(A very wide river bed)
(An unbelievably tall tree around Tokyo)
Bad Guys Claiming for Justice in a Party
If a politician never judges himself by applying the same measure and scale of justice he used when blaming others, he cannot be trusted.
However, you cannot see how a politician will behave when he becomes a prime minister or a president until he really assumes office.
It is now one of big issues in Japan.
SECTION I: DPJ, LDP, New Komeito, and Your Party
The July 11's Upper House election in Japan has opened a new epoch in the Japanese political domain.
The shares of votes for the four major parties in the national proportional-representation constituency are as follows:
DPJ...31.56%
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LDP...24.07%
Your Party...13.59%
New Komeito...13.07%
They togather account for 82.29 % of total votes, though the ruling party DPJ is supported by only 31.56% of 100 million voters in Japan.
As the Your Party was established by ex-LDP lawmaker Mr. Yoshimi Watanabe and New Komeito formed coalition cabinets with the LDP for more than a decade, it is very likely that the new coalition of the LDP, the Your Party, and New Komeito would take over from the current leading party DPJ led by Prime Minister Mr. Naoto Kan.
A big difference between the two camps is their stance to the U.S. and China.
Though there are many pro-Chinese lawmakers in the LDP, the Your Party, and New Komeito, China is not the only major foreign friend to them. They have far longer history in the friendly relationship with the U.S.
In contrast, the three top leaders of the DPJ, P.M. Mr. Naoto Kan, former P.M. Mr. Yukio Hatoyama, and ex-Director General of the party Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, have frequently visited Beijing in these years. They have been apparently targets of a Chinese diplomatic strategy, covert and overt, against Japan. Mr. Kan, Mr. Hatoyama, and Mr. Ozawa seem to like Chinese leaders more than American politicians.
The true reason for the regime change in Japan last year is poor and irresponsible management of pension funds by the LDP that had been in power for half a century since 1950's. This incident indicates how the LDP neglected the poor and the weak, since the failed management of the pension system has affected millions of ordinary and poor Japanese citizens.
However, prosperity of Japan consists in the relationships with the U.S. and China, as every citizen knows through his or her professional life.
As proved in the poor handling of a consumption tax increase by P.M. Mr. Kan, Japanese voters have now come to doubt P.M. Mr. Kan and the DPJ in terms of ability to lead Japan handling untrustworthy China and the selfish U.S.
Yet, as the LDP also announced its own consumption tax increase plan, the LDP cannot be also easily trusted.
Moreover, IMF has recently recommended Japan to raise a consumption tax rate to 15% from 5%. The U.S. might be behind this movement. That may be why Mr. Sadakazu Tanigaki, president of the LDP, launched his proposal of the tax increase, as the LDP is still so close to the U.S.
Anyway, Prime Minister Mr. Naoto Kan must face difficult months ahead, while the DPJ plans to hold a periodic convention this September to authorize continuation of Mr. Kan's leadership or choose another leader who is to replace Mr. Kan as prime minister, too. Yet, Mr. Kan's arch rival, Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, seems to have a less chance to be elected as new leader, since he has various legal problems in political fund handling.
Finally, I still feel anger of the God directed to the Japanese politics.
SECTION II: Keynes and Hitler
John Maynard Keynes defended Germany after WWI which ended in 1918.
He claimed that too heavy demands for wartime reparations to Germany would result in wild inflation in Germany, causing adversary effects on whole Europe.
The Keynes' claim was rejected by European authorities, but his name prevailed.
The key to understanding the situation is that factories and plants within territories of Germany were left safe and undamaged unlike those in France.
Accordingly, recovery of Germany after WWI depended on how to activate industrial operation through monetary policy.
Conquering a hyper inflation, Germany succeeded in their recovery efforts.
The keys are successful issuance of national bonds and realization of the multiple effect. Incidentally, this recovery is said to be the only case in the history that the multiple effect was truly realized.
There seem to be many valuable lessons in the era of Keynes and Hitler.
It is especially so, since both Keynes and Hitler tackled the unemployment issue. Hitler solved the unemployment in Germany after the World War One, by virtually applying the Keynes' theory.
(http://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/htm/4396112033.html )
Government bonds can be a means to collect money from rich people. This money can be spent for public works targeting poor people and offering jobs to them. This scheme really worked well in Germany after the World War One.
But, consumption tax works as a means to collect money from poor people. This money can be spent for public projects where rich people also invest to get profits. This scheme can result in a widening gap between the rich and the poor.
Note that Japan's economic problem is more complicated, since any measures must be first tested if it is effective to cope with 20-year long deflation caused by a huge influx of cheap Chinese goods and intensified international competition spurred by economic globalization based on the IT revolution.
SECTION III: Hitler and the DPJ
The Democratic Party of Japan took power last summer from the conservative, very pro-American LDP and the Buddhist party New Komeito.
However, the DPJ did not immediately try to promote transfer of wealth from the rich to the poor. Yet, when Hitler took power, he immediately implemented strong measures to impose heavy tax on the rich and decrease the number of the unemployed.
The DPJ decided to provide money for families raising children regardless of an income level of parents. Hitler also provided money for families raising children, but he did it under a condition that parents should be poor to receive allowance.
Like Keynes, Hitler thought the most important mission for a government is to lessen the number of unemployed citizens. It is beyond a tactics level for winning an election.
However, the DPJ supported by various labor unions in Japan looks like being indifferent to a plight jobless people are suffering in the rich society of Japan.
The Unemployment Rate:
JAPAN: 5.08% (2010)
UK: 7.46% (2009)
Germany: 8.62% (2010)
France: 9.39% (2009)
USA: 9.41% (2010)
China: 9.4% (estimated for city workers at the end of 2008)
Finally, the DPJ has no intention to carry out a revolution like Hitler, though Hitler's revolution turned to be so evil as never seen before.
The DPJ lawmakers may think that they are socialistic heroes, which they are not at all. Labor union members who support the DPJ want simply business success of companies where they work.
It is not an unemployment rate but a matter of justice and spirit that must be focused on in Japan unlike Hitler's Germany after WWI.
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This Sunday might be a fine day around Tokyo.
You may even like to go out, indeed, to a place where you can be alone far from the cyber space, since there are so many twittery guys nowadays.
Mar 7:15 There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
Mar 7:16 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.