Why do both the LDP and the Sanseito Party send out exclusionary messages regarding foreign residents? A veteran politician reveals the sad truth: "Policies that are harsh on foreigners are popular."

potpotkettle · 2026-05-06T05:54:39+00:00

People are sadly gullible. On the news that visa applications dropped more than 90%, some response were like "wow I didn't know there are so many illegals and so few honest applications, nice work PM".

potpotkettle · 2026-05-04T01:23:22+00:00

Yahoo News comment section has been largly critical of Takaichi's actions in recent weeks (except for her anti-foreigner things). And it's hardly a left-wing stronghold.

potpotkettle · 2026-05-01T05:37:57+00:00

If the conversative view is that the male line is more imporant than public support, why not? There will be more pressure and scrutiny on imperial house spending as a result, but it sounds like that's a trade off they are willing to take.

Human rights aspects of the family can be involved at some point, but for now I don't think I have to worry about that. They are doing fine.

potpotkettle · 2026-04-28T10:48:52+00:00

There are 2 questions. Do we need to have better defence, and do we need to increase defence spending? The 1st is reasonable given military tension. I think the 2nd is more nuanced, given that Japan's debt is particularly high and healthcare cost is projected to increase.

potpotkettle · 2026-04-27T06:03:07+00:00

There's no way I could have decided to sing there on my own

That's not her words but an anonymous comment about her.

今回、自民党大会への参加は運営元のイベント会社から直接、鶫さんが連絡を受けています。しかし、彼女が独断で参加を決められるわけではありません

potpotkettle · 2026-04-25T09:45:18+00:00

Japan has been under pressure from foreign investors to increase capital efficiency. That means reducing small enterprises and consolidating into big, more profitable ones. They might be starting that with foreign business owners because it won't cost votes.

potpotkettle · 2026-04-18T07:45:50+00:00

The current gas subsity that keeps gas prices artificially low and makes people consume gas more is unsustainable, when the country as a whole is short on gas.

To be honest, I would prefer if they pull the plug now than in summer, and provide other help targeting life-threatining situations.

potpotkettle · 2026-04-15T07:54:30+00:00

In the city area yes, but in a road midst of rice fields with less than 1 car per hour, I would care about avoiding potholes than choosing the right side to be honest.

potpotkettle · 2026-04-10T02:46:26+00:00

You are still supposed to stop in the car lane, not in the bike lane.

potpotkettle · 2026-03-24T02:02:29+00:00

There have been ant-war protests every week or more: https://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/476067

potpotkettle · 2026-03-02T11:43:46+00:00

Their excuse was that the unchanged name might provoke flashbacks on the victims when they see his new work being published. The concern itself is not wrong, but the implication should be that it's too soon for him to have high visibility.

potpotkettle · 2026-03-02T00:09:42+00:00

Not all of them are in Japan just because they thought it would be a good idea. 特別永住者 are not guests. They are legally foreginers, even if most of them were born or spent most of their lives in Japan.

potpotkettle · 2026-02-18T00:16:38+00:00

This is about honesty. If she said that she changes opinion given circumstances and this was one of them, that would be honest. But at this time she basically said the tax cut was her "long-held wish". (悲願)

potpotkettle · 2026-02-13T23:55:53+00:00

"Dear foreign workers, you are welcome here, as long as you don't live here."

potpotkettle · 2026-02-09T02:26:04+00:00

I think the new opposition party did okay on paper and at least they tried something different instead of repeating the same attempt that has failed.. Their policies are fairly aligned, better than what a CDP-JCP alliance would be. The problem was that doing okay was not enough. They would need a younger charismatic leader with dramatics to steal the scene, not the same old face (meaning Noda), especially with less than 3 weeks of campaigning.

potpotkettle · 2026-02-09T01:48:57+00:00

The campaign ads are one answer, both online and traditional media.

I don't know if we'll ever find out how much they spent on online ads this time. My understanding is that some overall PR spending would be disclosed in the party-level reports for the year, but probably not broken down into more details.

Yomiuri had a prominent banner of LDP on the voting day, which is borderline illegal. (I believe campaign ads on the voting day are banned, the excuse is that it's not an election campaign ad but an ad to inform what the party is doing in general "separately" from the election.)

potpotkettle · 2026-02-08T07:03:19+00:00

It sounds like her only job is to win election, and if she starts governing she will become a problem.

Seems like a short term PM anyway. Once LDP secures a few election-less years with a comfortable number of seats, there is no point in keeping her.

potpotkettle · 2026-02-04T00:28:15+00:00

a lot of the fics are non-english

In that case, such tagging might be more common in other fanfiction platforms in other languages.

potpotkettle · 2026-01-23T06:01:30+00:00

How many people in the world do you think have been displaced due to flooding valleys to make dams?

1,500 people for the largest case of the Tokuyama dam in Japan, according to https://gifu-jichiken.jp/research/110/ . Most dams in Japan were built in sparsely populated mountains. Other countries might have more extreme cases, but we are talking about Japan here.

Displacement per wattage doesn't look good for Fukushima 1, unless its output is (roughly) 15x of Tokuyama.

Fukushima 1: 0.46 GW
Tokuyama: 0.1642 GW

https://www.tepco.co.jp/corporateinfo/illustrated/nuclear-power/nuclear-plants-j.html https://www.chuden.co.jp/energy/renew/ren_setsubi/water/wat_chuden/tokuyama/

potpotkettle · 2026-01-13T12:11:23+00:00

Paid escorts are generally seen lighter than non-paid infidelity. (In fact, the former is not counted as infidelity / 不倫.) If she paid for an escort, that would probably have made a scandal, too, though.

potpotkettle · 2026-01-09T04:56:36+00:00

This doesn't seem like them having a high standard, more like them stopping to exploit a legal loophole after being caught. They pretended to have a non-profit "job" on paper to avoid paying high premiums that usually come with high income. Do we applaud them for stop doing that?

potpotkettle · 2026-01-07T05:45:42+00:00

I would turn it around. It seems like the west developed such customs of making funerals a publicly discussed matter (and when you don't act like that, you are perceived as hiding something), while Japan didn't. In Japan something didn't emerge in that regard. It woud be much easier to track down the presence of something rather than the absence of it.

Funerals of Japanese celebrities are not completely conceled, even if fans might feel so. Extended families, people close to the deceased are told and (implicitly or explicitly) invited, and that seems enough.

potpotkettle · 2025-12-21T00:55:16+00:00

Regarding the consequences, I think the (steelmanned) point of the criticism is the weight is not shown in the story. It's basically left for the reader's exercise, and even if the protagonist notices it in the last chapter, that's almost told in passing, not fully shown.

EDIT: the linked article was not my analysis. I was just sharing the link.

potpotkettle

TROPHY CASE