Jay comments

Not sure how to feel about this.

I fully support Taiwan's soverieignty, but it was always the US's promise to protect them against China.

Japan is a small nation, and taking sides in this conflict puts us at odds with China. I'm not so much concerned with that, but being at odds with China, means we're more reliant on the US and at their mercy.

Japan has always been independent, because it took a neutral stance between US and Chinese conflicts. If we lose the support of one, we may also lose our independence to the other.

You'll get to the point where women will control the vote, and their sensibilities will dominate in Japan. It happened here in America.

An even better example is Australia.

Women need to vote as a block, in all the prefectures, and elect more female candidates to the Diet.

This is exactly why gender politics needs to end at all costs. It's destructive and devastating.

Why are you so desperate to be in power? What are these so-called "inequalities" that you are trying to change?

There are only two types of feminists in this world (outside of the Middle East): Those that want female superiority, and those that want to eliminate gender differences.

Both of these ideologies are harmful and dangerous to both men and women.

How's that, exactly?

Uh, one of the lowest crime rates of any country, great education, good healthcare, solid economy, energy independence, solid immigration system, falling mental illness and suicide rates (while others go up), distinct and respected culture. Etc etc.

Big deal! In the end, it's just "pass the gavel" to another dude with no real change to the country.

And there it is. Leftists and foreigners wanting Japan to change and emulate for less successful and more chaotic countries/cultures, when Japan has become one of the best countries on the planet to live in. Now you want to change that.

Oh, and no shock that foreigners want Kono to win so bad. He was educated in the US. The same schools that push far-left "progressive" ideals, which are currently tearing the US apart, and why I left.

I love how the left move the goalposts. They take a left-wing candidate, put up and EXTREME left-wing candidate like Noda, to make him look like a moderate, then smear all his opponents as right-wing, and have people complain about how he's not left-wing enough, and eveything's rigged for the right-wing.

This nonsense worked in the US. I hope the Japanese people are smarter.

An argument could be made for any of them being good for the economy, and I happen to know that economist predict economic booms for all their favorite candidates.

You guys clearly have an agenda to be putting this out. Why does foreign-directed new media want Kono to win so bad?

As someone from the US, I can tell you this is all about cultural imperialism.

For decades, they (and the Five Eyes) used the markets and the internet to do it softly and quietly, pressuring any society or culture that differs from their ideals and laws to become like them.

Now they've gained enough support and brainwashed enough people with identity politics that they are tired of waiting and are willing to risk war to FORCE other cultures to change.

You are wrong. Read this.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-n-word-senate/

Did you just link SNOPES as a source???

Let's go with the younger woman.

I don't think a woman should be Prime Minister right now.

Not because I think they are less qualified or can't handle the job, but because gender politics are tearing apart the vital relationship between men and women in society right now.

¥13 million or $120,000 seems closer.

That's still vastly superior to most other countries.

Everyone agrees economic Japanese situation is dire so not sure what the article tries to say, outside the rich got richer.

Uhhh, nope. No, definitely not.

As someone that just moved from the US, I can tell you that is NOT true.

Japan's economy is doing great. Especially when you consider how hard COVID hit. We do not need to be changing anything. That's how you end up making things MUCH worse.

Bring refugees and others into Japan and open up to the world already!

I understand the cultural and mindset challenges but Japan seems to manage the benefits without the hassles of being a G7 member nation...

Number 1 way to destroy the country. I have a lot of sympathy for Afghanistan, especially since it's my home country that harassed them and wouldn't let them sort things our on their own.

But forcing a culture to share resources with a less successful one is a one-way ticket to chaos. It doesn't help them improve, and it would destroy Japanese culture. Globalization is the death of diversity, the ticket to dissatisfaction, and the end of freedom.

Other cultures can do what they want, have whatever laws they want, and live how they want, but if that's unsuccessful, then that's on THEM.

This is so stupid! She could easily be lying, and even if she isn't how is "touching the thigh" sexual assault!?

Yet you wonder why the birthrate is so low. Men can't even be near women without their livelihood being threatened. If a man complained about someone touching his thigh, he'd be a laughingstock, and so should she.

Chikan is only the issue it is because people overreact to something that ISN'T a big deal at all.

Can they PLEASE rename this asininely named law to what it really is - sexual assault. Ffs, Japan. Public Nuisance Law? Seriously? Wake up and address this persistent problem your country's got going, Japan.

No. It's insulting to victims of REAL sexual assault to have their situations lumped in with a guy MAYBE touching a woman's leg on a train. This kind of stuff wouldn't even be talked about in the US. People are more concerned about being robbed at gunpoint or shot! "Chikan" is an artificially created issue by feminists. It's an over-exaggerated issue. Over a mundane offense that should be addressed on a personal level, if at all, and certainly not on a legal level. Grow some thicker skin. That man probably deals with more stress and hardships than that woman has faced her whole life.

This guy deserves the public shame, but can we stop acting like upskirt photos or pinching the backside is in anyway equivalent to "sexual assault and rape". Like, come on. There are far more serious concerns in the world.

90% of male behavior is sexually motivated. I thought we understood this years ago. Yes, he should be chastised and reprimanded, but can we please get to the point that we stop making a big deal out of this? In a world where kids are getting bombed, this seems like a pretty pathetic thing to complain about.

I get the idea you would prefer it if we didn't. Let's all turn a blind eye and try to con ourselves into thinking it's all perfect just like LDP online supporters do, eh?

No, it's not perfect, but it's one heck of a lot closer to perfect than what other countries are doing. Why do people keep pushing for policies that are detrimental to society!? The only explanation I can think of is that you WANT Japan to fail, so that you can keep pushing for your global politics, the same way America was sabotaged from the inside by people that hate America and want a global government.

Why do people keep complaining about the LDP and Abe? Japan is one of the best nations on Earth to live on right now. If you're trying to shake that up, and implement changes from other countries, which are in chaos right now, then you seem to be pushing for nothing less than the destruction of Japan.

You're still in the honeymoon. Wait for a few years to see the full picture, then you'll regret.

I've never felt so at home and compatible with society before. Maybe you're right, but I really doubt it.

the fact that my last post, which is just talking about my personal experience, is getting mass downvoted, says a lot. Vote based on the comment, not the person.

I am intrigued. Did you spend a lot of time speaking in Japanese to Japanese friends in Japan - hearing their honest opinions on Japanese society - in order to reach this conclusion?

Yes! Friends and my then girlfriend, now fiance. I spoke to those for nearly 2 years asking about it, and checking sources, discovering that most of criticisms were propaganda at best and lies at worst.

That's when I finally decided to move. I've been here for 6 months now and it's better than I could have ever hoped.

Yeah I get that , most of us wanna get away from one thing or another...hope you find your peaceful place.

Except I can't do that when gender politics, one of the primary things that harassed me, is coming to the same place I spent years and a lot of money trying to escape to.

The problem with Japan is the SEVERE lack of forward thinking. While the rest if world moves on, Japan is stuck still using fax machines, still electing the same leaders who have the EXACT SAME MINDSET as the leaders 50 years ago.

I HATE this arrogant mindset of "The world needs to keep changing and when it doesn't change the way I want, it's regressive and outdated". The system is the way it is because it works. We built it after millenia of human history to refine it. In biology, most mutations are bad. Do you know why that is? Cause the system was structured in a way that works, and changes to that system are USUALLY damaging to it.

If the changes you wanted to make to our traditions are so successful, then why are those "progressive" countries in such chaos right now? Why are people like me fleeing to more traditional places like Japan at great cost to us? It's because your changes DON'T work!

No, the current system isn't perfect. I kinda doubt it ever can be perfect, but changes are meant to be made slowly and with a lot of skepticism. Things can definitely be done to improve gender balance. Like reimbursing women that do the important job of raising children. But the Western feminist ideal of men and women being exactly the same, having the same expectations, the same responsibilities, the same roles in society. THAT is unrealistic and is damaging to the mental health of both men and women! Just look at the US for proof. Happiness among women has gone DOWN practically every year for the last 40 years.

please forgive the typos in the last post. I wrote it in a hurry.

Western countries control information flow more than Japan? Sorry but that made me giggle, after living on 3 continents I have not seen a " developed democracy " where information is more tightly controlled by the govt than Japan. NHK, Kyodo, Kisha media club...no need to say more.

The NHK, Kyodo, and Kisha are just information/propaganda organizations, but they don't control organizations. Most people get almost all their info from the internet these days, which is dominated by American countries and given incentives to act and censor by American politicians.

Beg to disagree...very easy to fall into the trap of believing Japanese are all happy and fulfilled due to the cultural aspect of tatemae face value where near everyone here will tell you with a smiley face they are all happy as whilst under the surface its not the case. Westerners generally will express their feelings straight...be they happy or otherwise ( in fact more often whinging than not ). Of course there are exceptions on both side of the fence, but thats the general gist of it.

I have lived in both Japan and the US, and, while I by no means thinks everyone in Japan is as happy as can be, they do find peace to live out their lives within society and find social cohesion together. Than can only be achieved when people are content. Or at least content enough. In the US, (and most Western countries) the unhappiness is evident in the rampant crime, spiking mental illness rates, and overall restrictions of freedom and forced crackdowns by governments.

I moved to Japan because I wanted to get away from all this, and yet, here it is trying to take root here too. Slowly, granted, but any pace is terrifying to me when I just want to get away from it. I'm SO tired of it all. I just want to be left alone!

You realise the term "Western" in this context is not purely geographic, right?

I'm aware. That's why I listed it and said in parenthesis that it's not technically Western in the strictest sense.

BTW, seems from your posts you are very angry. Chill out mate, its almost the weekend!

Also, yeah, except, I'm not angry. I'm tense. I've spent my whole life being shamed for being a man, dealt with it, and now have to witness my nephews suffering through and even worse version, and THEN I see it gaining ground in Japan, one of the few places that seemed to resist this kind of thing.

When something makes you suffer and all your forms of escape from it are taken away, it tends to make you frustrated.

Australia is not a Western nation? When did this happen? Very curious to hear your take on this.

Have you looked at a map?

She's not really a feminist in the traditional sense. She's been pragmatic. Not a fan of her but you can't be a feminist in this country and win anything. Still, she's been smart.

She is a feminist. She just adjusts her policies to what she can get away with and will push for more and more as she is able to. That's how it happened in the West.

Oh, and for the people citing the "wage gap"; that's long since been proved a myth. In the US, specifically, women have systemic advantages over men in career progression. The gap develops because of personal choices, because it turns out, a lot of the traditional gender roles that left-wing "progressives" try to forcibly stop, came about naturally based on what makes men and women feel more fulfilled.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think anyone should be FORCED into those roles, but it's unhealthy to punish people for choosing those roles or teaching them to their children, which is what modern feminists and gender activists do. Not to mention that they punish and attack men just for expressing male traits.

Feminists have forced their ideology on almost every country. Why can't they leave some alone? You now have a plethora of countries abiding by that ideology that you could live it. Let people that disagree with you have a place to live too.

What are you going on about? This is an internal LDP election (ie Japanese politicians decide who runs and gets elected ). Are you suggesting LDP lawmakers move to the west?

As for men and women less happy there - in the world,s happiness index European / Western countries consistently dominate while Japan scores a lowly 62nd place. Google it before making untrue assumptions.

That Index is riddled with biased measurements, such as Western-based psychology scores and economics (implying that being richer makes you happier). That's not an accurate measure. If you've ever been to Japan and the US (let alone lived there) it's clear as day that Japanese people are happier and more fulfilled.

Western countries control a lot of the information flow and do a good job convincing people that they are excelling, but the US, UK, Canada (and Australia even though it's not Western), have been failing since the turn of the century.

STOP with the gender politics!

Can't we leave one place alone??

Gender politics haven't exactly been successful in other places. The West is full of it and yet both men and women are less happy there. Why emulate that?? You could just move to the West if you want it so bad!