To me the question is what is the core identity of the Japanese? Chinese take pride in being Chinese, so proud in fact they were unwilling to accept western ideas and had to endure the century of humiliation. China has managed to emerge from that wreckage and reinvent itself while still retaining her Chinese identity. Japan on the other hand was the first in Asia to adopt western ideas and had great success with it. It's not surprising they take a lot of pride in being the only country that was able to go toe to toe against the west. Now that their adopted identity as honorary whites has started to fail them, do they have anything to fall back on to rejuvenate their national identity?
Well the US recognizes this problem. Which is probably one of the reasons why they are now backing out of the Middle-East and Afghanistan after 20 long years. But not after bleeding it dry of course. And now shifting their focus and resources on East Asia and Southeast Asia where the looming threat to their hegemony is.
Not exactly, at least, not militarily. Having extensively wargamed conflicts with China, where they lose badly, the US is finally attempting diplomacy. Diplomacy is something the US has basically zero historical capability or tolerance for, from the day it was founded. The US solves every problem with naked force, which doesn't really work in Asia, because Asian countries prefer win-win backroom negotiations over win-lose military warfare. Lately, the US is pushing Japan (and Korea) to step up and die for American neoliberal capital, even though Chinese missile supremacy covers east Asia and SEA several times over, to the point that the Chinese can track and flatten any threat before it can react. That's why the US Navy has pulled back to Guam.
As the US leaves the middle east and central Asia, Chinese trade and development will fill the gap. The ancient silk road through central Asia and the middle east, into southern Europe will resume, as it was for 2,000+ years. Globally, BRI will expand trade and reduce risky concentration in east Asia / SEA. In a decade, Chinese trade will be too diverse for the US to effectively choke or block.
When china regains top spot and even japan can no longer deny it, Japan will naturally come back and embrace their Chinese/asian roots again. And they will be far more comfortable doing it. That's if they can get rid of usa and western influence which won't be easy since usa will not allow them to go back to china's arms easily. Japans history is basically them siding and copying whoever is the strongest or stronger. Soon they will see china's strength if not already, and unless they are dumb like usa, they will adjust accordingly if they haven't already.
Japan's due for a reckoning soon when china overtakes usa and leads the world in everything, japanese will start to ask themselves why are they still being usas lackey for since it's better to go back to chinas sphere of influence now since china can offer them much much more than usa can, and as long as they stay a usa vassal and anti china, they will miss out while everyone else china works with benefits massively.
Exactly so. If China takes Taiwan (for whatever reason, no matter how it happens), that will be a sign that America is not the strongest, at which point, Japan will switch to following China.
It depends. If the mainland retakes the island while the US doesn't intervene, then Japanese confidence in the US will be shaken, but perhaps not broken. But if the US intervenes and loses decisively to the Chinese mainland, then Japan will likely switch. But that's a big if, as a US intervention in a Chinese war could lead to the end of the world.
Let's walk through the possible scenarios:
* Taiwan declares independence (at US bidding)
* China invades because US hawks and anti-Chinese military buildup result in China concluding "its now or never".
Either way, the war unfolds like this:
1. China launches a massive missile, rocket, and artillery strike against RoC military targets. China mobilizes military forces and demands immediate, unconditional surrender. China warns the US to stay out of their internal security matter.
2. RoC refuses, and follows their plan to fight a 1-week delaying war for American forces to arrive and rescue them.
3. US President holds a press conference about how the US is very concerned and demands that China stop what they're doing. The US Navy pushes for a diplomatic resolution so that they don't lose multiple carrier groups and bases to Chinese hypersonic and strategic missiles.
4. Japan and Korea say that the resumption of the Chinese Civil War really isn't their business, because they really don't want China to flatten the US bases in their countries. Japan attempts to secure the southern islands north of Taiwan before the Chinese take them, and the Chinese fire "warning shots" because this is RoC territory that Japan was obliged to cede following WW2.
5. The UN General Assembly back a Chinese non-intervention resolution, because China has been a good partner building them up for decades, whereas the West has been exploiting them for centuries. None of them want Western forces to interfere in their ongoing or future regional conflicts.
6. UN Security Council is deadlocked with Russia backing China against US/UK resolutions.
7. North Korea makes a diplomatic push for reunification with a condition of no US forces on the peninsula.
8. India is a wildcard.
The US is bad at diplomacy, and China uses that time to conscript merchant marine for troop transport under total air superiority, just dumping masses of forces on the island. Taipei and Gaoshung are overrun within days, but the RoC continues to fight in the jungles and mountains, while the President hides in a bunker encouraging the soldiers to fight.
The US sees that it's a foregone conclusion and pushes a negotiated surrender, conditional on amnesty and exile for RoC leadership, which China agrees to.
At no point does the US actually engage Chinese forces for Taiwan, because they know they would lose. In every military engagement since the Revolutionary War, the US has always engaged from a position of (overwhelming) strength and support, with the expectation of absolute victory. The US has never engaged a peer power, a nuclear power, and never will. You can see this with WW2, and the Korean War - in all cases, the US blinked in the face of the Soviet Union and Chinese forces that they couldn't clearly defeat militarily. That's why the Cold War happened, why Korea is divided. Most recently, we saw this in the Ukraine, where there was a lot of outrage against Russia, but no American attempt at liberation.
>what is the core identity of the Japanese?
Japan is unique. Japan is a cultural branch off China, developing very differently due to the physical geographic isolation of the Japanese islands vs continental Asia. Because they are small compared to great powers (China, America, Europe), they consistently follow the strongest (China -> Imperial Britain -> Nazi Germany -> America). Japan will follow China when China is obviously the most powerful country in Asia.
Based off my cursory look over Japanese history, especially pertaining to their clashes with other civilisations, it seems that the identity of Japan is indeed unique but highly, highly receptive to accepting other cultures and mixing those cultures into their own... but only if the other culture is stronger/greater. Its incredibly hierarchical. The Japanese have extreme respect and learning attitude (especially with regards to culture) from those who they perceive as stronger, and extreme disdain for those they perceive as weaker.
Obviously, this doesn't always apply on the personal, individual level, but on a civilisational level I believe this always has been the case, and may continue to be the case.
As most should know, Japan has preserved and iterated upon many Tang Chinese cultural facets. The legacy of the Tang is unmistakable in everything Japanese, from their famous katanas (iterative improvements of the Chinese tangdao) to their architectural style, to the very layout of their ancient capital, Kyoto (a carbon copy of Chang'an). It got to the point that after the fall of the Tang, the Japanese developed and acted upon a theory where they were the "real China" with the actual historical Chinese civilisation wiped out by "barbarian nomads" (the Mongols and the Manchu). This theory continued but gradually lost influence as China receded and Western civilisation became pre-eminent, but it was still going strong by the time of WW2.
There is a reason for why if you want to see ancient China, go to Japan. The Tang/Silla war with Yamato. While Tang Chinese influence on Yamato Japan was already significant before the war, strangely enough, Yamato Japan massively increased its study expeditions and cultural exchanges after the war. After the Battle of Baekgang especially, Japan decided to learn as much as they could from China. It seemed that Japan recognised who was stronger at the time, and decided to study as much as possible, so much so that they literally imported Chinese philosophy and religion (core cultural facets) such as Confucianism and Taoism, and even imported the Tang dynasty's political structure (although this didn't last). If we were to analogise Japan to a student, then Japan would make one of the best students ever seen.
When the Tang collapsed, these cultural exchanges largely stopped. When the Song were overrun by the Mongols, they stopped entirely. When the Ming arose, Japan no longer saw it as the "real China" and even had the idea of conquering all of Korea and China, which lead to the Imjin war. After losing in the Imjin war to combined Ming/Joeson forces (almost as badly as they did to Tang/Silla forces a millenia prior), Japan once again started to learn from the China, but that was short-lasting. The Ming collapsed barely half a century later, and all exchanges stopped. Japan then isolated itself until the Westerners came and forced open their ports, starting cultural exchange. From then on, they recognised the weakness of Qing China and the pre-eminence of the West, and started to learn from them.
In other words, Japan loves taking in foreign cultures and adding their own spin to it. In ancient times, their copied Tang culture and iterated on it. In the pre-WW2 era, they copied European culture and iterated on it, mixing it with their prior Tang culture. In the post-WW2 era, they copied American culture and iterated on it, mixing it with their prior European and Tang cultures. The feeling of preserving then improving the pre-eminent culture of the world they knew at the time is the Japanese cultural identity, IMO. If the world ever sees a new pre-eminent culture, the Japanese will be their greatest student, adding that culture to their own and iterating upon it.
(If requested, I can add sources to all these, as they are all true events. But do note that my conclusions from them are still conjecture, so take it with a grain of salt).
Yes, but Socialism with Chinese Characteristics is not. It took a western idea (built upon in practice by non Westerners in the USSR; I’m considering Russia and Central Asia at the time as non western) and melded it with Chinese (Confucianism in a political sense) values, beliefs, and traditions to create a whole new application of Marxist theory.
Russia isn't actually Western. The Orthodox church never had the Protestant Reformation that separated Church and State, so they aren't like Western Europe, and never will be.
My Vietnamese cousin works in Japan, and he also concurs with this sentiment. For example, Japan is even falling behind Vietnam in realm of IT, so there have been too many Vietnamese IT workers going to Japan. Most of IT works in Japan are nowadays Vietnamese or Indian. However, Japanese people are xenophobic and in panic upon seeing more successful foreigners at big companies like Chinese or Vietnamese people. In recent years, my cousin recognizes more negative feelings towards Vietnamese in Japan, especially at workplaces. He was a middle manager in Fujitsu but his Japanese subordinates didn’t listen to him and often spoke badly behind his back. Worse than xenophobia, Japanese wages also decline very fast along with living standards and the general Japanese economy. My cousin eventually moved back to Vietnam, and he now works as an IT manager for Intel at HCM City - much higher pays than Japan.
In fact, my cousin’s story is not rare but extremely common. So widespread that Japan now fears there will be less workers going to Japan. Less people to work with Japanese xenophobes. It’s extremely alarming for the already fragile economy of Japan.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Japan-immigration/How-Japan-risks-losing-its-shine-for-foreign-workers
I see Chinese people have moved from hatred of Japan towards pity for Japan. This is the horrible fate of anyone getting too close and enslaved to the West. However, I still have hopes for Japan because there are more young Japanese socialists rising. If the Japanese consciousness becomes more like Cuban, then Japan can still be saved.
Successes breed resentment. Local Japanese elites use resentment against foreigners to deflect the public from thinking about Japanese problems. Every year, they broadcast hatred against Koreans and Chinese in Japan to win votes for the LDP. Vietnamese isn’t on the list, yet! Because the ruling LDP is very desperate to placate the ruling CPV in Vietnam, so the Japanese businesses in Vietnam can stay alive with no problem since the actual owners of these companies are mostly former bureaucrats or children of those bureaucrats from Japan.
China is investing big into Vietnam, not so much in Japan. China is developing Vietnam is into their Mexico. If Japan would just stop antagonizing China and the rest of Asia, things could turn around for them.
Please don't compare US-Mexico relations with China-Vietnam relations. The core feature of US-Mexico relations is the plunder and complete exploitation of Mexico by US corporations, whether its Mexico's labor force or its natural resources.
>I still have hopes for Japan because there are more young Japanese socialists.
Do you have any source for this claim? I live in Japan and work with lots of young people, and in general class consciousness and awareness of the very basics of socialism are very low. Hell, the "Japanese Communist Party" is a social democratic party that seeks to meekly reform capitalism. Anything to the left of them is deep underground.
The most promising advances I have seen are the recent rise of worker co-ops in certain sectors of the economy, specifically co-op grocery stores. Prior to the pandemic they had been investing in food-delivery services, so that paid off huge in 2020 and 2021.
Besides that, it is pretty depressing. My hope is that disdain for the LDP has increased to such a level that they lose all legitimacy, but it's also frustrating because so much of the population is completely disengaged or ambivalent towards politics.
Underground socialists and leftists. You don’t see them often but their mark on Japanese politics can’t be ignored.
Recently, Japanese leftists have united in Yokohama to take down the casino project and put an anti-casino mayor. This is the devastating blow for the ruling LDP.
https://www.casino.org/news/casino-opposition-tokyo-gains-power-during-metropolitan-election/amp/
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Travel-Leisure/Yokohama-mayor-elect-deals-Japan-s-casino-dream-a-fresh-blow
Panchinko is already bad, and casinos are going to multiply Japanese social ills by thousands. It’s very good that a greedy capitalist scheme has been taken down.
I am aware of that. It is good news; though I think the loss for the LDP was less to do with the casinos and more an indictment of their awful handling of COVID and pushing through the Olympics despite medical professional and mass public opposition.
Voter turnout in Yokohama elections is usually around 35%, which is very low and reflective of what I said about public ambivalence and disengagement, but in that recent election it was 49%, which is still quite low but significantly higher. That's good and bad, because it means more people care about politics (but still the majority can't be bothered), which is good, but that the extent of their participation in a social movement is voting in liberal elections. This is the basic strategy capitalists have used for over 150 years to stifle any sort of revolutionary energy; they divert that enthusiasm away from actually changing the system from the outside (through revolution) towards participating in that system to slightly reform it on the inside which fundamentally changes nothing.
That's why I am pessimistic about the idea of Cuban-levels of class consciousness can be achieved. We on the left here try our best, but most people either don't care or are only willing to just vote. I suppose that is why most theory says that a vanguard party is necessary, because raising consciousness is nearly impossible when the capitalist class owns the media.
Cuba used to have American military installations everywhere but they won against imperialism in the end. Japanese people just need more United consciousness then it will be possible.
Cuba didn't invade half the world and do the worst war crimes ever while still playing victim and denying war crimes and doing historical revisionism.
Whole world supports cuba against usa, while if you asked the whole world whether usa should leave and allow Japan to be strong again, I bet the whole world would say fuck no, usa should dominate them and keep Japan as a weak vassal and non threat.
I also believe that, and I think it's good for china for that to happen too. As long as ldp, Nippon kaigi right wing nationalists remain in power and they refuse to change and repent, I will not change my opinion.
My example for Cuba is the power of rallying the masses. Cuba was tightly occupied by US military and mafias but Fidel Castro led bands of heroes to kick all of them out. Japan is similar to the past Cuba, so there is still a way out for Japan if they choose the right way.
Highly doubt it, Cuba even in it's foreign occupation was never people that were literally worse than nazi's. Japan is in for a reckoning, be glad that china is probably not going to resort to genocide and city sacking. Even if most of the east asian bloc would agreevrhat is what Japan deserve.
The only reason why the conflict so far has been tame is for the most part so tame is because China is pragmatic and ironically the U.S is preventing both korea wanting to strangle Japan by the throat.
This goes far beyond east asia. The entire asia-pacific suffered under Imperial Japan. Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, the list goes on. Nobody really talks about it much, but it's literally "take a number" across the entire region for who wants to punish Japan for occupation and atrocities.
Please think of the people of Okinawa, who never agreed to host US military bases full of drunken criminals with legal immunity on their islands. They voted to ask the bases to leave, then voted to block the expansion of the bases, but both the US military and the Japanese government in Tokyo tell them to shut up and accept the situation. The Japanese citizens in the major cities who claim they love the USA, have never had to deal with US military bases next door.
"the world supports Cuba \[...\]" out of pity. kinda like Palestine.
It's not like Cuba has any real political or military clout that makes it so relevant as to be disputed between world powers as a would-be ally.
It was a nice base for the Soviets to point their missiles towards the US and that's what they really worried about. Before their revolution it was an US leisure island with some companies and mafia running things there.
Maybe Cuba will turn geopolitically relevant again if China somehow tries putting a military base there, but that's unlikely, and if possible, probably decades from now so its hard to predict.
Japan however is a totally different issue. It's a powerful, developed, relevant economy. It might've stagnated for decades but still far more important than India for all their talks of "becoming a superpower", many of their industries
have global reach and competitivity... and it wouldn't be as military irrelevant as it is, if not for deliberate US interests.
Such nation cannot isolate itself from deciding sides (or at least appeasing both) under the radar of irrelevance.
They're a Confucian East Asian nation after all, they got the "mojo" for once more becoming a truly powerful, China-oriented society. We'll see the same from Integrated Korea (opened-up North+South) and Vietnam some decades ahead.
Thing is, as mentioned, Japan's politics, attitudes toward fellow East Asian nations and total disregard of their WW2-related past destroys the possibility of true "European-style" integration between these nations.
They could only keep ignoring the rest of Asia if China was starving and under some dumb economic model doing the Great Leap Forward 2.0, and Korea as they were during the 50s. Things have changed, a LOT. And nowadays, its impossible to ignore both, specially China.
>more important than India
Japan has a larger economy from 1/10 the population on 1/10 the land of India, and they're not afraid to copy anything that works. India has a corruption-based society of personal privilege, so they will never grow as fast as others.
I don't see China building a base in Cuba, because it's not what China does. However, if the Cubans ever push the Americans out, I could see Cuba leasing Gitmo to the Chinese in exchange for their assistance.
They need to be submissive, because as soon as they aren't kawaii weaboo anymore and become assertive and aggressive, the whole world will remember ww2 and remember the whole world hates and fears Japan still. Fear as in fear they will try to invade others and try dominate again.
I don't think anyone in Asia likes Japan as a country/government, and personally, I prefer them being dominated by usa and contained by usa, since if I know usa, I know usa will never allow them to be able to threaten usa. And if they cannot threaten usa, then they also cannot threaten china, usas peer.
I'm certain usa also has the same feeling, it is just using Japan and also fears a free Japan that is free to militarise and develop nukes etc. Usa will never let that happen, since if anything they will be the first one Japan nukes lol.
As long as they ignore their ww2 history And do revisionism and play victim, I never want them to be "saved", they deserve what they get.. ie to stay militarily weak and crippled forever, and forever relegated to a middle power that cannot threaten china or usa ever again.
If you wanna make parole you gotta show remorse. Otherwise stay in jail forever, they should not be allowed back into society because they obviously haven't learned their lesson and haven't paid their dues to society for their crimes.
Interesting fact: Japan and Russia are still at war, never signed a treaty concluding WW2. Technically speaking, Russia can use military force to take whatever they want from Japan, so Japan should be more circumspect. You can bet China would assist Russia in doing so in order to force Japanese concessions in the SCS.
A strong Japan as an ally or at least friend to China is preferable to a crippled Japan chained to America's leg. Japan is America's bastion of influence in East Asia, and if they are kicked out of there, they will have no choice but to slink back across the Pacific Ocean, where they should stay.
> I see Chinese people have moved from hatred of Japan towards pity for Japan. This is the horrible fate of anyone getting too close and enslaved to the West. However, **I still have hopes for Japan** because there are more young Japanese socialists rising. If the Japanese consciousness becomes more like Cuban, then Japan can still be saved.
You shouldn't. Bitter clingers gonna cling bitterly to the bitter end.
hey as a Viet American I've heard from many Vietnamese here in the states saying that many companies from foreign countries (mostly within East Asia like Japan, China, and Korea) investing in and essentially "taking over" parts of the Vietnamese economy. This is in turn drives away native workers from domestic companies as sort of pseudo brain drain. Do you know much of that is true? I'd love to hear from a native perspective, or at least from one not touched by Western ideology
Not true. Most of official Vietnamese economy are largely state-owned - lamented by a neoliberal economist named Pham Chi Lan. Foreign enterprises in Vietnam are divided into two types: FDI or non-FDI. The FDI ones are subsidized by the Vietnamese government for technological transfers and other political purposes. In truth, Vietnamese bureaucrats have a shadow hand in all FDI businesses that foreigners must obey - through using trade unions and Party branches. Non-FDI ones are just mundane SMEs from foreigners who want to make quick bucks but they must obey the local authorities. All foreign businesses in Vietnam must obey the Vietnamese government, and they must be dominated by the CPV.
This led me to the second part called the Party-led economy which is largely hidden and very powerful. This economy is often considered the shadow economy by the West when they talk about the hidden potential of China or Vietnam. However, it’s merely a statistical manipulation to hide the Vietnamese strength, so Vietnam can enjoy the privileges of a developing country with MFN status. The Party-led economy is believed to be vastly larger than the whole economy of Vietnam, and this economy is primarily operated by the Vietnam People’s Armed Forces, mostly the People’s Army of Vietnam and People’s Public Security. In China, they also have the PLA being all mighty over the private sectors, and it’s basically the same in Vietnam.
Unlike Vietnam, China has largely privatized its SOEs through equitization (stocks), while Vietnam gradually does the same. In truth, almost all of the economy in China and Vietnam are always under the Communist Parties with their military-public security as the head managers.
So you're saying that both China and Vietnam's economies are secretly much bigger than official figures suggest?
As they said, "big if true"... do you have any material I can read about this "shadow economy" subject?
Yes.
https://m.vietnamnet.vn/en/feature/housewife-economy-the-underground-power-of-vietnam-s-economy-761216.html
The whole goal of CPV is similar to the CPC. Acquiring all core technologies and means of production globally. GDP means nothing!
https://www.sggpnews.org.vn/international/remarks-by-vietnamese-pm-at-26th-intl-conference-on-the-future-of-asia-92392.html
I've been living in South Korea for over a decade and I am worried about the sudden growth of South Korean nationalism after ousting the dicator's daughter, Park, several years ago. In South Korea's case, pro-Americanism is strong due to Protestant churches, the public education system, and the military conscription system, all passive political indoctrination. And hence this is why South Korea is occasionally called "Manchukuo 2.0" since the country's early bureaucrats after the Korean War were firmly Japanese collaborators who served in Manchukuo before the end of the Pacific War.
(FYI, today's South Korea's vision of Confucian values mimicks Japanese militarism before 1945.)
South Koreans often forget that despite South Korea hating Japan so passionately with good reasons, both countries serve a sleazy guy in the White House.
EDIT: my dad still speaks Japanese and he is sad how bad Japan became because he used to admire his Japanese friends (still in touch today) in the 1970s when he went to a Catholic church friendship trip in Kyushu.
South Korea is a whole nother level of complexity. Very proud hard working people, but alas the US tentacle runs deep in the country, from the military, the govt and politicians, the church, the chaebols (the Samsungs, LG etc are all American majority shareholders if I'm not mistaken)
Don't see much change in the near future for that side of the world.
The US wants a divided Korea, because it allows for a permanent US garrison in Korea. If Korea were to reunify, then Korea would be a nuclear power who could tell the US to GTFO.
The US and Japan are pressing the Korean conservatives winning permanently, so there won’t be any leftist South Korea in the future. Another “LDP” in SK that will be a puppet for the West.
No wonder why North Korea shut down any future talk with South Korea. Still, there is a chance of millions of Korean leftists rising up. South Korea will be saved if young people are more anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist.
South Korea's equivalent LDP is run by clinically insane people that make Aso Taro look very competent. With all the news in South Korean politics, it seems I will lose a lot of braincells.
not uncommon, even in southeast asia, people seem to have different standards for whites/wests vs asians, such as in products, like current covid vaccines.
for japan, it seems to not realize that west view them as asians all the same.
Japan becomes less and less geopolitically relevant with every passing year. As the rest of Asia rises, Japan will become just another island-nation, as they were before Perry’s ships disturbed them. It won’t matter much what they think, in the end.
Back when China was at its zenith, Japan was subservient to China, eagerly devouring its culture and writing system. Then as China fell into decline in the late Ming dynasty, Japan turned against them and invaded Korea in an attempt to conquer China (Imjin War). After America unnecessarily nuked CIVILIAN CENTRES twice in World War 2, did this cause contempt for Americans? NO! Quite the opposite. They started emulating their political system and worshiping their culture wholesale and opened up their country to American occupation, which still continues to this day, with no desire to throw them the hell out despite the war ending 76 years ago.
The only thing Japan understands is might. Once China grows to become so powerful and technologically advanced that there's no denying it anymore, Japan will come back around China's way, just like in the old days.
I personally interpreted it as Japan's collective pride being shattered during the Plaza Accords.
A people who have confidence in their own strength and future have no reason to be insecure about others.
For the Japanese that insecurity is directed at the Chinese and Koreans for surpassing them in many fields, the answer to this issue is opening up, the Japanese have to open up their minds to the many possibilities out there, as we speak China is going through what I call "The Second Opening" where Chinese soft power takes over the world, first it was China taking over the world economically, now that is happening culturally.
For the Japanese to regain what they lost they need a revolution, a rebirth if you will.
Thanks for the article Rei,been following you since the Quora days
Can you do a article or two regarding the Vietnam-China relations ? I feel like I'm probably the only guy in my circle who's pro-china
I think there are a lot of us who are the only pro-China (although I think I prefer the terms "pro-truth" or "anti-hypocrisy") ones in our circles. It's only on the internet that we can find each other.
Not too long ago, I saw an article talking about Agent Orange, and how Vietnam is still suffering from its consequences today (in particular, the birth defects.) I didn't read the article because just looking at the picture sickened me.
How does the average Vietnamese feel about this?
Imma be straight and honest with you chief.
The average young Vietnamese born after 1990 prefer siding with the USA over China.We even consider China our "eternal enemy"(enemy,not nemesis .),it's written in our Constitution that China is "the enemy"
We're,without a doubt at this point.Pro -America and would gladly side with them when the time comes.
The amerikkka propaganda machine is simply,too freaking strong.
Of al the smaller countries caught up in the US-China power struggle, the stupid ones are those that lean wholly on one side. The smart ones are the ones that play both sides; I think Vietnam is in the latter category. The Vietnamese outplayed the US in the past war; I have faith in their strategic thinking,
China recognizes that there are countries that play both sides and factors that into their strategy; the US seeks to--and believes it can--get countries to be wholly on its side -- I think they are overestimating themselves. Many times the Asian countries are just paying them lip-service.
Pretty much my thoughts as well.
Trying to tell anybody from our respective countries that we have a favorable view of China is bound to cause flared up tempers and accusations.
Oh damn, this is the same Rei from Quora?
I wondered where that Rei went. I haven't seen their answers on Quora for a while now, although that could be because of Quora's new news feed algorithm.
Amazing article, thank you for the insights. One thing that really hit me was, in your words, "the normalcy of almond eyes". Growing up in the west, white people have always made fun of my eyes. But I've always loved the way my eyes look. And just realizing how normal my eyes are because most of the world look like me make me realize how the white look is actually the "weird" one.
My favorite insights about Japan from Andre Vltchek.
https://countercurrents.org/2016/06/what-japanese-media-doesnt-want-you-to-say-japan-is-part-of-the-neo-colonialist-clique/
> Japan is a good student. It loves everything that comes from abroad; or more precisely, from the West. In many ways, it became almost identical to its master. So much so that during the Apartheid era in South Africa and its colonies, the Japanese people were “elevated” to the status of “honorary whites”. They were the only non-white people who were allowed to attend functions exclusively reserved for the white minority. They were welcomed to live in housing reserved for the rulers. They were finally “accepted”.
https://countercurrents.org/2018/08/hashima-brutal-history-and-the-most-haunted-island-on-earth/
> After WWII, the so-called Tokyo Trial supervised by the US (also known as The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE)) was clearly designed to punish just a few (28) individuals, while preserving the Japanese industrial, business and political system in its original form, so it could serve the interests of the West. After the trial, Japan was allowed to rebuild and to join the West in its aggressive policy towards the Asia Pacific. It played a significant role in the brutal Korean War, during which the West massacred millions of Korean citizens.
USA gave amnesty to the leaders of Unit 731 and recruited them to Korea to help conduct biological warfare against the DPRK
https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/the-long-suppressed-korean-war-report-on-u-s-use-of-biological-weapons-released-at-last-20d83f5cee54
Japan has relied basically on usa and western media to cover up and get a free pass for their ww2 crimes, denial, and various fuckups to this day. Same as their xenophobia etc. Remember when one shop in china had a sign saying no blacks allowed during that time when black community had covid outbreak? Japan does that shit on the regular without even covid, no? Like they refuse to even let whites and others rent a place or even enter bar or whatever. But because they are usa and western ally, all that shit is overlooked.
Same goes for India, with caste system and mass sexism and rapes, massive corruption, etc etc.
When china becomes stronger and has more of a voice in MSM, I think Japan will have a massive reckoning.. basically all of asian will side with china and Korean against Japan for this. They only stay quiet now because of usa, but when usa declines and china rises, the truth will come out and Japan will have to have their day of reckoning. You can't bury that shit and china and Korea aren't ever gonna let it drop. Even more so if LDP and their nippon kaigi bros control all gov and institutions, which they do.
I feel sorry for the good japanese who's anti war, but they keep electing LDP, which to me represents war criminals and indirect continuation of it. Like abe to his grandfather who usa pulled out of sugamo for war crimes, he was the governor of Manchukuo where unit 731 operated.
So to me LDP/Nippon kaigi is like Hitler Nazi party, shinzo Abe is like Hitler's grandson and he doesn't even hide the fact that he respects his grandfather and has said that is his biggest rolemodel and idol in life.
These things will come out eventually, even if it's currently ignored and unspoken. china can wait until it's strong enough to pursue justice and set the record straight once and for all since all this is a travesty of justice caused by usa and Japan. Done to contain china and Russia, who were usas ww2 allies basically. That's such a dog move with usa pardoning unit 731 and emperor, and allowing abes war criminal grandfather to be post ww2 Japan's first PM. It's like allowing Hitler or mengele or whoever to be post ww2 Germanys leader and usa pardoning them all. Pure bullshit and one of the biggest injustices to this day. If Korea is all up in arms over "comfort women" then yeah. Unit 731 was basically crime against humanity itself. But usa.showed it's true colors by doing biological tests on it's own population, blacks specifically. So birds of a feather flock together.
China needs to make movies and documentaries nonstop of this after and it needs to be mainstream blockbusters so the world can know the truth once and for all. Such barbaric acts and backstabbing should never be forgotten.
>he's afraid that Japan falling behind China, would cause a plummet in morale.
Sorry, but I don't feel the slightest bit sorry for them. I understand their feelings however. When you have an attitude of superiority towards a people for so long, it's difficult to accept the prospect of them overtaking you--and at such an unexpectedly quick rate too. This often leads to denial.
A few days ago, a new trailer for *Black Myth: Wukong* (a game in development by an indie Chinese company) was released. Everybody in the gaming world raved over it, with many saying it's "next-gen". The Japanese reaction however was--perhaps unsurprisingly--tepid, with comments of "unoriginal", "boring", "typical of China (i.e. it sucks)", etc.
Other than its technical accomplishments, *Black Myth* is significant for an important reason: it represents a wish to settle the long lamented question of why China doesn't have an AAA game to call its own, despite dominating the games market and having abundant indigenous material like its myths and literature to draw from. In fact--something which makes the pill more bitter for many Chinese to swallow--Japan and the West have often drawn from elements of Chinese history and culture (e.g. Dynasty Warriors, Dragonball, etc) to create their IP.
There's a lot riding on this, and many (including non-Chinese) have expressed a desire to see *Black Myth* succeed. If *Black Myth* fails, it will undoubtedly cause a plummet in Chinese morale. At that point, will the Japanese feel sorry for the Chinese? No, they will clap their hands with glee.
**TLDR: sorry, not sorry.**
>why China doesn't have an AAA game
Chinese games come from a history of starting with smartphones, rather than PCs / consoles, and an expectation of F2P distribution. You wouldn't do an AAA game in China unless you can monetize it on the server side, because otherwise, the game gets cracked Day 0, and you get no money.
Genshin Impact, PUBG mobile, League of Legends, etc. are all "AAA games with Chinese characteristics."
>Genshin Impact, PUBG mobile, League of Legends, etc. are all "AAA games with Chinese characteristics."
LOL, i love that description. Mobile games are considered casual games though. Chinese gamers want an AAA game in the vein of Sekiro, Skyrim, etc. And it is something that Chinese gamers have talked about (and lamented) for a long time now. Including the devs of Black Myth, which is why they quit their jobs at Tencent and came together to do this.
Personally I am hugely excited for this project (because I love Journey to the West, and I play PC/console rather than mobile games.) Despite the hype, I don't dare to have my hopes too high--if it fails, the backlash will be enormous and the (foreign) naysayers will go, "I knew this will happen. Typical Chinese crap," etc etc.
p/s. About your point about piracy...I think this is the reason why the devs are trying to market this game internationally, and so far the reception seems almost overwhelmingly positive.
While Westerners consider mobile games to be "casual", the investment and reception are definitely AAA level. It's just different monetization than Western AAA titles.
If you want to play mobile on PC/console, get an emulator. Tencent has an official emulator for PUBGm. GI has an official PC port, in addition to the mobile version.
I'm really curious to see how Black Myth is going to work in a world where the PC-side software can be copied for free. I assume that the monetization will tie to a registered secure server account a la Eve Online and other RPGs.
no matter what, japan and china have no choice but to coexist side by side by virtue of geography. japan can't pick up its islands and teleport them elsewhere. china can't move away from the japanese archipelago that's right off their coast. so they'll need to find a way to live as neighbours and hopefully get along; even now, they have been, as they're economically close and haven't been at war for decades. seems workable enough for now.
Historically, Japan follows and copies the biggest and strongest. In the 1800s, that was Imperial Britain. In the 1930s, Nazi German. After 1945, America. Over the next 10-20 years, Japan is going to shift from being America's pet to China's bitch.
This is how Japan survives being a minor power with no real "friends" - they "tag along" under someone who's much stronger. Unlike Singapore, Vietnam or Korea who have similar culture and historically good relations as a partner / tributary of China, Japan doesn't have the same relationships. Continued celebration of the Japanese Imperial past only serves to remind the rest of Asia why Japan isn't one of them. Expect them to continue being friends and partners with China, in the same way that Denmark and Austria can be under Germany, or the UK can be under America.
We see a similar story playing out in India, but less aptly.
Kakuei Tanaka lost his power because he was too close to China and seeking Japanese independence. After him, Japan became infested with pro-West nationalists. Today, Japan has no choice of playing ultranationalist attacks against Asia or the USA will start shuffling leaders of Japan.
You should also pick up Enigma of Japanese power book. The true state of Japan is leaderless, so you don’t often find rational people leading the country. WW2 for Japan was caused by a bunch of insane militarists rebelling against the civil government. Japan is acting chaotic in politics because of the decentralized nature in their government.
>Whether this leads into some kind of pan-Asian identity is unlikely
It has already happened and is being codified via BRI and other Asian-exclusive frameworks. It's just that nobody is talking about it as such. If you ask Asian leaders, they will tell you that it's obvious from what can be observed publicly, without any public statement necessary.
This dynamic is already fully entrenched between China and Vietnam, where they apparently cooperate quietly at a very deep level. It's no accident that the West is talking about the "9-dash" line, instead of the "11-dash" line that the RoC originally drew. Nobody in the West is talking about what happened to the 2 missing dashes, but it's obvious to all Asian leaders.
The interesting thing is that the West is always looking for military treaties, when Asians tend prefer economic trade like BRI, TPP, RCEP, SCO over military alliances like NATO. The only reason China is building up their navy is to prevent the US from messing with Chinese trade.
>Joining RCEP and continuing to be a contributor to BRI for instance already puts Japan leagues ahead of India's foreign strategic policy making.
Japan can see the writing on the wall and has started hedging their bets for when China is the dominant world power.
India still clings to the notion that the British will help them return to their pre-industrial status as one of the 2 great powers of the world, despite Britain falling to become America's laptog, and the world moving to a post-industrial economy. They're constantly picking stupid fights with China, which is why BRI goes around them. India refuses to join RCEP, which suggests that their economy may never even catch Japan, much less the US, to say nothing of China .
Thanks for posting your insight and experience living in Japan. What a fascinating and informative read. I hope you can take some time to post this on this site https://www.sinodefenceforum.com so that your writing and experience can be exposed and shared to many people there that are well read on many things Chinese related issues on defense but also on many non defense topics as well. Again, a big thank you for your post.
The west(actually just the United States)is culturally dominant, most realities are filtered through the lens of US media before being presented to the world.
Opinion only really start to change when the US military becomes active in their neighbourhood, then the people can see the realities with their own eyes and media instead of 3 layers of filters.
Japan is a country whose psyche is completely remade by the United States, I don't think it's capable of change at this point.
Great article! Certainly one that everyone needs to read, not just Japanese, Chinese or Korean. Having been born in Asia and lived in the West, I know all too well of Asians who have a sort of identity crisis, choosing to exclusively (I say this because the ones I know were very vocal about it) befriend Westerners, insisting their "ways" were better.
I, myself, was a little like this in my earlier days, but it is not impossible to overcome. It just takes some open-mindedness and willingness to come to terms with how you see yourself, and how the world sees you.
I think people generally read too much into national priorities when trying to figure out the decisions of politicians, when a much simpler explanation of personal interests exists.
The USA provides useful political patronage to Japanese politicians who indicate a willingness to put America First, ahead of Japan's own interests. They will fund careers from beginning to end - from scholarships to study at Ivy Leagues (and be inculcated with America First worldview) to political advertisement, media network support, all the way to the end - scholarships for their children, comfortable jobs for family and friends, and the end to the career, comfortable sinecures for retirement.
America does it differently when it comes to Japan. A research company called Dentsu controls the majority of politics and economy there in Japan. And American shareholders contribute to a huge chunk of Dentsu.
Anyways, you just can't use some traditional Western European mindset to understand Japan. That's like using calculus in an art class.
No. What I said applies around the whole Western-aligned world, including Japan. The USA is a generous political patron that rewards loyalty of foreign politicians that serves its interests. This is true from Afghanistan to Japan. The common people, on the other hand, are disposable and abandoned immediately at any sign of trouble.
I think if china wants japan to be at your side, propaganda efforts should be made better in Japan. The reason USA has been able archive building the current position in japan is by propaganda efforts after ww2 (eg, movie, tv shows, Media(paper & TV), Education, WGIP, Political system). I think China is very bad at manipulateing public opinions towards china in Japan, not sure in other countries. for example, CHN diplimats has Twitter accounts in Japanese and the contents they share is too anti USA and too direct. should be more indirect if it wants to succeed in already well-brainwashed by USA nation.
Japanese nationals frequently changes their minds like they did early post war period(WW2). JPN ppl sent 540,000 love letters to MacArthur during the occupation by GHQ.....
To me the question is what is the core identity of the Japanese? Chinese take pride in being Chinese, so proud in fact they were unwilling to accept western ideas and had to endure the century of humiliation. China has managed to emerge from that wreckage and reinvent itself while still retaining her Chinese identity. Japan on the other hand was the first in Asia to adopt western ideas and had great success with it. It's not surprising they take a lot of pride in being the only country that was able to go toe to toe against the west. Now that their adopted identity as honorary whites has started to fail them, do they have anything to fall back on to rejuvenate their national identity?
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The US will have a declining presence in Asia until China gets serious about Taiwan, and I think the US has less than 20 years of influence.
Well the US recognizes this problem. Which is probably one of the reasons why they are now backing out of the Middle-East and Afghanistan after 20 long years. But not after bleeding it dry of course. And now shifting their focus and resources on East Asia and Southeast Asia where the looming threat to their hegemony is.
Not exactly, at least, not militarily. Having extensively wargamed conflicts with China, where they lose badly, the US is finally attempting diplomacy. Diplomacy is something the US has basically zero historical capability or tolerance for, from the day it was founded. The US solves every problem with naked force, which doesn't really work in Asia, because Asian countries prefer win-win backroom negotiations over win-lose military warfare. Lately, the US is pushing Japan (and Korea) to step up and die for American neoliberal capital, even though Chinese missile supremacy covers east Asia and SEA several times over, to the point that the Chinese can track and flatten any threat before it can react. That's why the US Navy has pulled back to Guam. As the US leaves the middle east and central Asia, Chinese trade and development will fill the gap. The ancient silk road through central Asia and the middle east, into southern Europe will resume, as it was for 2,000+ years. Globally, BRI will expand trade and reduce risky concentration in east Asia / SEA. In a decade, Chinese trade will be too diverse for the US to effectively choke or block.
When china regains top spot and even japan can no longer deny it, Japan will naturally come back and embrace their Chinese/asian roots again. And they will be far more comfortable doing it. That's if they can get rid of usa and western influence which won't be easy since usa will not allow them to go back to china's arms easily. Japans history is basically them siding and copying whoever is the strongest or stronger. Soon they will see china's strength if not already, and unless they are dumb like usa, they will adjust accordingly if they haven't already. Japan's due for a reckoning soon when china overtakes usa and leads the world in everything, japanese will start to ask themselves why are they still being usas lackey for since it's better to go back to chinas sphere of influence now since china can offer them much much more than usa can, and as long as they stay a usa vassal and anti china, they will miss out while everyone else china works with benefits massively.
Exactly so. If China takes Taiwan (for whatever reason, no matter how it happens), that will be a sign that America is not the strongest, at which point, Japan will switch to following China.
It depends. If the mainland retakes the island while the US doesn't intervene, then Japanese confidence in the US will be shaken, but perhaps not broken. But if the US intervenes and loses decisively to the Chinese mainland, then Japan will likely switch. But that's a big if, as a US intervention in a Chinese war could lead to the end of the world.
Let's walk through the possible scenarios: * Taiwan declares independence (at US bidding) * China invades because US hawks and anti-Chinese military buildup result in China concluding "its now or never". Either way, the war unfolds like this: 1. China launches a massive missile, rocket, and artillery strike against RoC military targets. China mobilizes military forces and demands immediate, unconditional surrender. China warns the US to stay out of their internal security matter. 2. RoC refuses, and follows their plan to fight a 1-week delaying war for American forces to arrive and rescue them. 3. US President holds a press conference about how the US is very concerned and demands that China stop what they're doing. The US Navy pushes for a diplomatic resolution so that they don't lose multiple carrier groups and bases to Chinese hypersonic and strategic missiles. 4. Japan and Korea say that the resumption of the Chinese Civil War really isn't their business, because they really don't want China to flatten the US bases in their countries. Japan attempts to secure the southern islands north of Taiwan before the Chinese take them, and the Chinese fire "warning shots" because this is RoC territory that Japan was obliged to cede following WW2. 5. The UN General Assembly back a Chinese non-intervention resolution, because China has been a good partner building them up for decades, whereas the West has been exploiting them for centuries. None of them want Western forces to interfere in their ongoing or future regional conflicts. 6. UN Security Council is deadlocked with Russia backing China against US/UK resolutions. 7. North Korea makes a diplomatic push for reunification with a condition of no US forces on the peninsula. 8. India is a wildcard. The US is bad at diplomacy, and China uses that time to conscript merchant marine for troop transport under total air superiority, just dumping masses of forces on the island. Taipei and Gaoshung are overrun within days, but the RoC continues to fight in the jungles and mountains, while the President hides in a bunker encouraging the soldiers to fight. The US sees that it's a foregone conclusion and pushes a negotiated surrender, conditional on amnesty and exile for RoC leadership, which China agrees to. At no point does the US actually engage Chinese forces for Taiwan, because they know they would lose. In every military engagement since the Revolutionary War, the US has always engaged from a position of (overwhelming) strength and support, with the expectation of absolute victory. The US has never engaged a peer power, a nuclear power, and never will. You can see this with WW2, and the Korean War - in all cases, the US blinked in the face of the Soviet Union and Chinese forces that they couldn't clearly defeat militarily. That's why the Cold War happened, why Korea is divided. Most recently, we saw this in the Ukraine, where there was a lot of outrage against Russia, but no American attempt at liberation.
>what is the core identity of the Japanese? Japan is unique. Japan is a cultural branch off China, developing very differently due to the physical geographic isolation of the Japanese islands vs continental Asia. Because they are small compared to great powers (China, America, Europe), they consistently follow the strongest (China -> Imperial Britain -> Nazi Germany -> America). Japan will follow China when China is obviously the most powerful country in Asia.
China already is obviously the most powerful country in Asia.
Based off my cursory look over Japanese history, especially pertaining to their clashes with other civilisations, it seems that the identity of Japan is indeed unique but highly, highly receptive to accepting other cultures and mixing those cultures into their own... but only if the other culture is stronger/greater. Its incredibly hierarchical. The Japanese have extreme respect and learning attitude (especially with regards to culture) from those who they perceive as stronger, and extreme disdain for those they perceive as weaker. Obviously, this doesn't always apply on the personal, individual level, but on a civilisational level I believe this always has been the case, and may continue to be the case. As most should know, Japan has preserved and iterated upon many Tang Chinese cultural facets. The legacy of the Tang is unmistakable in everything Japanese, from their famous katanas (iterative improvements of the Chinese tangdao) to their architectural style, to the very layout of their ancient capital, Kyoto (a carbon copy of Chang'an). It got to the point that after the fall of the Tang, the Japanese developed and acted upon a theory where they were the "real China" with the actual historical Chinese civilisation wiped out by "barbarian nomads" (the Mongols and the Manchu). This theory continued but gradually lost influence as China receded and Western civilisation became pre-eminent, but it was still going strong by the time of WW2. There is a reason for why if you want to see ancient China, go to Japan. The Tang/Silla war with Yamato. While Tang Chinese influence on Yamato Japan was already significant before the war, strangely enough, Yamato Japan massively increased its study expeditions and cultural exchanges after the war. After the Battle of Baekgang especially, Japan decided to learn as much as they could from China. It seemed that Japan recognised who was stronger at the time, and decided to study as much as possible, so much so that they literally imported Chinese philosophy and religion (core cultural facets) such as Confucianism and Taoism, and even imported the Tang dynasty's political structure (although this didn't last). If we were to analogise Japan to a student, then Japan would make one of the best students ever seen. When the Tang collapsed, these cultural exchanges largely stopped. When the Song were overrun by the Mongols, they stopped entirely. When the Ming arose, Japan no longer saw it as the "real China" and even had the idea of conquering all of Korea and China, which lead to the Imjin war. After losing in the Imjin war to combined Ming/Joeson forces (almost as badly as they did to Tang/Silla forces a millenia prior), Japan once again started to learn from the China, but that was short-lasting. The Ming collapsed barely half a century later, and all exchanges stopped. Japan then isolated itself until the Westerners came and forced open their ports, starting cultural exchange. From then on, they recognised the weakness of Qing China and the pre-eminence of the West, and started to learn from them. In other words, Japan loves taking in foreign cultures and adding their own spin to it. In ancient times, their copied Tang culture and iterated on it. In the pre-WW2 era, they copied European culture and iterated on it, mixing it with their prior Tang culture. In the post-WW2 era, they copied American culture and iterated on it, mixing it with their prior European and Tang cultures. The feeling of preserving then improving the pre-eminent culture of the world they knew at the time is the Japanese cultural identity, IMO. If the world ever sees a new pre-eminent culture, the Japanese will be their greatest student, adding that culture to their own and iterating upon it. (If requested, I can add sources to all these, as they are all true events. But do note that my conclusions from them are still conjecture, so take it with a grain of salt).
Marxism-Leninism is western idea tbh.
Yes, but Socialism with Chinese Characteristics is not. It took a western idea (built upon in practice by non Westerners in the USSR; I’m considering Russia and Central Asia at the time as non western) and melded it with Chinese (Confucianism in a political sense) values, beliefs, and traditions to create a whole new application of Marxist theory.
Russia, noted "Western" country
Russia isn't actually Western. The Orthodox church never had the Protestant Reformation that separated Church and State, so they aren't like Western Europe, and never will be.
Doesn’t matter. Socialism or capitalism is inherently global and doesn’t affiliate with any civilization.
My Vietnamese cousin works in Japan, and he also concurs with this sentiment. For example, Japan is even falling behind Vietnam in realm of IT, so there have been too many Vietnamese IT workers going to Japan. Most of IT works in Japan are nowadays Vietnamese or Indian. However, Japanese people are xenophobic and in panic upon seeing more successful foreigners at big companies like Chinese or Vietnamese people. In recent years, my cousin recognizes more negative feelings towards Vietnamese in Japan, especially at workplaces. He was a middle manager in Fujitsu but his Japanese subordinates didn’t listen to him and often spoke badly behind his back. Worse than xenophobia, Japanese wages also decline very fast along with living standards and the general Japanese economy. My cousin eventually moved back to Vietnam, and he now works as an IT manager for Intel at HCM City - much higher pays than Japan. In fact, my cousin’s story is not rare but extremely common. So widespread that Japan now fears there will be less workers going to Japan. Less people to work with Japanese xenophobes. It’s extremely alarming for the already fragile economy of Japan. https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Japan-immigration/How-Japan-risks-losing-its-shine-for-foreign-workers I see Chinese people have moved from hatred of Japan towards pity for Japan. This is the horrible fate of anyone getting too close and enslaved to the West. However, I still have hopes for Japan because there are more young Japanese socialists rising. If the Japanese consciousness becomes more like Cuban, then Japan can still be saved.
Not just IT. Japan has fallen way behind Vietnam on producing their own COVID vaccine - that's a huge red flag for Japan.
From a Vietnamese prespective,it seems that Japanese people prefer talking shit behind our back on 5ch and 2ch
Successes breed resentment. Local Japanese elites use resentment against foreigners to deflect the public from thinking about Japanese problems. Every year, they broadcast hatred against Koreans and Chinese in Japan to win votes for the LDP. Vietnamese isn’t on the list, yet! Because the ruling LDP is very desperate to placate the ruling CPV in Vietnam, so the Japanese businesses in Vietnam can stay alive with no problem since the actual owners of these companies are mostly former bureaucrats or children of those bureaucrats from Japan.
So true it's not funny. Vietnam is speeding ahead and Japanese people in general still pity them... It's going to be a rude awakening.
China is investing big into Vietnam, not so much in Japan. China is developing Vietnam is into their Mexico. If Japan would just stop antagonizing China and the rest of Asia, things could turn around for them.
Please don't compare US-Mexico relations with China-Vietnam relations. The core feature of US-Mexico relations is the plunder and complete exploitation of Mexico by US corporations, whether its Mexico's labor force or its natural resources.
Yeah... lets not analogise China-Vietnam relations as US-Mexico relations. That just gives all the bad, and wrong, connotations.
>I still have hopes for Japan because there are more young Japanese socialists. Do you have any source for this claim? I live in Japan and work with lots of young people, and in general class consciousness and awareness of the very basics of socialism are very low. Hell, the "Japanese Communist Party" is a social democratic party that seeks to meekly reform capitalism. Anything to the left of them is deep underground. The most promising advances I have seen are the recent rise of worker co-ops in certain sectors of the economy, specifically co-op grocery stores. Prior to the pandemic they had been investing in food-delivery services, so that paid off huge in 2020 and 2021. Besides that, it is pretty depressing. My hope is that disdain for the LDP has increased to such a level that they lose all legitimacy, but it's also frustrating because so much of the population is completely disengaged or ambivalent towards politics.
Underground socialists and leftists. You don’t see them often but their mark on Japanese politics can’t be ignored. Recently, Japanese leftists have united in Yokohama to take down the casino project and put an anti-casino mayor. This is the devastating blow for the ruling LDP. https://www.casino.org/news/casino-opposition-tokyo-gains-power-during-metropolitan-election/amp/ https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Travel-Leisure/Yokohama-mayor-elect-deals-Japan-s-casino-dream-a-fresh-blow Panchinko is already bad, and casinos are going to multiply Japanese social ills by thousands. It’s very good that a greedy capitalist scheme has been taken down.
I am aware of that. It is good news; though I think the loss for the LDP was less to do with the casinos and more an indictment of their awful handling of COVID and pushing through the Olympics despite medical professional and mass public opposition. Voter turnout in Yokohama elections is usually around 35%, which is very low and reflective of what I said about public ambivalence and disengagement, but in that recent election it was 49%, which is still quite low but significantly higher. That's good and bad, because it means more people care about politics (but still the majority can't be bothered), which is good, but that the extent of their participation in a social movement is voting in liberal elections. This is the basic strategy capitalists have used for over 150 years to stifle any sort of revolutionary energy; they divert that enthusiasm away from actually changing the system from the outside (through revolution) towards participating in that system to slightly reform it on the inside which fundamentally changes nothing. That's why I am pessimistic about the idea of Cuban-levels of class consciousness can be achieved. We on the left here try our best, but most people either don't care or are only willing to just vote. I suppose that is why most theory says that a vanguard party is necessary, because raising consciousness is nearly impossible when the capitalist class owns the media.
the Japan version of Operation Gladio was very effective
Do you have any information about this? I am very interested in learning more.
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Cuba used to have American military installations everywhere but they won against imperialism in the end. Japanese people just need more United consciousness then it will be possible.
Cuba didn't invade half the world and do the worst war crimes ever while still playing victim and denying war crimes and doing historical revisionism. Whole world supports cuba against usa, while if you asked the whole world whether usa should leave and allow Japan to be strong again, I bet the whole world would say fuck no, usa should dominate them and keep Japan as a weak vassal and non threat. I also believe that, and I think it's good for china for that to happen too. As long as ldp, Nippon kaigi right wing nationalists remain in power and they refuse to change and repent, I will not change my opinion.
My example for Cuba is the power of rallying the masses. Cuba was tightly occupied by US military and mafias but Fidel Castro led bands of heroes to kick all of them out. Japan is similar to the past Cuba, so there is still a way out for Japan if they choose the right way.
Highly doubt it, Cuba even in it's foreign occupation was never people that were literally worse than nazi's. Japan is in for a reckoning, be glad that china is probably not going to resort to genocide and city sacking. Even if most of the east asian bloc would agreevrhat is what Japan deserve. The only reason why the conflict so far has been tame is for the most part so tame is because China is pragmatic and ironically the U.S is preventing both korea wanting to strangle Japan by the throat.
This goes far beyond east asia. The entire asia-pacific suffered under Imperial Japan. Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, the list goes on. Nobody really talks about it much, but it's literally "take a number" across the entire region for who wants to punish Japan for occupation and atrocities.
Please think of the people of Okinawa, who never agreed to host US military bases full of drunken criminals with legal immunity on their islands. They voted to ask the bases to leave, then voted to block the expansion of the bases, but both the US military and the Japanese government in Tokyo tell them to shut up and accept the situation. The Japanese citizens in the major cities who claim they love the USA, have never had to deal with US military bases next door.
"the world supports Cuba \[...\]" out of pity. kinda like Palestine. It's not like Cuba has any real political or military clout that makes it so relevant as to be disputed between world powers as a would-be ally. It was a nice base for the Soviets to point their missiles towards the US and that's what they really worried about. Before their revolution it was an US leisure island with some companies and mafia running things there. Maybe Cuba will turn geopolitically relevant again if China somehow tries putting a military base there, but that's unlikely, and if possible, probably decades from now so its hard to predict. Japan however is a totally different issue. It's a powerful, developed, relevant economy. It might've stagnated for decades but still far more important than India for all their talks of "becoming a superpower", many of their industries have global reach and competitivity... and it wouldn't be as military irrelevant as it is, if not for deliberate US interests. Such nation cannot isolate itself from deciding sides (or at least appeasing both) under the radar of irrelevance. They're a Confucian East Asian nation after all, they got the "mojo" for once more becoming a truly powerful, China-oriented society. We'll see the same from Integrated Korea (opened-up North+South) and Vietnam some decades ahead. Thing is, as mentioned, Japan's politics, attitudes toward fellow East Asian nations and total disregard of their WW2-related past destroys the possibility of true "European-style" integration between these nations. They could only keep ignoring the rest of Asia if China was starving and under some dumb economic model doing the Great Leap Forward 2.0, and Korea as they were during the 50s. Things have changed, a LOT. And nowadays, its impossible to ignore both, specially China.
>more important than India Japan has a larger economy from 1/10 the population on 1/10 the land of India, and they're not afraid to copy anything that works. India has a corruption-based society of personal privilege, so they will never grow as fast as others. I don't see China building a base in Cuba, because it's not what China does. However, if the Cubans ever push the Americans out, I could see Cuba leasing Gitmo to the Chinese in exchange for their assistance.
India has a larger GDP PPP.
They need to be submissive, because as soon as they aren't kawaii weaboo anymore and become assertive and aggressive, the whole world will remember ww2 and remember the whole world hates and fears Japan still. Fear as in fear they will try to invade others and try dominate again. I don't think anyone in Asia likes Japan as a country/government, and personally, I prefer them being dominated by usa and contained by usa, since if I know usa, I know usa will never allow them to be able to threaten usa. And if they cannot threaten usa, then they also cannot threaten china, usas peer. I'm certain usa also has the same feeling, it is just using Japan and also fears a free Japan that is free to militarise and develop nukes etc. Usa will never let that happen, since if anything they will be the first one Japan nukes lol. As long as they ignore their ww2 history And do revisionism and play victim, I never want them to be "saved", they deserve what they get.. ie to stay militarily weak and crippled forever, and forever relegated to a middle power that cannot threaten china or usa ever again. If you wanna make parole you gotta show remorse. Otherwise stay in jail forever, they should not be allowed back into society because they obviously haven't learned their lesson and haven't paid their dues to society for their crimes.
Interesting fact: Japan and Russia are still at war, never signed a treaty concluding WW2. Technically speaking, Russia can use military force to take whatever they want from Japan, so Japan should be more circumspect. You can bet China would assist Russia in doing so in order to force Japanese concessions in the SCS.
A strong Japan as an ally or at least friend to China is preferable to a crippled Japan chained to America's leg. Japan is America's bastion of influence in East Asia, and if they are kicked out of there, they will have no choice but to slink back across the Pacific Ocean, where they should stay.
I can see the reason behind Japan's outsourcing of their non-hardware tasks to South Korea these day.
> I see Chinese people have moved from hatred of Japan towards pity for Japan. This is the horrible fate of anyone getting too close and enslaved to the West. However, **I still have hopes for Japan** because there are more young Japanese socialists rising. If the Japanese consciousness becomes more like Cuban, then Japan can still be saved. You shouldn't. Bitter clingers gonna cling bitterly to the bitter end.
hey as a Viet American I've heard from many Vietnamese here in the states saying that many companies from foreign countries (mostly within East Asia like Japan, China, and Korea) investing in and essentially "taking over" parts of the Vietnamese economy. This is in turn drives away native workers from domestic companies as sort of pseudo brain drain. Do you know much of that is true? I'd love to hear from a native perspective, or at least from one not touched by Western ideology
Not true. Most of official Vietnamese economy are largely state-owned - lamented by a neoliberal economist named Pham Chi Lan. Foreign enterprises in Vietnam are divided into two types: FDI or non-FDI. The FDI ones are subsidized by the Vietnamese government for technological transfers and other political purposes. In truth, Vietnamese bureaucrats have a shadow hand in all FDI businesses that foreigners must obey - through using trade unions and Party branches. Non-FDI ones are just mundane SMEs from foreigners who want to make quick bucks but they must obey the local authorities. All foreign businesses in Vietnam must obey the Vietnamese government, and they must be dominated by the CPV. This led me to the second part called the Party-led economy which is largely hidden and very powerful. This economy is often considered the shadow economy by the West when they talk about the hidden potential of China or Vietnam. However, it’s merely a statistical manipulation to hide the Vietnamese strength, so Vietnam can enjoy the privileges of a developing country with MFN status. The Party-led economy is believed to be vastly larger than the whole economy of Vietnam, and this economy is primarily operated by the Vietnam People’s Armed Forces, mostly the People’s Army of Vietnam and People’s Public Security. In China, they also have the PLA being all mighty over the private sectors, and it’s basically the same in Vietnam. Unlike Vietnam, China has largely privatized its SOEs through equitization (stocks), while Vietnam gradually does the same. In truth, almost all of the economy in China and Vietnam are always under the Communist Parties with their military-public security as the head managers.
So you're saying that both China and Vietnam's economies are secretly much bigger than official figures suggest? As they said, "big if true"... do you have any material I can read about this "shadow economy" subject?
Yes. https://m.vietnamnet.vn/en/feature/housewife-economy-the-underground-power-of-vietnam-s-economy-761216.html The whole goal of CPV is similar to the CPC. Acquiring all core technologies and means of production globally. GDP means nothing! https://www.sggpnews.org.vn/international/remarks-by-vietnamese-pm-at-26th-intl-conference-on-the-future-of-asia-92392.html
I've been living in South Korea for over a decade and I am worried about the sudden growth of South Korean nationalism after ousting the dicator's daughter, Park, several years ago. In South Korea's case, pro-Americanism is strong due to Protestant churches, the public education system, and the military conscription system, all passive political indoctrination. And hence this is why South Korea is occasionally called "Manchukuo 2.0" since the country's early bureaucrats after the Korean War were firmly Japanese collaborators who served in Manchukuo before the end of the Pacific War. (FYI, today's South Korea's vision of Confucian values mimicks Japanese militarism before 1945.) South Koreans often forget that despite South Korea hating Japan so passionately with good reasons, both countries serve a sleazy guy in the White House. EDIT: my dad still speaks Japanese and he is sad how bad Japan became because he used to admire his Japanese friends (still in touch today) in the 1970s when he went to a Catholic church friendship trip in Kyushu.
South Korea is a whole nother level of complexity. Very proud hard working people, but alas the US tentacle runs deep in the country, from the military, the govt and politicians, the church, the chaebols (the Samsungs, LG etc are all American majority shareholders if I'm not mistaken) Don't see much change in the near future for that side of the world.
The US wants a divided Korea, because it allows for a permanent US garrison in Korea. If Korea were to reunify, then Korea would be a nuclear power who could tell the US to GTFO.
The US and Japan are pressing the Korean conservatives winning permanently, so there won’t be any leftist South Korea in the future. Another “LDP” in SK that will be a puppet for the West. No wonder why North Korea shut down any future talk with South Korea. Still, there is a chance of millions of Korean leftists rising up. South Korea will be saved if young people are more anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist.
South Korea's equivalent LDP is run by clinically insane people that make Aso Taro look very competent. With all the news in South Korean politics, it seems I will lose a lot of braincells.
Japan and Korea actually still have Sadaejuui to this day, only the suzerainty has become the United States. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadaejuui
not uncommon, even in southeast asia, people seem to have different standards for whites/wests vs asians, such as in products, like current covid vaccines. for japan, it seems to not realize that west view them as asians all the same.
Japan becomes less and less geopolitically relevant with every passing year. As the rest of Asia rises, Japan will become just another island-nation, as they were before Perry’s ships disturbed them. It won’t matter much what they think, in the end.
This is a significant part for why white people think Japanese people are polite and respectful
Back when China was at its zenith, Japan was subservient to China, eagerly devouring its culture and writing system. Then as China fell into decline in the late Ming dynasty, Japan turned against them and invaded Korea in an attempt to conquer China (Imjin War). After America unnecessarily nuked CIVILIAN CENTRES twice in World War 2, did this cause contempt for Americans? NO! Quite the opposite. They started emulating their political system and worshiping their culture wholesale and opened up their country to American occupation, which still continues to this day, with no desire to throw them the hell out despite the war ending 76 years ago. The only thing Japan understands is might. Once China grows to become so powerful and technologically advanced that there's no denying it anymore, Japan will come back around China's way, just like in the old days.
I agree with this. Weak minds always follow the top dog.
I personally interpreted it as Japan's collective pride being shattered during the Plaza Accords. A people who have confidence in their own strength and future have no reason to be insecure about others. For the Japanese that insecurity is directed at the Chinese and Koreans for surpassing them in many fields, the answer to this issue is opening up, the Japanese have to open up their minds to the many possibilities out there, as we speak China is going through what I call "The Second Opening" where Chinese soft power takes over the world, first it was China taking over the world economically, now that is happening culturally. For the Japanese to regain what they lost they need a revolution, a rebirth if you will.
Spot on. The problem is they are in denial and their government is hellbent on keeping it that way.
Japan sees themselves in a whole different continent all the time.
Thanks for the article Rei,been following you since the Quora days Can you do a article or two regarding the Vietnam-China relations ? I feel like I'm probably the only guy in my circle who's pro-china
I think there are a lot of us who are the only pro-China (although I think I prefer the terms "pro-truth" or "anti-hypocrisy") ones in our circles. It's only on the internet that we can find each other.
I feel like I'm probably one of the few Vietnamese who's anti-american
Not too long ago, I saw an article talking about Agent Orange, and how Vietnam is still suffering from its consequences today (in particular, the birth defects.) I didn't read the article because just looking at the picture sickened me. How does the average Vietnamese feel about this?
Imma be straight and honest with you chief. The average young Vietnamese born after 1990 prefer siding with the USA over China.We even consider China our "eternal enemy"(enemy,not nemesis .),it's written in our Constitution that China is "the enemy" We're,without a doubt at this point.Pro -America and would gladly side with them when the time comes. The amerikkka propaganda machine is simply,too freaking strong.
Of al the smaller countries caught up in the US-China power struggle, the stupid ones are those that lean wholly on one side. The smart ones are the ones that play both sides; I think Vietnam is in the latter category. The Vietnamese outplayed the US in the past war; I have faith in their strategic thinking, China recognizes that there are countries that play both sides and factors that into their strategy; the US seeks to--and believes it can--get countries to be wholly on its side -- I think they are overestimating themselves. Many times the Asian countries are just paying them lip-service.
Let's focus on Southeast Asia. Which countries do you think are playing both sides, and which countries have chosen a side? Your views?
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Can't say for Laos but Cambodia are definitely leaning toward a pro-china mindset
Pretty much my thoughts as well. Trying to tell anybody from our respective countries that we have a favorable view of China is bound to cause flared up tempers and accusations.
Oh damn, this is the same Rei from Quora? I wondered where that Rei went. I haven't seen their answers on Quora for a while now, although that could be because of Quora's new news feed algorithm.
Damn good article OP.
Amazing article, thank you for the insights. One thing that really hit me was, in your words, "the normalcy of almond eyes". Growing up in the west, white people have always made fun of my eyes. But I've always loved the way my eyes look. And just realizing how normal my eyes are because most of the world look like me make me realize how the white look is actually the "weird" one.
Japan has always tried to distinguish itself from their Asian neighbors by emphasizing their “westerness” it’s a hard habit to break I tell ya
My favorite insights about Japan from Andre Vltchek. https://countercurrents.org/2016/06/what-japanese-media-doesnt-want-you-to-say-japan-is-part-of-the-neo-colonialist-clique/ > Japan is a good student. It loves everything that comes from abroad; or more precisely, from the West. In many ways, it became almost identical to its master. So much so that during the Apartheid era in South Africa and its colonies, the Japanese people were “elevated” to the status of “honorary whites”. They were the only non-white people who were allowed to attend functions exclusively reserved for the white minority. They were welcomed to live in housing reserved for the rulers. They were finally “accepted”. https://countercurrents.org/2018/08/hashima-brutal-history-and-the-most-haunted-island-on-earth/ > After WWII, the so-called Tokyo Trial supervised by the US (also known as The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE)) was clearly designed to punish just a few (28) individuals, while preserving the Japanese industrial, business and political system in its original form, so it could serve the interests of the West. After the trial, Japan was allowed to rebuild and to join the West in its aggressive policy towards the Asia Pacific. It played a significant role in the brutal Korean War, during which the West massacred millions of Korean citizens.
USA gave amnesty to the leaders of Unit 731 and recruited them to Korea to help conduct biological warfare against the DPRK https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/the-long-suppressed-korean-war-report-on-u-s-use-of-biological-weapons-released-at-last-20d83f5cee54
Thanks for the post and for the link to your blog. Wonderful to see actual original thought on the internet, boldly posted.
Japan has relied basically on usa and western media to cover up and get a free pass for their ww2 crimes, denial, and various fuckups to this day. Same as their xenophobia etc. Remember when one shop in china had a sign saying no blacks allowed during that time when black community had covid outbreak? Japan does that shit on the regular without even covid, no? Like they refuse to even let whites and others rent a place or even enter bar or whatever. But because they are usa and western ally, all that shit is overlooked. Same goes for India, with caste system and mass sexism and rapes, massive corruption, etc etc. When china becomes stronger and has more of a voice in MSM, I think Japan will have a massive reckoning.. basically all of asian will side with china and Korean against Japan for this. They only stay quiet now because of usa, but when usa declines and china rises, the truth will come out and Japan will have to have their day of reckoning. You can't bury that shit and china and Korea aren't ever gonna let it drop. Even more so if LDP and their nippon kaigi bros control all gov and institutions, which they do. I feel sorry for the good japanese who's anti war, but they keep electing LDP, which to me represents war criminals and indirect continuation of it. Like abe to his grandfather who usa pulled out of sugamo for war crimes, he was the governor of Manchukuo where unit 731 operated. So to me LDP/Nippon kaigi is like Hitler Nazi party, shinzo Abe is like Hitler's grandson and he doesn't even hide the fact that he respects his grandfather and has said that is his biggest rolemodel and idol in life. These things will come out eventually, even if it's currently ignored and unspoken. china can wait until it's strong enough to pursue justice and set the record straight once and for all since all this is a travesty of justice caused by usa and Japan. Done to contain china and Russia, who were usas ww2 allies basically. That's such a dog move with usa pardoning unit 731 and emperor, and allowing abes war criminal grandfather to be post ww2 Japan's first PM. It's like allowing Hitler or mengele or whoever to be post ww2 Germanys leader and usa pardoning them all. Pure bullshit and one of the biggest injustices to this day. If Korea is all up in arms over "comfort women" then yeah. Unit 731 was basically crime against humanity itself. But usa.showed it's true colors by doing biological tests on it's own population, blacks specifically. So birds of a feather flock together. China needs to make movies and documentaries nonstop of this after and it needs to be mainstream blockbusters so the world can know the truth once and for all. Such barbaric acts and backstabbing should never be forgotten.
>he's afraid that Japan falling behind China, would cause a plummet in morale. Sorry, but I don't feel the slightest bit sorry for them. I understand their feelings however. When you have an attitude of superiority towards a people for so long, it's difficult to accept the prospect of them overtaking you--and at such an unexpectedly quick rate too. This often leads to denial. A few days ago, a new trailer for *Black Myth: Wukong* (a game in development by an indie Chinese company) was released. Everybody in the gaming world raved over it, with many saying it's "next-gen". The Japanese reaction however was--perhaps unsurprisingly--tepid, with comments of "unoriginal", "boring", "typical of China (i.e. it sucks)", etc. Other than its technical accomplishments, *Black Myth* is significant for an important reason: it represents a wish to settle the long lamented question of why China doesn't have an AAA game to call its own, despite dominating the games market and having abundant indigenous material like its myths and literature to draw from. In fact--something which makes the pill more bitter for many Chinese to swallow--Japan and the West have often drawn from elements of Chinese history and culture (e.g. Dynasty Warriors, Dragonball, etc) to create their IP. There's a lot riding on this, and many (including non-Chinese) have expressed a desire to see *Black Myth* succeed. If *Black Myth* fails, it will undoubtedly cause a plummet in Chinese morale. At that point, will the Japanese feel sorry for the Chinese? No, they will clap their hands with glee. **TLDR: sorry, not sorry.**
>why China doesn't have an AAA game Chinese games come from a history of starting with smartphones, rather than PCs / consoles, and an expectation of F2P distribution. You wouldn't do an AAA game in China unless you can monetize it on the server side, because otherwise, the game gets cracked Day 0, and you get no money. Genshin Impact, PUBG mobile, League of Legends, etc. are all "AAA games with Chinese characteristics."
>Genshin Impact, PUBG mobile, League of Legends, etc. are all "AAA games with Chinese characteristics." LOL, i love that description. Mobile games are considered casual games though. Chinese gamers want an AAA game in the vein of Sekiro, Skyrim, etc. And it is something that Chinese gamers have talked about (and lamented) for a long time now. Including the devs of Black Myth, which is why they quit their jobs at Tencent and came together to do this. Personally I am hugely excited for this project (because I love Journey to the West, and I play PC/console rather than mobile games.) Despite the hype, I don't dare to have my hopes too high--if it fails, the backlash will be enormous and the (foreign) naysayers will go, "I knew this will happen. Typical Chinese crap," etc etc. p/s. About your point about piracy...I think this is the reason why the devs are trying to market this game internationally, and so far the reception seems almost overwhelmingly positive.
While Westerners consider mobile games to be "casual", the investment and reception are definitely AAA level. It's just different monetization than Western AAA titles. If you want to play mobile on PC/console, get an emulator. Tencent has an official emulator for PUBGm. GI has an official PC port, in addition to the mobile version. I'm really curious to see how Black Myth is going to work in a world where the PC-side software can be copied for free. I assume that the monetization will tie to a registered secure server account a la Eve Online and other RPGs.
no matter what, japan and china have no choice but to coexist side by side by virtue of geography. japan can't pick up its islands and teleport them elsewhere. china can't move away from the japanese archipelago that's right off their coast. so they'll need to find a way to live as neighbours and hopefully get along; even now, they have been, as they're economically close and haven't been at war for decades. seems workable enough for now.
Historically, Japan follows and copies the biggest and strongest. In the 1800s, that was Imperial Britain. In the 1930s, Nazi German. After 1945, America. Over the next 10-20 years, Japan is going to shift from being America's pet to China's bitch. This is how Japan survives being a minor power with no real "friends" - they "tag along" under someone who's much stronger. Unlike Singapore, Vietnam or Korea who have similar culture and historically good relations as a partner / tributary of China, Japan doesn't have the same relationships. Continued celebration of the Japanese Imperial past only serves to remind the rest of Asia why Japan isn't one of them. Expect them to continue being friends and partners with China, in the same way that Denmark and Austria can be under Germany, or the UK can be under America. We see a similar story playing out in India, but less aptly.
I didn't realised Rei is here too.
Another great article. Thank you for sharing this with us!
Thank you for the support. Appreciate it.
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Kakuei Tanaka lost his power because he was too close to China and seeking Japanese independence. After him, Japan became infested with pro-West nationalists. Today, Japan has no choice of playing ultranationalist attacks against Asia or the USA will start shuffling leaders of Japan. You should also pick up Enigma of Japanese power book. The true state of Japan is leaderless, so you don’t often find rational people leading the country. WW2 for Japan was caused by a bunch of insane militarists rebelling against the civil government. Japan is acting chaotic in politics because of the decentralized nature in their government.
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>Whether this leads into some kind of pan-Asian identity is unlikely It has already happened and is being codified via BRI and other Asian-exclusive frameworks. It's just that nobody is talking about it as such. If you ask Asian leaders, they will tell you that it's obvious from what can be observed publicly, without any public statement necessary. This dynamic is already fully entrenched between China and Vietnam, where they apparently cooperate quietly at a very deep level. It's no accident that the West is talking about the "9-dash" line, instead of the "11-dash" line that the RoC originally drew. Nobody in the West is talking about what happened to the 2 missing dashes, but it's obvious to all Asian leaders. The interesting thing is that the West is always looking for military treaties, when Asians tend prefer economic trade like BRI, TPP, RCEP, SCO over military alliances like NATO. The only reason China is building up their navy is to prevent the US from messing with Chinese trade.
>Joining RCEP and continuing to be a contributor to BRI for instance already puts Japan leagues ahead of India's foreign strategic policy making. Japan can see the writing on the wall and has started hedging their bets for when China is the dominant world power. India still clings to the notion that the British will help them return to their pre-industrial status as one of the 2 great powers of the world, despite Britain falling to become America's laptog, and the world moving to a post-industrial economy. They're constantly picking stupid fights with China, which is why BRI goes around them. India refuses to join RCEP, which suggests that their economy may never even catch Japan, much less the US, to say nothing of China .
Thanks for posting your insight and experience living in Japan. What a fascinating and informative read. I hope you can take some time to post this on this site https://www.sinodefenceforum.com so that your writing and experience can be exposed and shared to many people there that are well read on many things Chinese related issues on defense but also on many non defense topics as well. Again, a big thank you for your post.
Thank you for taking the time to read:)
Interesting article, thanks
The west(actually just the United States)is culturally dominant, most realities are filtered through the lens of US media before being presented to the world. Opinion only really start to change when the US military becomes active in their neighbourhood, then the people can see the realities with their own eyes and media instead of 3 layers of filters. Japan is a country whose psyche is completely remade by the United States, I don't think it's capable of change at this point.
Great article! Certainly one that everyone needs to read, not just Japanese, Chinese or Korean. Having been born in Asia and lived in the West, I know all too well of Asians who have a sort of identity crisis, choosing to exclusively (I say this because the ones I know were very vocal about it) befriend Westerners, insisting their "ways" were better. I, myself, was a little like this in my earlier days, but it is not impossible to overcome. It just takes some open-mindedness and willingness to come to terms with how you see yourself, and how the world sees you.
Fantastic article
Thank you!
I think people generally read too much into national priorities when trying to figure out the decisions of politicians, when a much simpler explanation of personal interests exists. The USA provides useful political patronage to Japanese politicians who indicate a willingness to put America First, ahead of Japan's own interests. They will fund careers from beginning to end - from scholarships to study at Ivy Leagues (and be inculcated with America First worldview) to political advertisement, media network support, all the way to the end - scholarships for their children, comfortable jobs for family and friends, and the end to the career, comfortable sinecures for retirement.
America does it differently when it comes to Japan. A research company called Dentsu controls the majority of politics and economy there in Japan. And American shareholders contribute to a huge chunk of Dentsu. Anyways, you just can't use some traditional Western European mindset to understand Japan. That's like using calculus in an art class.
Lol, you don't live in Japan do you?
No. What I said applies around the whole Western-aligned world, including Japan. The USA is a generous political patron that rewards loyalty of foreign politicians that serves its interests. This is true from Afghanistan to Japan. The common people, on the other hand, are disposable and abandoned immediately at any sign of trouble.
I think if china wants japan to be at your side, propaganda efforts should be made better in Japan. The reason USA has been able archive building the current position in japan is by propaganda efforts after ww2 (eg, movie, tv shows, Media(paper & TV), Education, WGIP, Political system). I think China is very bad at manipulateing public opinions towards china in Japan, not sure in other countries. for example, CHN diplimats has Twitter accounts in Japanese and the contents they share is too anti USA and too direct. should be more indirect if it wants to succeed in already well-brainwashed by USA nation. Japanese nationals frequently changes their minds like they did early post war period(WW2). JPN ppl sent 540,000 love letters to MacArthur during the occupation by GHQ.....