August 5, 2023 - 8:00am
Japanese politics has a reputation for conservatism and consistency — and rightly so. The centre-right Liberal Democratic Party has governed Japan for 61 of the last 65 years, regularly reinventing itself to suit the needs of the nation. The Japanese state is nearly synonymous with the LDP’s party machinery.
However, all political cultures have their heretics. The most dynamic of these is Taro Yamamoto, the Battle Royale star-turned-politician who leads the Left-wing Reiwa Shinsengumi party. Reiwa combines the anti-nuclear and pacifist traditions of the Japanese Left with the social progressivism and firebrand style of their Western counterparts. Since its foundation in 2019, Reiwa has made significant headway, taking three seats at the 2021 elections and recently polling as high as 7%.
Not since the university protests of 1969 has Japan seen mainstream, anti-establishment Left-wing populism. The Japanese Communist Party, which itself took 7% of the vote at the last elections, couches its policies in strict adherence to the constitution. Since 2004, the JCP has even made its peace with the country’s Imperial Household. Other Left-of-centre parties situate themselves even more firmly within the LDP consensus — in doing so, they have been able to extract occasional concessions.
Reiwa, by contrast, shuns any such détente. In 2013, Yamamoto presented an openly critical letter to Emperor Akihito at a garden party. Political leaders roundly condemned the move, which was seen as a violation of the Emperor’s constitutionally enforced apoliticism. Among Yamamoto’s critics was Communist Party leader Kazuo Shii, who suggested that his young rival “[doesn’t] understand the constitution”.
While Yamamoto cut his teeth with the anti-nuclear lobby, his time as Reiwa leader has seen him champion the gamut of progressive causes. His views on LGBT rights, public services, and the minimum wage are taken wholesale from the Democratic Socialists of America. In June of this year, he even physically attacked members of the Government over plans to tighten immigration laws.
Listen to the former actor speak, and the influence of American Leftists like Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is inescapable. Despite the fact that the level of income inequality in Japan is around the OECD average, he regularly employs the language of “the one percent”. His rhetorical style and political philosophy owe more to Occupy Wall Street than to the Zengakuren and other icons of the Japanese Left. In turn, he appeals mostly to young, urban voters in Tokyo, rather than to more traditional centre-left voters in areas like Hokkaido and Shikoku.
Reiwa could not have emerged in the pre-Internet age. It is a creature of globalisation, which moulds itself to its Asian context. It combines the pet causes of international social liberalism with unfamiliar political tactics: the result is a party that sits uncomfortably with its domestic political allies.
It remains to be seen whether Yamamoto has the political acumen to take his movement into the mainstream. For my money, it seems more likely that a viable challenger to the LDP will emerge from the Right, in opposition to the managerialism and moderation of the Kishida government.
However, Reiwa serves as a reminder that we live in a world defined by the cultural dominance of the United States. As the world gets smaller, American political trends will continue to cross language barriers and cultural divides. If it can happen in Japan, it can happen anywhere.
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Subscribe” Conservatives are again claiming Walz did not deploy the Minnesota National Guard soon enough to contain the chaos,” This is not a claim, it is a fact. Walz waited until much of Minnesota was burning before he made a serious attempt to stop the rioting. He also mandated tampons in boys’ toilets. What is the electorate to make of that? We assume he is fully on board with gender ideology and all that entails. This article portrays Mr Walz as a happy liberal, when his record shows him to be a far left politician. .
Ain’t it a curious thing that Harris is “biracial” but Obama was “black”?
Conservatives “claim”, but Democrats “say”. This author’s bias is shown by his carefully selected vocabulary. A decent piece of propaganda, I guess, but not top tier.
Every time I read a good analysis of the issues and tactics, I realize again that no one will accept the election outcome nor any proposed policies, and the Civil War will continue.
“Despite the challenges she may face as a female and biracial candidate”
What are the challenges?
Actually because she is female and biracial many of the media will praise her and never disagree with her.
Just a couple of corrections. North Carolina and Georgia are not Sun Belt states. They are Bible Belt states. Sun Belt states are: Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and at least Southern California. I’m not sure about Nevada, but Sun Belt sounds about right.
Interesting article. Thank you.
Mr. Walz seems to me to be a man who has set low bars for himself since his military service. He has cleared them all. He seems not much driven, little forward vision – someone to whom life has happened just because he was the least offensive person around. That makes for an OK pick for V. P. But what about for the role of President? I’d like to see a bit more spark from Walz.
Tim was Sanders and Progressive lb of flesh.
This piece sounds like something written in 1977. To describe Governor Waltz as a common sense midwesterner is to ignore 35 years of the most regrettable history. Could it be, does this man not know, what they are doing now to children in the State of Minnesota? Can you imagine the horror that would have descended on that State, had such a man governed there in 1977? It’s as if the man just woke up from a 35 year nap.
Walz is such an “everyman” that he signed on to the moronic policy of putting Covid patients in nursing homes. Such an ‘everyman’ that he was all four the riots that engulfed Minneapolis, leaving destruction in their wake. My word; what is with all the revisionism and hagiographies regarding the Dem ticket that, don’t forget, not one Democrat voter had a hand in selecting.
As others have pointed out, Walz’s ‘everyman-ness’ extends into things that virtually no man would condone. He’s not called Tampon Tim without cause.
Yes he is no moderate
For sure, there’s much to be found out. But at the moment, Walz is carefully striking cheerful notes which help Harris deepen and broaden the Dem ticket appeal. Not that easy to do both at once, as Donald keeps having to re- learn. Vance not communicating half as well, his Rustbelt hillbilly legacy is no longer at his fingertips.
While Trump &Co. only too happy to be facing an avowedly liberal ticket, it’s one striking a better note than they do with broad swathes of the public.
My worry is less about the Dem ticket and more about the Republican strategy at this point. I really think they need to get off the DEI hire stuff (even though true), and the name calling and whether she’s black or whatever the hell. They need to get on attacking actual issues, and head-scratching decisions that Kamala and Walz have made throughout their careers (of which there are many, no doubt). This is the stuff voters care about.
The childish back and forth rubs many people the wrong way. I don’t care who shot first. Give me a campaign with substance, please.
It says much about the Democratic Party and the US that the installer of tampon dispensers in boys’ bathrooms, who replaced his state flag with a Somali one for a photo shoot, is the one who labels Vance as “weird” for having traditional values.
I guess one man’s idiotic socialist is another’s avuncular and sharp-witted.
Old folksy, down home, hunter and regular guy, who mandated menstrual products in boys’ school bathrooms from 4th to 12th grade. “Tampon Tim” should be repeated over and over. The massive lie and coverup of this guy is truly telling. And Walz called Republican’s weird!
“Safe yet shrewd is how Kamala Harris’s choice of Tim Walz as her running mate”
I find it hard to believe Harris chose her running mate.
Then who did?
Surely you’re not serious. The same people who biffed Biden when it suited and made Harris the nominee.
Who? Name names.
Prove to me she did.
Reporters at the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other newspapers have followed the story of the VP selection process Kamala Harris used. She talked to people like the Clintons and the Obamas. She had a law firm vet candidates and did interviews by phone and in person. She frequently huddled with advisors.
Kamala Harris narrowed it to three people: Josh Shapiro, Tim Walz and Mark Kelly. Then down to two, dropping Mark Kelly. Then to one.
The reasons Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz are probably unclear even to her. But the fact that Josh Shapiro is very ambitious for himself and not for her probably played a big part. Tim Walz told her he has no intention of running for president. Josh Shapiro clearly does. To a woman with a shaky grasp on power, that’s a big difference.
Certainly Kamala Harris feels a lot of pressure from various factions of the party, but the idea that someone or a group of people within one faction chose Tim Walz for her seems fantasy to me. Who has such power? Who is this puppetmaster that has Kamala Harris under their control by pulling on strings?
I’d like to know.
Nah, it’s easier to just keep calling her an idiot and that some other group is constantly whispering in her ear telling her what to do, to which she happily and cluelessly obliges.
I personally hope Trump wins, but if this sort of crap is all people will resort to, then I think we might be in for another 4 years of the same.
Well said.
Barack Obama, Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.
I’m pretty sure those four preferred Josh Shapiro over Tim Walz. Those four are in the Democratic mainstream. Many people seem to forget that Kamala Harris is not — she’s more liberal than her fellow Bay Area politician Nancy Pelosi (for example).
Ideologically, Kamala Harris is close to Tim Walz, if not more progressive, and not Josh Shapiro. She would be comfortable with either, but the idea that someone forced her to take Tim Walz against her will is wrong.
And I don’t think any of that four had any power over Kamala Harris to dictate her choice of VP. They had all backed her by then, and there was no going back. She is in charge. The Democratic convention will be run by her to coronate her.
I don’t like Kamala Harris. Never have and never will. But she has done a great job so far in securing and consolidating support from Democratic party leaders. I didn’t think she had it in her. She may very well win this race. Here’s hoping that, like Joe Biden, she will find some way to f[oul] things up.
Completely agree, and appreciate your nuanced and informed point of view.
Well said again.
He doesn’t know. Some internet commenters are so blinded by their bias that they can’t at the very least even tolerate reading something that doesn’t fit in their worldview.
I’m interested in learning about both sides. Trolly, ragebaity comments like suggesting that Kamala didn’t even get to choose her running mate (without any citation, of course) don’t offer any insight and aren’t welcome anywhere, in my opinion.
Well thanks for your insightful comment. It’s a bit hard to believe that someone who failed so badly in the run up to the last election and was rejected, who hasn’t achieved anything besides play her race/gender role, who told us Biden was exceptional, who doesn’t seem to be able to form sensible sentences, who adjusts her personality to the occasion, is really making independent choices.
I’ll admit that no one at this stage can really say what’s going on behind closed doors.
Obama and Pelosi
We know there are backstage biggies if not exactly how, when or why they come together or to what effect. Circumstantial detail tends to confirm Harris chose her running late after interviewing contenders as would normally be the nominee’s prerogative. That this hasn’t resulted in evident backer cavils doesn’t mean backers called the shots. All concerned ‘ seem to recognise that there were other positive possible choices. ..
America is too complex a country to be controlled by anyone very far for very long. For the time being, the wave of welcome for Harris is carrying all before it, as the extension of the effective franchise it involves could have decisive weight. If that wave does carry her to power even the consequential backroom reckonings will be different than before. That’s not to say the people are in charge but their movement is gaining momentum.
It does seem to me that no President really chooses their vp. Did Kennedy really chose Johnson? These seem like strategic party decisions. In many cases they have backfired before even getting off the ground.
Just a correction here on my part. Kennedy did chose Johnson but didn’t actually want him.
Did you miss the Palace coup?
There was no palace coup. Kamala Harris and the other people in the White House and top Democratic congressional leaders were the last people to abandon Joe Biden. He was toppled by a groundswell of opposition from Democratic voters. Just like Richard Nixon in 1974, he had lost the people.
“A groundswell of opposition from Democratic voters.” You mean the party realised people were no longer taking the blatant transparent lies about Biden’s mental and physical condition, so they decided to heed the peoples’ wishes. He was toppled by insiders.
Joe Biden was no more toppled by insiders than Richard Nixon was. In both cases, the insiders supported their man until his position became politically untenable, and then simply delivered the bad news.
Yobama
The same people who appointed Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential candidate also appointed Walz as her running mate. She has no real agency at all and is just a puppet controlled by the real power brokers that are behind the scenes at the DNC.
I think the Dems are counting on the regime media not to ask any actual questions about policy. It’s a good bet.
Harris might be able to win with a policy that says “Vote for me, because I’m not Trump”. It worked for Biden last time around.
“Vote for me and be unburdened by a has-been”
“Vote for the never-was instead.”
This is true. Sad but true.
They’re going to cheat, of course. And they won’t feel the slightest bit of shame when they do so. Once you’ve convinced yourself that Donald Trump is literally the second coming of Hitler, absolutely any action to keep him out of office, up to and including assassination, becomes not only justifiable but a moral imperative. So they’ll steal the election and feel that what they’ve done is not only necessary but, in fact, noble and praiseworthy. Of course, they won’t admit it; even they aren’t so stupid. But you heard it here first: Kamala Harris will be America’s next president.
“Kamala Harris will be America’s next president”. Thank heavens for that!
So you’re for inflation, open borders, abortion until/post birth, even bigger government, DEI, transgenders in women’s locker rooms, gun confiscation, etc. Got it.
Kamala Harris will be America’s next president.
She’ll be Queen, not President, in the sense that she will have little more than ceremonial power. The same cabal that managed and then ditched Biden will be running things, financed by hedge funds and guarded by a compliant media. Far too many Americans think they live in a democracy. The correct term is ‘oligarchy’.
And Republicans are no different
That’s why the Republicans old guard, like the Progressive “Democrats”, hates Trump too. Unlike those two, he puts Americans first, not their pocketbooks.
Yes except there is zero chance she will be elected. Don’t be taken in by the media arm of the Democrat Party.
I’ll wager you a pint on that. I’m no fan of Trump (nor any of them really) but whilst she may win the popular vote I remain unconvinced on the presidency.
We are a long way from November and ultimately it will come down to the economy, which may well be looking quite peaky by then. US job growth has been falling steadily since Q3 ’23, unemployment is inching higher, the inflation genie is still not back in the bottle and consumer spending is tightening. Moreover these are all backwards looking measures which means the here and now can be rather worse. Poor economics plays to Trump as the democrats don’t have any real answers there. I suppose we shall see.
It is indeed difficult to predict right now due to the huge number of factors that will have played out by the time we get to vote. I still think Trump wins easily if the election were to happen next week or something, but by November there will have been debates, rallies, and likely a bunch of curveballs that will get thrown at us in the next few months.
I do, however, think that ultimately, Trump will be underestimated again. All of this fanfare and media love will only make Democrats complacent, while presumably Trump will be working in the background and gaining new voters.
Nice analysis, but way too timid! They made the 2020 steal so profitable that they are way bolder now. The ruling elite have not “convinced themselves” that Trump is anything at all except an opportunity to be exploited. The Trump hysteria is strategic not real. He is Emmanuel Goldstein to their Big Brother. A symbol. Before Trump, Romney was Hitler, and before Romney, G.W. Bush was Hitler. It’s just that Trump makes the Hitler hyperbole easier to carry off.
We are in Altered Reality, the Twilight Zone where the CIA and FBI no longer pretend that even a brazen, choreographed assassination against Trump (which did miraculously fail) merits a diligent investigation. Where is the story now? Memory-holed.
In 1984, Orwell believed that newspaper records would need to be falsified to placate a curious proletariat. We are far past that. The establishment media and virtual reality has ensured that no one even cares about verifiability anymore. Cognitive dissonance rules. Heck, we know beyond a any reasonable doubt that the COVID virus was created for gain-of-function trials in a Wuhan Lab and paid for by the Pentagon, that the deep state controlled the narrative and pulled off the greatest hoax on humanity pretending to be saviors of a pandemic they created.
We are as far away from “Representative government” as Josef Stalin. Cheating? I’m not even sure you call this cheating. How’s this for a hypothetical. If the media pulled a Maduro, and announced on Election Day (November 5th) that the election for Harris/Walz was already decided a day earlier by mailed ballots – no need to show up at the polls – only Republicans would protest. The FBI would just laugh and wait to imprison the inevitable rioters. It’s not whether they will cheat, but which route they will pick to do it.
If millions could believe that Biden has been a sharp, effective President despite the abundant visual evidence of his advanced senility, then their grip on reality is so tenuous that even brazen election stealing will not phase them. It’s too late. No one cares about fair and legal. There is no “hope in the Proles”. The mass hallucination is too powerful. Unless a miracle happens (like it did to that assassin’s bullet) then Democracy is dead and the last fair American election will have been held on 2016. Which is why I think that divine intervention is probably the only way for justice to triumph at this point, that the plans for stealing spectacularly fail through sheer incompetency.
Brilliant comment.
Wow. A very scary comment. I’m surprised you didn’t include the lizard people.
The Proles didn’t read newspapers. Those were for the Outer Party, which Winston was a member of. The Proles only read porn and loved really bad songs. They didn’t care about anything, which was why they were so easy to manipulate.
Blaming Harris for almost killing Trump is a new low. Go back to your conspiracy podcasts and websites.
Walz is pronounced “walls”, not “waltz”, so the headline is not that clever.
And to tell the truth, I think Donald Trump is right when he says that the vice presidential candidate doesn’t matter. Why? Because nobody votes for the vice president, they vote for the president. Mark Kelly? Josh Shapiro? Tim Walz? Who cares? Voters will vote for or against Kamala Harris.
That is generally true, but JD Vance’s “Handmaid’s Tale” view of the world stands a chance of bucking that trend.
How is JD Vance more “Handmaid’s Tale” than Mike Pence?
He’s not. Republicans are running a more liberal ticket and platform than they did in 2016 and 2020. Economically and Socially.
Mike Pence is is old school “Religious Right”. You knew what you got with him, and when push came to shove, he did his job and certified the Biden win. Who knows what you’ll get with Vance. Indications are that he’ll do absolutely anything to please Trump (after previously saying a lot of very unpleasant things about him). Plus, Pence didn’t seem to say very much very often. Vance on the other hand considers himself an orator.
Pence was a w***e. If he had any faith in his convictions he would never have agreed to be VP.
Trump said at the time Pence was picked because “he’s the stupidest man in Congress.” The VP job requires no more.
I don’t think so. Usha Chilukuri Vance isn’t exactly a trad wife.
And any voter who can stomach Donald Trump is not going to balk at JD Vance.
Well Trump, for all his faults, knows which way the wind blows politically, which is why he has steered clear of things like Federal abortion bans, which he knows will be electoral poison not just in the race for President, but also down the ticket. Vance doesn’t feel himself constrained in that regard.
Trump knows public not in mood for wars and their costs.
I think JD Vance feels very much constrained in that regard. He is now taking the same line as Donald Trump. That abortion stance has become the party line.
“That abortion stance has become the party line.”
Because that’s the Constitutional interpretation that actually makes sense. Of course Democrats don’t believe the Constitution constrains them in any way so why would you?
I’ve long believed Carlos Danger — the social media moniker of a sex pest whose political career was ended when he exposed himself in more ways than one — draws wages per post from the Democrats.
His wife is actually a working lawyer. One of his closest friends at Yale was trans, who later turned on him for his opposition to medical interventions on children, and one of his closest mentors is gay. The guy is doing a piss poor job of perpetuating the white patriarchy.
Yes, I know. I think that he might well have been a relatively normal human being before he sold his soul to the MAGA movement.
Gibberish from Intersectionality class
What’s next? He rejects his white privilege? The language hijack now a joke
40 years ago Vance would have been a Democrat. How many Republicans back then supported unions and tariffs? Trump was a Democrat–a JFK Democrat–and still is, only now he hides in Republican clothing. Today’s Democrats are just Socialists in disguise. Your TDS and VDS shows the depth of your intellect. You probably think you’re still a Democrat.
So why is he called Waltzing Matilda? It’s not because of the tampon dispensers in the boys restrooms or his kill-the-babies abortion policies. Nor even for the fact he dropped out of the National Guard after 24 years when it was to be deployed to Iraq. Or when he claimed he had served there or Afghanistan, take your pick — both are lies. Instead, his foreign service was confined to Italy and one of the Scandinavian countries. And he wasn’t a sergeant-major as he claimed. Stolen Valor sums up Walz pretty well. The progressives who dangle the puppeteer wires above Joe and now Kamala didn’t do their homework. UnHerd continues to be one or two steps behind developments across the pond.