Anybody following the elections in Japan?

[Madara]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/world/as...ref=todayspaper



This article in today's New York Times indicates that the political races in Japan's election today include a number of young women candidates. Which marks quite a sea change in Japanese politics.



This article appeared in this morning's paper and it's now 9:00 PM New York time, so I'm guessing the elections have already happened in Japan. And I'm too lazy to get up and turn on CNN and see if there's any news. So I'll wait till tomorrow's NY Times is delivered. But it's a foregone conclusion that the opposition Democratic Party will beat the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Although no one expects any real change to come out of it.



Do our friends in Japan have any reports to give us?

[Special Needs Tricycle]

I don't know much about the election, but I heard somewhere that the new party wants to bring in 10 million immigrants from other parts of Asia to boost their work force and low birth rate. :X Which I think is a horrible idea.



I don't know much other than that, though.

[Madara]

[quote name='Special Needs Tricycle' post='68159' date='Aug 31 2009, 01:29 PM']I don't know much about the election, but I heard somewhere that the new party wants to bring in 10 million immigrants from other parts of Asia to boost their work force and low birth rate. :X Which I think is a horrible idea.[/quote]



Frankly, I think it's a great idea and something Japan has long needed to do. The Premier of mainland China once offered to send 20 million Chinese immigrants to Japan, but the Prime Minister turned him down.



Japan has been an insular society for too long. You can't maintain a feudal culture forever. Japan will just wither and shrink and die without immigration. Sure, it'll mean a great social and cultural upheaval in the short run, but in the long run it insures Japan's survival.



Anyway, here's an update from The New York Times:



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/world/as...ml?_r=1&hpw



And to make it less of a cultural upheaval than it might have been, just restrict immigration to anime, manga and J-pop fans!! <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... kowota.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='=3=' />

[Ap2000]

I watched some live stream about it and was shocked (not positive/negative, considering I forgot all I knew about the DPJ and don't know anything about their programm) that the LDP got their ass kicked really hard.

They really deserved it though, after all the horrible anti-DPJ ads they run.



What's also interesting is the fact, that Shinjiro, Koizumi Junichiro's son, has now the seat his father's seat in Kanagawa.

On the other hand "Koizumi's children" (either a party or alliance, not too sure) lost completely and got wiped.

[fpd]

[quote name='Madara' post='68181' date='Aug 31 2009, 10:37 AM']And to make it less of a cultural upheaval than it might have been, just restrict immigration to anime, manga and J-pop fans!! <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... kowota.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='=3=' />[/quote]



This is a damned good idea sir!

[Shoujo Q]

MSNBC is following the election~

Japan's next first lady says she rode spaceship (Former actress also claims Tom Cruise was Japanese in a previous life)



TOKYO - Japan's next prime minister might be nicknamed "the alien," but it's his wife who claims to have had a close encounter with another world. "While my body was asleep, I think my soul rode on a triangular-shaped UFO and went to Venus," Miyuki Hatoyama, the wife of premier-in-waiting Yukio Hatoyama, wrote in a book published last year. "It was a very beautiful place and it was really green."

Full Story



She sounds awesome, can she be Prime Minister instead?

[neshcom]

MSNBC is following the election~

Japan's next first lady says she rode spaceship (Former actress also claims Tom Cruise was Japanese in a previous life)



TOKYO - Japan's next prime minister might be nicknamed "the alien," but it's his wife who claims to have had a close encounter with another world. "While my body was asleep, I think my soul rode on a triangular-shaped UFO and went to Venus," Miyuki Hatoyama, the wife of premier-in-waiting Yukio Hatoyama, wrote in a book published last year. "It was a very beautiful place and it was really green."

Full Story



She sounds awesome, can she be Prime Minister instead?

I KNEW THEY WERE ALIENS!

[Tallgeese]

Been posted to Hello Online, but in case you didn't notice, the "interview" where the Japanese First Lady gets all whacky was from Bijo Houdan. Yes, THAT Bijo Houdan with HP members interviewing famous Japanese women. I don't doubt she's a bit kooky, but do you think she kind of played it up given that her "interviewer" was what in her (the First Lady's) eyes was a little girl - Suzuki Airi. I sure as hell think so. It's like when adults tell wild stories to their children, nieces, grandchildren, etc.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N2zrDLmlAA

[al kusanagi]

Yeah, we were talking about the CNN clip a bit in the HP youtube thread, I think. Somethingawful even dedicated an article to her royal craziness last week.

[Madara]

[quote name='Tallgeese' post='68675' date='Sep 9 2009, 02:46 PM']Been posted to Hello Online, but in case you didn't notice, the "interview" where the Japanese First Lady gets all whacky was from Bijo Houdan. Yes, THAT Bijo Houdan with HP members interviewing famous Japanese women. I don't doubt she's a bit kooky, but do you think she kind of played it up given that her "interviewer" was what in her (the First Lady's) eyes was a little girl - Suzuki Airi. I sure as hell think so. It's like when adults tell wild stories to their children, nieces, grandchildren, etc.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N2zrDLmlAA[/quote]



Holy shit!!!! Airi Suzuki was on CNN!!! That's the biggest news out of this whole story! Too bad they didn't include any bits with Airi's voice in the segment.



(Can you imagine some news scout in the U.S. seeing this footage and asking his secretary to inquire about the young journalist interviewing the first lady and then learning...her age? And what she actually does for a living? "Quick! Sign up Hannah Montana as a Special Correspondent!")

[Madara]

In the U.S. we've got NASA spending billions on space telescopes and probes flying all over the solar system and they're still only guessing what it's like on Venus. Yet here we've got a lady who goes there on her own and comes back with a full report. Cost to taxpayers? Zero. I say put her in charge of the space program! <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /alien.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[aine]

To make it even more curious, Yukio Hatoyama has recorded an enka single some 20 years ago.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOESyqccdh0