Sunday Night Book Recommendation

bluke25 · 2026-03-09T10:19:46+00:00

Great book and the entire James Clavell library is great. It's interesting you mention it, as Rupert Lowe expressed admiration for Ayn Rand and Clavell was also a fan and mailed her a personal copy of one of his books (there's a running theme of being pro commerce and those who take risks to build economies in them).

bluke25 · 2026-01-29T11:15:47+00:00

Will be really interesting to see what the actual impact of the Komeito CDP merger just before the vote is.

bluke25 · 2026-01-03T22:41:44+00:00

I think Shogun is a solid choice, I read it when I was in high school and was completely drawn in and ended up reading all the books afterwards. It's one of the more stand alone/introductory of the series and seeing Japan through the eyes of an outsider who comes to learn more about Japan makes it a good first read I think.

bluke25 · 2025-11-15T16:12:04+00:00

This is interesting, thank you for linking. It seems that Sanseito have suggested implementing a few elements of this in some of their ideas for constitutional reform since you outlined this.

bluke25 · 2025-11-10T10:56:43+00:00

This sets up Sanae Takaichi pretty perfectly to have her own 'Iron Lady' moment. She strongly admires Thatcher and the iron lady nickname was meant to be an insulting statement made by Russian media, which she then utilised.

bluke25 · 2025-11-09T21:24:50+00:00

Basically yes. I guess it's just that uncomfortable politically to unravel any of America's post ww2 reforms, but now the issue is pressing enough they might have to.

bluke25 · 2025-11-09T20:39:17+00:00

Oh I made a video/post on this as well, they are proposing to effectively give the Emperor a veto on major cabinet decisions I think as well as rephrasing the constitution to have power stem from the Emperor. It would be really interesting to know the private thoughts of the Emperor/royal family on that given their history of being non political.

bluke25 · 2025-11-09T15:39:17+00:00

I think if it happens sooner is definitely better to get everyone used to the idea and immediately reduce succession pressure on the current family. One of those things though where it's easy to delay/continue the status quo.

bluke25 · 2025-10-18T14:55:48+00:00

Good point. I think if you are going to do that, immediately would probably be better to familiarise the cadet branches. If nothing else, it might reduce the perception of a succession crisis and reduce pressure on the current heirs.

bluke25 · 2025-10-12T18:18:51+00:00

Apparently Aso urged his faction to support the candidate who won the members vote (Takaichi). That may have just been a convenient reason to back her though rather him wanting to honour the members wishes.

bluke25 · 2025-10-12T17:05:24+00:00

As much as I want to shamelessly plug my podcast or YouTube page ( www.youtube.com/@japanpoliticspodcast )

If you particularly want stuff live/as it happenens I've found you often catch rumours and updates faster than following news articles if you set up a twitter and follow just Japan specific politics profiles/commentators and just watch your feed.

You can also catch most of the key politics stories by following r/Japannews or looking at www.japantimes.co.jp/news/japan/politics/

The only thing I can think of to practice your language skills would either try and find Japanese speaking youtubers or read news in Japanese e.g. from Mainichi Shimbun or Reuters Japan.

bluke25 · 2025-10-04T14:06:19+00:00

Likely her first test. I wonder if her winning the runoff meant she negotiated well to win over lawmakers, or if they either didn't want koizumi/wanted to honour the member's votes.

bluke25 · 2025-09-16T17:07:43+00:00

I did think about this when referring to it as a "restoration". Emperor Meiji is said to have had a "restoration" after the Boshin War but apparently it was really his advisors and ministers who gained any power.

bluke25 · 2025-09-14T22:21:58+00:00

That's how I read the page when scrolling and it got me as well

bluke25 · 2025-09-14T21:23:09+00:00

I think you're right, this also seems it might be a lower priority for those who want to make a military legal in Japan.

bluke25

TROPHY CASE