politics

Nominee for U.S. ambassador wants Japan to take bigger alliance role

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Not this old chestnut again about "nontariff barriers?"

Japanese roads are filled with Mercedes, BMW's, VW,s et al. They seem to have worked out a way to sell in Japan.

Here's a hint after a couple of generations of this nonsense: Japanese don't like American cars and SUV's. They're too big and fat, there's no dealers, no parts, no style... just like a big one-plate meal of meat and potatoes.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

We could increase sales tax to 20%, and give 10% of that to the US of A.

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Nominee for U.S. ambassador wants Japan to take bigger alliance role

Interpretation: Buy more Americans.

But his tenure if confirmed could still be short-lived while Trump appears to be losing the election leading to the departure from the White House.

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I've been arguing on various occasions that Futenma or its replacement at Henoko, Nago City is a white elephant for the defense and security of Japan, for the most active elements of the Okinawa-stationed Marines are slated to move to Guam. They will come to Okinawa on a regular basis for training, at Camp Hansen, Camp Schwab, the Northern Training Area, aka, Jungle Warfare Training Center or other training facilities, to hone their conventional combat skills.

But note that the Marine Corps is contemplating to overhaul itself by transforming into high tech space force equipped with missiles and drones, thus reducing the number of aircraft and heavy artillery (See US in talks with Japan about Marine force overhaul ... " Japan Today: July 23, 22020) . 

Under such circumstances, Futenma's replacement now under construction despite Okinawa’s strong opposition will surely become a white elephant. 

The nominee for U.S. ambassador to Japan, Mr. Kenneth Weinstein, seems very eager to encourage the Abe government to implement this meaningless plan to be realized by all means.

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"I've been arguing on various occasions that Futenma or its replacement at Henoko, Nago City is a white elephant for the defense and security of Japan, for the most active elements of the Okinawa-stationed Marines are slated to move to Guam. "

Sigh. There are 19,000 US Marines stationed in Okinawa. Of these 5000 of these are moving to Guam. There will still be 14,000 Marines in Okinawa afterwards that need a base to operate from. Your comment also ignores the utility of such bases in the event of a war with China. Not affected are USAF and US Army bases in Okinawa or the RAAF and RNZAF P-3 detachments that rotate through Kadean AB.

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The Japanese People must be ready to sacrifice everything to defend America's insane policies, and to act as a shield or a battlefield, whatever America needs, to defend the shores of AMERICA, the single most perverse collective psychosis currently onplanet. 'Alliance' in this issue is a highly interpretable term which, here, seems to mean "Disparage Nihon's own best interests to promote the interests of American industry and wealth. It's Fifty years beyond when Nihon should have been free of military occupation and, with an America that is sinking after electing the iceberg and watching America's worst psychopaths run us into it, it's time to cut the ties, Nihon. America will still claim to be your ally and will be only a Guam away if needed. Bases in Japan might be 'useful' to America in an event, but they will mean destruction for Nihon. If the main islands still want to be occupied, their choice. But at least get the troops off of Okinawa whose people were the most valiant defenders of Japan but have suffered little but abuse from both Washington and Tokyo since that time. Resist Nihon. It may mean your country's future... Rock and a hard place, I understand. But America will destroy you and not think twice about it.

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"But America will destroy you and not think twice about it."

Japan would be a province of China if the US did not station its military in Japan. My wife is Chinese and know full well how the Chinese see Japan. They want revenge for WWII, want it badly but as long as the US has strong forces stationed there they won't attempt anything. But if US forces leave, Japan will be attacked in force and destroyed by China. Believe me, my wife and I have arguments over this.

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Japan would be a province of China if the US did not station its military in Japan.

American defence of the delusion of American exceptionalism. Let me counter your point with the equally valid counterpoint:

“If the Americans didn’t station their military in Japan, Japan would have not been a province of China.”

Prove me wrong. Oh, you can’t, because making up things about how you think things would have been is a self-fantasy, which can be whatever one decides to make up.

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"Prove me wrong. Oh, you can’t, because making up things about how you think things would have been is a self-fantasy, which can be whatever one decides to make up."

You do not understand China's visceral hatred of Japan. China is not like any other country on Earth. Half of my family is there. We're frequent visitors and video chat daily with family when not visiting in person. They are not as informed as people in the west and do not think like us at all. The reformation and Age of Enlightenment that formed the basis of western democratic values passed China by. Where in the democratic west the thing of nightmares are authoritarian governments taking our freedoms, the nightmare of a Chinese is the chaos they knew before Mao and again during the Cultural Revolution. They don't care so much about personal freedom (my wife shakes her head in disgust sometimes at Americans who just do what they want with no regard for anyone else). Chines value stability and wealth most. They think Mao beat the Japanese with some US and Soviet help. They most certainly revere Mao for unifying China in the aftemath of WWII after two centuries of division by western powers, Russia and worst of all in their eyes Japan. They want blood not just for WWII but for the several wars Japan fought with the Chinese beginning in the late 19th Century and the decades of humiliation they experienced. China wants blood. Do not be naive about it. They want revenge and if Japan looks weak and unprotected they will take it.

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