Tag: Asia

Short Fat Trump Gets Stroppy

I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care. We have done very little business with India, their Tariffs are too high, among the highest in the World. Likewise, Russia and the USA do almost no business together. Let’s keep it that way, and tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words. He’s entering very dangerous territory!

Oh, no, only 11 days left until the next TACO. Clearly the BRICS alliance is quaking. What sort of meaningless posturing will they be subjected to next?

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Japan Moves Right

It’s good to see Sanseito rising in Japan in the most recent election. The country desperately needs a revival of “The Japan That Can Say No”.

The fringe far-right Sanseito party emerged as one of the biggest winners in Japan’s upper house election on Sunday, gaining support with warnings of a “silent invasion” of immigrants, and pledges for tax cuts and welfare spending.

Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the party broke into mainstream politics with its “Japanese First” campaign.

The party won 14 seats, according to public broadcaster NHK, adding to the single lawmaker it secured in the 248-seat chamber three years ago. It has only three seats in the more powerful lower house.

“The phrase Japanese First was meant to express rebuilding Japanese people’s livelihoods by resisting globalism. I am not saying that we should completely ban foreigners or that every foreigner should get out of Japan,” Sohei Kamiya, the party’s 47-year-old leader, said in an interview with local broadcaster Nippon Television after the election.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito lost their majority in the upper house, leaving them further beholden to opposition support following a lower house defeat in October.

Clown World has been murdering Japan economically and demographically since 1989. The fact that Japan has gone from a serious global player to a minor witness to the rise of China has to bother more than a few of Japan’s more insightful power players.

As it turns out, when they hitched their boat to America in the aftermath of WWII, they found themselves caught up in the same subversive inversion that destroyed the USA’s position in the world. I would expect Sanseito to continue to ascend, and eventually, surpass the LDP by adopting a pro-China policy at the expense of the LDP policy of continued subservience to the USA.

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Japan Opts Out

In which /pol/ summarizes a paywalled Financial Times article on the Japanese government making it clear to Japanese companies that it has no intention of antagonizing China over Taiwan island.

Japanese government officials are telling companies they would be “on their own” if they needed to evacuate staff from Taiwan in case of a Chinese attack, according to people familiar with the matter, a message that has hit one of Taiwan’s largest sources of foreign direct investment. Tokyo’s warning highlights the practical and political difficulties for governments and companies in the region of preparing for a potential cross-Strait war. Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its territory, and has threatened to take it by force if Taipei refuses indefinitely to submit to its control.

The US military has been discussing operational plans for such a scenario with its allies, but obtaining political commitments has proven more challenging. The Financial Times reported last week that the Pentagon had pressed Japan and Australia to clarify what role they would play in a US-China war over Taiwan, frustrating Tokyo and Canberra.

Two Japanese officials told the FT that, under the country’s pacifist constitution, its military could only be deployed abroad with approval from a host government. Given that Japan does not recognise Taiwan diplomatically — as with all but 12 countries in the world — there “is no government in Taiwan from our viewpoint”, one of the officials said. They added that China was unlikely to grant the Japanese military approval to conduct evacuations.

Although the Japanese government has never confirmed this line as its official position, companies have been receiving the warnings for about three years, diplomats and corporate executives said. Japanese diplomats told company risk officers that “you are on your own if you put significant assets in Taiwan”, said one person present at one of the conversations.

While the new LDP leader has made noises about modifying Japan’s constitution to permit more aggressive foreign policy and military actions, the longtime ruling party isn’t in a very strong position as a new nationalist party founded in 2020, Sanseito, is rapidly rising thanks to the LDP bowing to Clown World’s demands that it relax Japan’s once-formidable barriers to immigration.

In a recent Kyodo News poll conducted from July 5–6, the party ranked second in proportional representation support, behind only the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). For a group that was initially dismissed as fringe, the rise is both dramatic and deeply concerning to many observers. With rhetoric that echoes Trumpism and European ultranationalism, it has become the most talked-about — and most unsettling — dark horse in Japanese politics.

From Berlin to Washington, from Moscow to Tokyo, the True Right is inevitable.

For decades, Japan’s stagnant wages, aging population and growing inequality have bred quiet despair. Conventional parties like the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) are widely viewed as corrupt, stale and incapable of offering real change. Into this void stepped Sanseito.

The LDP and the CDP are not merely “widely viewed” as “corrupt, stale and incapable of offering real change”, like their counterparts in every Western nation, they are corrupt, stale, and incapable offering real change. Which is why their eventual replacement, one way or another, is inevitable.

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The Japan That Can Say No

Unlike the USA, Japan isn’t interested in bankrupting itself for Israel:

Japan has canceled an annual high-level meeting with key ally the United States after the Trump administration demanded it spend more on defense, the Financial Times reported on Friday.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had been expected to meet Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and Defense Minister Gen Nakatani in Washington on July 1 for the yearly 2+2 security talks.

But Tokyo scrapped the meeting after the U.S. asked Japan to boost defense spending to 3.5% of gross domestic product, higher than an earlier request of 3%, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported on Saturday that President Donald Trump’s administration was demanding that its Asian allies, including Japan, spend 5% of GDP on defense.

I don’t know when it will happen. But I have absolutely no doubt that Japan is going to flip to an alliance with China sooner or later. And I’m pretty sure that it will happen suddenly, and be presented as a fait accompli that no one could have ever seen coming.

Japan has to be cautious, because it has a giant US military base on Okinawa to consider. But the overall trend appears to be clear, as the US model that so influenced the Japanese since the end of WWII has proven to be an increasingly disastrous one.

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Dual-Citizenship Illegal

The ban on dual-citizenship in Japan was upheld as constitutional by the Japanese Supreme Court:

Japan’s top court has rejected an appeal by a Japanese-born U.S. citizen challenging the constitutionality of the country’s ban on dual citizenship, finalizing lower court rulings.

The decision by the Supreme Court’s First Petty Bench, dated Monday, was on a claim that Article 11 of the Nationality Law, which stipulates the loss of Japanese nationality upon voluntarily acquiring a foreign nationality, infringes on the right to self-determination.

The Fukuoka District Court turned down the initial claim in 2023, noting that the law was appropriate and was not beyond the scope of discretion. The Fukuoka High Court also supported the first decision last year.

According to the ruling, the woman acquired U.S. citizenship in 2004. She applied for a Japanese passport in 2017, but her application was rejected the following year on the grounds that she had lost her Japanese nationality.

This is an interesting rejection of Clown World’s anti-nationalist campaign, particularly because the Japanese constitution was imposed upon Japan by the US occupiers after World War II. It’s a strong indication that the dual-citizenship effectively created by the US Supreme Court decision in Afroyim v. Rusk, 387 U.S. 253 (1967) was both incorrect and inappropriately utilized in an excessively expansive manner to create a supra-national individual right that does not and should not exist.

Being ruled by foreigners is not only a curse in the Bible, it is a common late stage in empires that usually presages an eventual collapse.

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War on the Subcontinent

India and Pakistan aren’t hitting each other hard yet, but they are definitely exchanging real cross-border blows:

Powerful explosions lit up the night sky over Pakistan shortly after midnight as India launched strikes on nine separate sites in response to last month’s Islamist terror attack in Pahalgam, in Indian-controlled Kashmir, which left 26 civilians dead.

Shocking footage circulating on social media showed massive fireballs erupting as missiles struck targets across Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

Delhi was quick to stress that its attacks – named Operation Sindoor, after the red pigment traditionally worn by the wives of Hindu men – targeted ‘terrorist infrastructure’ and did not strike Pakistani military assets, describing them as ‘focused, measured, and non-escalatory in nature’.

But Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif claimed the strikes hit civilian areas and described them as an ‘act of war’ as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif warned that India’s ‘heinous act of aggression will not go unpunished,’ erasing hopes that a dangerous escalation might still be avoided.

Just hours later, Pakistani missiles reportedly brought down five Indian fighter jets before pounding Indian positions across the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border separating Indian- and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, with mortar and artillery.

Earlier today Pakistan’s armed forces were authorised to respond to India’s strikes. A statement from the National Security Council said: ‘The Armed Forces of Pakistan have duly been authorised to undertake corresponding actions in this regard.’

So now we’ve got war on the Asian-European frontier, in the Middle East, and on the subcontinent. It’s interesting to see that neither Africa nor the Americas are engaged in it yet. President Trump would do very well to extricate the USA from involvement in either the Ukrainian war or the Israeli wars, but unfortunately, he has no shortage of advisors encouraging him to entangle the USA in both.

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India Evicts Pakistanis

It’s always fascinating to hear Westerners talk about the absolute impossibility of restoring their demographics to pre-invasion levels while Easterners blithely engage in ethnic cleansings of far-greater proportions in places like Israel and India that never take more than a few months to accomplish.

Pakistani citizens in India must leave the country before their visas get revoked on April 27, the Ministry of External Affairs ordered on Thursday following the Pahalgam terror attack. India suspended visa services to Pakistani citizens with immediate effect. New Delhi said that all valid visas issued by India to Pakistani citizens will stand revoked with effect from April 27.

On Wednesday, India said it was suspending the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty with immediate effect until Pakistan “credibly and irrevocably” stops its support for cross-border terrorism.

Imagine the outrage if the USA did something similar with regards to the citizens of any of the various nations that are now residing in the USA, or even if the UK were to repatriate all of its Pakistanis.

UPDATE: Pakistan has retaliated for this inhuman crime of forcing Pakistanis to live in Pakistan among other Pakistanis.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has announced the following:

– Pakistani airspace is closed to all Indian and Indian-operated airlines, effective immediately.

– The Wagah border crossing will be shut down, and ceremonial duties suspended.

– Pakistan suspends all SAARC visas issued to Indian nationals, and all Indians currently in Pakistan with an SAARC visa are instructed to leave within 48 hours.

– The number of diplomats at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad will be reduced to 30, and military attachés have been declared persona non grata.

– Pakistan exercises the right to temporarily suspend all bilateral agreements with India, including the 1972 Simla agreement.

– Pakistan states that any attempt at diverting the waters from rivers in the Indus will be seen as an act of war, and will be responded to by force.

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Is Japan Next?

The God-Emperor appears to have turned his sights upon the trade deficit with Japan and the massive expense of maintaining the US military there.

President Donald Trump said Japan is not required to protect the United States militarily and makes “a fortune” from it economically, as he fired off an impromptu broadside at a key ally.

It came as Japan’s trade minister is arranging a trip to Washington during which he will reportedly demand an exemption from imminent U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum.

“We have a great relationship with Japan. But we have an interesting deal with Japan that we have to protect them, but they don’t have to protect us,” Trump said Thursday.

“And by the way, they make a fortune with us economically,” he said. “I actually ask, who makes these deals?”

In response, Japanese government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said Friday that Japan trusts Washington to keep its obligation to the two countries’ security treaty.

Around 54,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed in Japan, mostly in the Okinawa region east of Taiwan.

The key observation that President Trump appears to have made is that imperialism is not, in the long term, profitable to the imperialist nation. Over time, it increasingly benefits the foreigners who are attracted to the imperial center of power, to the exclusion of the nationals for whose benefit the empire ostensibly exists.

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The Japanese Know

Japanese corporations are preparing for the Chinese takeover of Taiwan:

Over half of major Japanese firms said they are prepared or are making preparations for a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan amid Beijing’s growing military assertiveness, a Kyodo News survey showed Saturday. Of the 114 companies surveyed between late November and mid-December last year, 53 percent said they had concrete measures in place for a potential Taiwan contingency, including drafting manuals, planning evacuations, and stockpiling inventory. Another 12 percent said they did not have plans but saw the need for consideration, according to the survey, which covered a range of industries and included companies such as Toyota Motor Corp and ANA Holdings Inc.

There are also reports of China building large Mulberry docks of the sort that the US utilized in the invasion of Normandy. Which means I’d better provide my promised analysis of the latest US military simulations before the actual results are in.

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Martial Law in South Korea

The global supply of K-Pop may be in jeopardy now that President Yoon has declared emergency martial law in South Korea:

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol sensationally declared emergency martial law today, accusing his political opposition of subverting parliament and railing against ‘pro-North Korea, anti-state forces’ in his country. The shocking late-night address triggered chaos on the streets in Seoul where hordes of angry citizens clashed with riot cops and security forces outside the National Assembly.

South Korea’s military proclaimed that under martial law, parliament and other political gatherings that could cause ‘social confusion’ would be suspended and anyone found to violate the regulations could be arrested without a warrant.

In his address Yoon vowed ‘to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces plundering the happiness of our people and to protect the constitutional order. With no regard for the livelihoods of the people, the opposition party has paralysed governance solely for the sake of impeachments, special investigations, and shielding their leader from justice… Through this martial law, I will rebuild and protect the free Republic of Korea, which is falling into the depths of national ruin,’ he said.

But the speech sparked an immediate outpouring of anger as disgruntled citizens marched on the capital’s parliament building.

Since taking office in 2022, Yoon had struggled to push his agendas against an opposition-controlled parliament, raising suspicions the sudden implementation of martial law was a political ploy to exercise greater power. His popularity has also declined as of late amid various scandals in his inner circle, with the opposition seeking to impeach cabinet members over failure to investigate Yoon’s wife on corruption and influence-peddling allegations.

I’m assuming that Yoon is a Clown World puppet, especially in light of how he is illegally ignoring the Parliament’s vote to override his declaration of martial law, but I don’t know enough about Korean politics to have any idea what’s going on there. That being said, it appears that North Korea is being used as a stalking horse to justify some sort of shenanigans in response to the recent election of President Trump.

The move comes as a complete shock in the Western-aligned Asian nation of more than 50 million which despite escalating tensions with its foe to the North is not fighting an active war and has not suffered attacks on its soil. 

Indeed…

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