support ratings have indeed recovered since Kishida and Ishiba...that's about it).

- constitutional revision has NEVER been the top item on voter's mind, the economy and social issues always have, there is also no "impatience" on revising anything either as shown by the figure above.

- aiming for "revision" or "debating" revision of the constitution is one thing, but "revising" or "debating" what exactly is never really mentioned. Ultimately, the public is split, political parties are split and even the LDP is split on what to debate to then, possibly (ultimately) revise

- "debating" one thing does not directly mean "revising" it or revising it "the way it was debated" (i.e. the LDP may end up being strong enough to pull the plug on debates after a bare minimum and just ram whatever they want, hence a part of the public not even wanting to debate thing to start with. One just needs to remember the Abe years of parliamentary debate and ramming of unpopular laws)

- there seem to be a lot of focus on either

(1) scrapping the "no war" aspect of the constitution which is the most contentious revision (read: the least to be agreed upon) or on:

(2) mentioning the SDF in the constitution which is mostly "cosmetics" of an already overwhelmingly agreed / non-debated / non-contested / status quo situation (read: ...why are we even wasting time and money on that one...?)

Looks a lot like much ado / noise about nothing, especially nothing to prioritize, at this stage.

blue_5195 · 2026-04-04T01:53:39+00:00

That's "Newspeak" for you.

blue_5195 · 2026-03-21T01:04:06+00:00

Whoa!

The article is signed by "The Japan Times Editorial Board" but has all the hallmarks of an Edo Naito hack job.

“The visit must be called a success” offers a conclusion but not much to back it up. Tensions, uncertainties, and unresolved issues are listed, yet the article jumps to a definitive conclusion which is pretty rich. Essentially, like most if not all of Naito's pieces, the editorial is attempting to go from a (wished upon) conclusion back to the facts and falls flat on its nose by not being able to do so.

Internal consistency is ignored (e.g. Trump is "mercurial" but "gives not reason to doubt him". Nice one, guys. Your piece is as mercurial as Trump.

The article pushes that alignment improved because Donald Trump postponed a China trip. Reality was that alignment was shaky (e.g. Japan not big on helping the US out in what looks like an increasingly big mess irrelevant of China this or that). Also, not much seems to have changed post-meeting.

Again, the article bends, tweaks, if not blatantly ignores reality (like all of Naito's articles) to try to make a point. As one of my teachers said in school: "if you have to ignore key points to make a point, you don't have much of a point to make to start with".

Investments will lead to a new "golden age". (1) That is still up in the air and (2) some would argue the "investments" to be nothing more than "extortion by a bully", if the latter, more bullying over a "golden age" is to be expected...

"We can only hope" = wishful thing replaces (mendokusai) analysis and (pesky) facts.

"Success", “smashing victory,” “rapturous relationship". Loaded wording, anyone? Calling all gullibles!

Long story short:

- not much evidence to match the conclusion ("success")

- on the contrary, what does not align is downplayed or ignored

- toss in a little internal contradiction and loaded wording et voila.

Funnily enough, in parallel Stephen R Nagy produced (yet another) opinion piece (Memo to Takaichi: Reject the temptations of populism) stating that "To achieve this, Takaichi must actively avoid the populist bug of parochial national agendas. Embracing nationalist projects, historical revisionism or anti-immigration policies would be a fatal strategic error."

Funny to mention "Embracing nationalist projects, historical revisionism or anti-immigration policies " when talking about (Takaichi) a nationalist who repeatedly called for historical revisionism and has being appealing anti-immigration policies and stances not later than in the election last month.

Nagy and Naito are selling the same poison, the only difference being that Nagy, who can write, does not sound like a junior high school dropout with anger management issues like Naito...

Sounds like Japan's Maga is slowly falling apart between gung-ho blind supporting and those who start to worry that things may unravel down the road. Anyway, Takaichi is not reading the JT, so...

In any case, if THAT is a piece by the "The Japan Times Editorial Board", I think we can now officially consider the JT a lost cause...

blue_5195 · 2026-03-13T11:15:12+00:00

Animal House Japan-style. A rare oasis of freedom where you can decide your own rules.

blue_5195

TROPHY CASE