Torben Pasucha comments

zones2surf:

Remember, this is the country that shut itself off from the outside for more than 200 years.

And that can call itself lucky that it wasn't completely taken over by European colonial powers in response, and even so European meddling caused a lot of trouble, most importantly the superiority/saviour complex that ushered in the unspeakable war crimes commited by and against Japan in WWII... and that was a direct result of the awesome cultural and technological turmoil after hundreds of years of stagnation.

That point is not really well used as a defence of closed borders.

Now I'm not normally someone to oppose war "reparation" efforts, but what's the point? It's not going to help them get over it if they still didn't after so many years. I guess it could make their last few months a little easier with te additional financial cushion... but it's not a lot.

Abe's leadersip may be problematic, but to say that higher flexibility on the job market hurt Japan is just silly. Young people these days don't even normally look forward to being stuck with the same company for years. This is an increasing trend around the Western hemisphere and I am sure it is an increasing important phenomenon in Japan too.