Governors want political parties to include tough anti-virus steps in campaign pledges

Governors want political parties to include tough anti-virus steps in campaign pledges

Those governors never ask political parties to include population decline in campaign pledge? Who will work and pay taxes if you don't have enough people?

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/as-japan-celebrates-its-elderly-a-population-crisis-looms-with-scarcity-of-babies

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who became Japan's leader on Monday, has said he will dissolve the lower house on Oct 14 for an election on Oct 31.

Halloween Election.. cool

Enough people have been vaccinated, they need to focus on the economy now

They want the pledges made because the LDP will implement policies that can’t be spoken if before the election. If they pledge it now people will know what they are actually voting for.

better (detaiked) plans, than pledges..... or haven't the governors noticed.....

Kishida changed all three corona related ministers in his new government. This puzzles me very much. The three did good jobs. They experienced a lot and know about the problems. Compared with the three, new ministers are amateur levels. I suspect about their competencies.

Someone’s getting rich off vaccines.

Someone’s getting rich off vaccines.

So you don't agree with capitalism?

Pledges? Again pledges = words, words, words and nothing but words.

We had too many pledges, promises, considerations and so on in the past.

Give us details, give us the facts!

The organization of Japan's 47 prefectural governors also called for the establishment of a children's agency and the promotion of rural economies to be included in the parties' campaign platforms.

How about first defining what the so-called "Children's Agency" purpose and aims are supposed to be? Same fort the so-called "Digital Agency" and whatever agency they will come up with until the election.

Promotion of rural economies? No need to worry, the yearly budget covers for trillions of helicopter tax-money for the rural areas since the 90s. No need to actually come up with a plan and budget on what you want to do and how you want to revitalize or promote your area, just line up and pick up the check.

I'm not saying the central government should ditch the rural areas, just that both should work together on:

.define what the situation is (it ain't pretty)

.how the situation will evolve over time (it ain't getting better)

.what can and what should be done and what can simply not be done whatever you do (wake up to, like, facts and real life/challenges)

.give enough funds to effectively achieve what can / should be done

.finds ways around dealing with what can't be done (e.g. merge towns, provide central points of public / health service for several areas around, develop remote work from the boonies to urban areas)

Long story short: stop wasting money on ineffective non-problem-solving "last stands" and start allocating it to real-idea and solution development.

Campaign pledges are just vote grabbing butt talk. Rarely are they followed through. I distinctly remember all the guff Abe spouted for his campaign none of which ever happened. Now Kishida is spouting salary increases to get votes. It’s all just vote grubbing rubbish.

There is continual harping about demographics and tax monies, as if a bookkeeping equation - a matter similar to balancing a checkbook, which is completely erroneous. A reduction in overall population is all to the good. It reduces resource dependency and allows a shift to a sustainable economy. The concern is geographics, in terms of population distribution.

The elderly population will eventually be reduced by attrition and a balance will evolve in terms of demographics. The temporary need is to provide welfare & pension benefits, which is easily remedied, as the yen is a fiat currency. Solved by issuing bonds, instead of boosting taxes or cutting public spending.

As for Japan's debt, 90% is held by domestic investors. All of that debt can simply be written off by the Bank of Japan, an accounting trick with no consequences. One might also note, the USA is almost 1.3 trillion in debt to Japan. In total, Japan is the world's biggest creditor, holding more than $3 trillion in net assets in foreign currency reserves and direct investment abroad.

As for Japan's debt, 90% is held by domestic investors. All of that debt can simply be written off by the Bank of Japan, an accounting trick with no consequences

About 25% of collected taxes is spent on interest servicing the national debt.

StrangerlandToday  09:42 am JST

Someone’s getting rich off vaccines.

So you don't agree with capitalism?

Not crony capitalism.

@Richard Gallagher

Hear, hear!

Yes, the short term will be unpleasant, but in the long term Japan will in the end be better situated for a rapidly changing global redistribution of resources.

…include increasing subsidies to support local businesses affected by the pandemic by about 2 trillion yen

In fact, they take our money and give it to the businesses, but we don’t get any, products, meals or service for that in return? Of course it’s a good thing to support businesses, don’t understand me wrong, but the normal way would be, the population gets back tax money or may keep its money and then goes to the businesses, spending for anything and supporting them. But so, our money is taken for nothing and if that help process runs out, we can’t afford to go to the businesses as usual, so their shutdown is only postponed a little bit. IMO that’s anyhow a quite wrong concept and not so much logical. Maybe they speculated that the economy comes back on track, so our loss is refilled afterwards and in the meantime the businesses kept. But that’s a miscalculation and won’t happen.

Not crony capitalism.

Do you understand what crony capitalism means?

JimizoToday  02:17 pm JST

Not crony capitalism.

Do you understand what crony capitalism means?

Of course.

But your post indicates that you don't.

(friendly hint: capitalism and crony capitalism aren't the same thing)

They also include increasing subsidies to support local businesses affected by the pandemic by about 2 trillion yen, 

More subsidies…. Sheez

These governors should butt out. The political parties are supposed to be voted for by the plebs, not you governors. You governors need to deal with your own stuff by yourselves and not demand a piece of my taxes as if it’s yours.

All of that debt can simply be written off by the Bank of Japan, an accounting trick with no consequences.

And I have a quadrillion yen worth of bridge to sell you.