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Al Jazeera: Growing political instability in Japan?

It’s rare for an international news channel to spend a considerable amount of time discussing Japanese politics in English, and even rarer for such a program to be available for free viewing on the internet.

Here’s Al Jazeera English delivering an in-depth report on why Prime Minister Hatoyama resigned and why Japan seems to be politically unstable:

Yukio Hatoyama, the outgoing Japanese prime minister, quit earlier this week amid plummeting popularity ratings after he failed to deliver on a campaign promise to relocate a controversial US military base off the island of Okinawa. He had been in office for barely eight months. Inside Story asks if his resignation reflects a growing political instability in Japan.

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24 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - June 8, 2010 at 5:14 am

Categories: Politics Tags:

Fat Tony

Oh look. Three people who have read newspapers talking to a guy who is reading an autocue loaded by interns who have read a Japanese politics textbook.

leitmotiv

Very convincing critique, Fat Tony. I admire how you adhere to their actual statements and dissect the inherent misconceptions point-by-point in an evidence-based manner. We only hope that the producers contact you alone for their next report, since you have such an obviously superior command of the subject matter – and cross-commentary to your statements would obviously be unnecessary. When is your book being published, by the way?

LB

Pot… kettle… I’ll let you fill in the rest, you seem to be a bright boy.

So, when is your newest book coming out?

Fat Tony

Actually, in August.
LB

Actually, in August.

Kind of what I suspected – so is it his second, or third if we count his first tome as “two books”?
Fat Tony

That was a random misunderstanding, but an intriguing one. Do you really think it’s him?
LB

@Fat Tony – Not sure. Sometimes really sounds like him, though, right down to the same turns of phrase. Jumps up and down and makes noises on all the same issues, at least a couple of times with uncanny timing (doing it here simultaneously or immediately after he does it over there). Will disappear for periods only to come running over and going spastic anytime anyone says anything bad about he who must not be named, and getting oddly defensive, almost as though he was taking the comment personally even though it is not about “him”. Plus, LM has gone after me in the same way he who must not be named has also gone after me, again down to the same kinds of phrasing.

And yet, in spite of being such a kindred spirit of that other blogger, I have never seen the handle “leitmotiv” over there. I have seen other people who post here also posting over there under the same name, but never LM. Nor have I ever seen someone with LM’s inimitable “style” posting over there.

Except, of course, FOR THE [invective deleted] PERSON WHO USED TO RESPOND TO OTHER PEOPLE’S POSTS LIKE THIS. And that certain someone has unquestionably posted outside of his own blog using pompous-sounding aliases. So it would not surprise me in the least, knowing that he does read here at least sometimes (he once launched an attack on me on his own blog within hours of my commenting about his methods on this site), for him to be occasionally posting here. But whether they are one and the same, I don’t know. James might be able to tell, based on ISP, but even if he could I hope he doesn’t. I was outed on that other site, not that I was particularly trying to hide who I was, but still Debito took info only he had access to and released it (as he has done to others). That is slimeball low, and I wouldn’t want to see James stoop there.
leitmotiv

Wow. That is some half-baked and paranoid stuff. I am wondering if the US meth epidemic has reached Japan now (I mean, beyond the military bases).

I would go point-by-point through your turgid nonsense and blatant falsifications but I honestly cannot be sure which points are for me, which points are for…, lets say “HWMNBN”, and which points are for yet some further entity who types in all caps and who you have conflated into above screed for no apparent reason. We are all aware of the toxic beast that 3-way mixing of low-wattage intellect, paranoid wishful thinking, and internet can easily spawn. So I am obliged to try to spare James’ readers from another tedious conspiracy theory being seeded by you two Nobel short-listers, only to spin malignantly out of control in this latest of many threads that LB has hijacked to be about HWMNBN. I am not “he”. I know this will probably only encourage you further, but I tried.

[LM comes] running over and going spastic anytime anyone says anything bad about he who must not be named,

LM has gone after me in the same way he who must not be named has also gone after me…

“Gone after” you? Really? You flatter yourself. This is all utter BS and you know it. Scrolling back, I note mostly weird, unprovoked attacks on me by you after I call out absurd garbage. Attacks such as this signature punch-bowl turd from you:

I often wondered what would happen if two Tourette’s [sic] sufferers bred. Thank you, leitmotiv, for enlightening me.

‘Twas too bizarre and unintelligible to merit comment. But since LB now purports to decry things that are “slimeball low”… Well played, sir. Outstanding. A put-down towards me via fearless ridicule of a defenseless and unrelated group that suffers from untreatable neuropsychiatric conditions. My hat is off to your rapier wit.

LB, I assumed you were a typical, cantankerous Colonel-Kurtz-too-long-amongst-the-locals insanity story, but I’m starting to wonder if you’re actually here because the elders banished you to the furthest possible location away from whatever backwater clan you come from.
LB

I am not “he”.

Fine, then you are not “the” troll, just “a” troll. Thank you for the clarification.

I note mostly weird, unprovoked attacks on me by you after I ~~call~~ churn out absurd garbage.

Fixed that for you, you can thank me later. Oh, and “Tourette’s” was spelled correctly, you didn’t need the “[sic]“. You do have a clearly demonstrated need for access to an English-language dictionary, don’t you? You repeatedly fail to comprehend the simplest of phrases…

A put-down towards me via fearless ridicule of a defenseless and unrelated group that suffers from untreatable neuropsychiatric conditions.
You are correct, and I am duly chastised. Please allow me, here and now, to offer an unreserved public apology, from the bottom of my heart, to any and all sufferers of Tourette’s Syndrome and their families. Lumping you in with them was wrong, and I can see how my words must have caused pain to those who have to deal with Tourette’s everyday. I only hope they can somehow find it in their hearts to forgive me for my thoughtless words.
Fat Tony

“I would go point-by-point through your turgid nonsense and blatant falsifications…”

But you didn’t.

Very convincing critique, Leitmotiv. I admire how you adhere to LB’s actual statements and dissect the inherent misconceptions point-by-point in an evidence-based manner. We only hope that James contacts you alone for their to do the Japan Probe posts from now on, since you have such an obviously superior command of the subject matter – and comments on your posts would obviously be unnecessary. When is your book being published, by the way?

Fat Tony

“I admire how you adhere to their actual statements and dissect the inherent misconceptions point-by-point in an evidence-based manner.”

LM, you are just question-begging. My very point is that there is not much to be argued about here, and that in itself is something to be criticized. If you are going to have three experts on to talk for the better part of half an hour, they should have something insightful to say. Dare I say it, they might even say something that contradicts one of the other speakers. This was just echo-chamber stuff. There was an interesting question about U.S. pressure on the Hatoyama government, which was largely ignored by the Japanese gentleman, and taken up by the nice American lady. The interviewer didn’t seem to care about pressing it home in the first case or teasing it out in the second, which should really be his job. It was just, “ho hum,” and on to the next question.

Do you disagree with me? Are you of the opinion that this was a stunning piece of informative news? An insightful interview? Was there more information there than what the daily newspapers have been reporting? I’m intrigued, because I just didn’t see it. Of course, I will bow to your obviously superior insight into Japanese politics and your ability to read nuance that I can’t, but it seems to me you were just watching another interview.

leitmotiv

LM, you are just question-begging.

What? I will interpret your awkward personal lingo to mean “using circular logic”. No, there is nothing of the sort is in what I wrote above. Its just a sarcastic call-out of what appears to be another tedious and reflexive “all non-japanese media about japan self-evidently sux” whining session. Also noted by at least one other commenter here. There is no use of circular logic.

Do you disagree with me?

I don’t know. For the life of me I cannot figure out what you are trying to say. Except perhaps that the commenter didn’t press for a particular answer that Fat Tony personally wants — so therefore it logically follows that the whole thing fails Fat Tony’s personal criteria for “insightful” and “stunning” and thus must be merely “three people who have read newspapers talking to a guy who is reading an autocue loaded by interns who have read a Japanese politics textbook.” This is all you have made clear.
Fat Tony

Input the term “question-begging” into Google Books and you will find any number of academics who use the term. I don’t have an internal vocabulary just for me.

Your statement is question-begging because it states the proposition that I should dissect the statements in the interview thereby proving that I believe they are problematic and worthy of dissection. The conclusion is in the premise.

But as to further destroy that already nonsensical position, my point is not that what the interviewees said is wrong, but that what they said is not particularly new or controversial, and therefore neither enlightening or thought-provoking. These are features I see as crucial for determining the value of an interview I am going to spend the better part of half an hour watching. In other words, I agree with most of their statements, but that in itself does not make the statements “valuable,” and the bits that are open to evaluation are, in my opinion, not worth arguing over. It is not the statements that I am criticizing; it is the quality of the interview for not providing me with any new information or analysis and generally wasting my time.

And yes, that’s a subjective judgement, and yes, I am going to express it in a sarcastic tone if I damned well want to. This isn’t your blog and you can’t censor me for having an opinion or expressing it in a way you don’t like. You are, however, quite welcome to question my phraseology, but be warned, it might make you look stupid.
LB

Here, .

Now was that so difficult?

Dave

Um, these are the people that newspapers talk to so they can write the articles that you read in order to be smug.

Fat Tony

No. Actually I read the Japanese newspapers, which are generally written by professional journalists who do their own interviews and are well briefed on the issues. I know this because I know more than a few of them.

Mr. USA

Al Jazeera should learn the difference between family names and first names. The presenter refers to the Japanese interviewee as Mr. Tomohiko and then the headlines refer to PM Hatoyama as simply “Yukio”.
Vonskippy

Well, if anyone knows about Political Instability – it’s Al Jazeera. After all, with their freedom of the press, free and open elections, equal voting for all, the free and open ability for their citizens to voice their concerns and debate their laws, who better then someone based in the Middle East to offer advice on Politics.

leitmotiv

Your message is unclear. Unfortunately your entire comment, sarcasm and all, would also work if you replace “Al Jazeera” with “CNN”, “Fox”, “New York Times”, etc.

What do you mean to say?

LB

Your message is unclear.

It read crystal-clear over here. Perhaps your screen needs to be cleaned?

Unfortunately your entire comment, sarcasm and all, would also work if you replace “Al Jazeera” with “CNN”, “Fox”, “New York Times”, etc.

Actually no, it wouldn’t. It would be completely nonsensical then.

mashu

Thanks for the post. I found this to be an interesting discussion.

NanatsuYoru

Why mashu, you almost sound sarcaaaastic

http://whatjapanthinks.com Ken Y-N

Good grief, I got through 15 minutes before having to give up. That was very, very poor. He didn’t resign because of the money scandals or the base, he resigned because the public were more than fed up with his complete and utter incompetence and wishy-washiness.
Stupot

Hehe, did anyone else catch the English guy laughing his head off at 18:10… he didn’t realise the camera was on him… probably cracking up at the fact that the presenter Kept refering to Japanese people by their first names… d’oh.

Al Jazeera: Growing political instability in Japan?

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