Forget Islamic extremists! The new security threat...

[ryberg]

...may be from the land of the rising sun, Japan!

Check it out for yourself here if you don't believe me.

You'll know it's really time to begin worrying if they start flying the old war-time



again in place of the more benign



See how those rays in the top one spread out in every direction???

Steve

[James A.]

It's about time...

Those dudes were some bad mo' fo's.

[Nerak936]

My brother's girlfriend is Japanese. Maybe I'll bring the issue up for discussion while the kids open gifts on Xmas Eve.

Not.

[beer_dude]

Hmmm. I wonder if this has anything to do with North Korea and their belligerent attitude toward's their neighbors?

[Rissask]

I was just reading something in the paper this weekend...apparently there is a big controversy in Japan right now, as they just recently made it law for school students to do some patriotic pledge every morning....hmmmm....a re-emergence of Japanese colonialism on it's way?

(oaky, sorry Steve, I just read your linked article and I see that was the same one I read.)

Wonder what their motivation is?

[WornOutTire]

Interesting article. Couple this with their robot research and do we have the makings of "I Robot" ?

Long as they don't pull the trigger first and drag us into something, I would look forward to them being able to carry more of the defense burden for their country.

[Icon oclast]

It's about time they sarted defending themselves. Let Asia come to some balance of power in the region. Japan will turn into a country that wages war abroad said a commie lawmaker. consider the source.

[ryberg]

Originally Posted by Icon oclast

It's about time they sarted defending themselves. Let Asia come to some balance of power in the region. Japan will turn into a country that wages war abroad said a commie lawmaker. consider the source.

Well apart from the issue of what's appropriate or not, in large part they are prohibited from doing much of that, and by our design, to boot:

The [Japanese] constitution is perhaps most famous for the renunciation of the right to wage war contained in Article 9 . . .

The constitution was drawn up under the Allied occupation that followed World War II and was intended to replace Japan's previous imperial system with a form of liberal democracy. It is a rigid document and no subsequent amendment has been made to it since its adoption . . .

Much of it was drafted by two senior [U.S.] army officers with law degrees: Milo Rowell and Courtney Whitney . . .

The new constitution would not have been written the way it was had MacArthur and his staff allowed Japanese politicians and constitutional experts to resolve the issue as they wished. The document's foreign origins have, understandably, been a focus of controversy since Japan recovered its sovereignty in 1952. Yet in late 1945 and 1946, there was much public discussion on constitutional reform, and the MacArthur draft was apparently greatly influenced by the ideas of certain Japanese liberals . . . [source/more]

It's precisely this stuff that leads to angry protests by conservative/reactionary factions who play patriotic music and fly the wartime flag at rallies and when driving their vans through the streets periodically in Japan.

Steve

[Icon oclast]

They can amend their constitution.

[ryberg]

Originally Posted by Icon oclast

They can amend their constitution.

That seems to be true but apparently even harder to do than in the States. From the same source:

After 1952 conservatives and nationalists attempted to revise the constitution to make it more "Japanese", but these attempts were frustrated for a number of reasons. One was the extreme difficulty of amending it. Amendments require approval by two-thirds of the members of both houses of the National Diet before they can be presented to the people in a referendum (Article 96).

Just following up the point, since you mentioned it and I'd read that, not that it makes the whole argument.

Steve