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Surrender Artist
Joined: 01 May 2011
Posts: 3264
Location: Pennsylvania, USA
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 Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 9:52 pm
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| Wyvern wrote: | | Thanks for this informative post! I love learning about foreign politics. |
I am pleased if somebody learned something. This is something else that I'm pretty nerdy about. Japan is a particularly interesting case because of some of its unusual features, such as the fact that its constitution was in fact written by westerners working for the occupying powers with the Japanese being allowed to make only modest revisions. (Only one of those westerners, the fascinating Beate Sirota, was well acquainted with Japan)
| Wyvern wrote: | | What's interesting is that a lot of people will balk at the idea that Japan's system lacks impeachment, but impeachments are actually ridiculously hard to pull off. Just look at the American model, where we've only had two successful impeachments in history, and neither resulted in the president being removed from office.
A removal by No Confidence vote is actually a much more effective tool for kicking a crap leader out of office (though it's also easier to abuse.) |
Impeachment of Presidents is virtually a dead letter. The only two attempts were pretty transparently political. I've never examined the question in detail, but I believe that it was expected to have a wider range of uses.
I should caution that a vote of no confidence and impeachment aren't really analogous beyond both leading to the executive leaving office. Impeachment is a quasi-judicial tool for punishing misconduct, whereas a vote of no confidence is a political tool. It can be brought about by misconduct, but it's a consequence of political circumstances more generally. If a government becomes very unpopular, fails to pass a budget or fails to pass a bill that it had staked its confidence on, a motion of confidence will follow or is implied by the failure. (I believe that there are systems where it is specified that if the budget is defeated, so is the government) In such an instance, Parliament must either choose a new government as is or hold a new election. (Parliamentary systems often have maximum terms, not fixed terms as in the United States) Because a political defeat is a potential death blow in such a system, a party dynamic very different from that of the United States tends to emerge wherein party members are more coherent and disciplined. When a member of parliament votes against the party whip, it's known as, "rebelling."
I should warn that there's a lot of variation, such as between 'Westminter' and 'Continental European' parliamentarism, and I'm playing a little fast and loose as I'm not really and expert and doing this right would require a lot more time, to say naught of research.
| EricJ2 wrote: | So, board policy is, we're all falling sucker for the "Anime has struck with bold political criticism of Abe's tax policies!" story without the faintest question because it's such a net-sexy topic, and nobody's going with "It's just Nobita being Nobita" and "Looney overreacting press, who never watch the show anyway because there's too much social stigma of grownups associating with it", then, because it's too boring?
Just checking. Didn't want to go against the majority.  |
I'm not even sure what you're mad about here. For one thing, nobody's saying mean things about The Superfriends or failing to insinuate the Lady Gaga is in fact a man and that's bad somehow. More than that, there're hardly enough posts or strong enough a theme in what few there are to make for any overwhelming consensus or majority to preemptively get indignant toward.
Sheesh, there should never been this much grief over an interest article. Maybe it's the pink headers messing with people's heads somehow.
| CastMember1991 wrote: | | I share your disgust. The ignorance of these forums is staggering. That's why I don't go on the ANN forums very much. |
Where the Hell did this come from? It's particularly baffling since I think you might have been doing what EricJ2 was complaining about... it's admittedly not entirely clear what that was.
| reanimator wrote: | | No matter where you live, a country goes down to toilet when people in power serves themselves first. |
That's kind of generic and I don't see how it applies here as the consumption tax increase was first enacted by the preceding government and is understandable, but not necessarily desirable, for a country in Japan's situation.
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EricJ2
Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
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Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 11:44 pm
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| CastMember1991 wrote: |
| EricJ2 wrote: | So, board policy is, we're all falling sucker for the "Anime has struck with bold political criticism of Abe's tax policies!" story without the faintest question because it's such a net-sexy topic, and nobody's going with "It's just Nobita being Nobita" and "Looney overreacting press, who never watch the show anyway because there's too much social stigma of grownups associating with it", then, because it's too boring?
Just checking. Didn't want to go against the majority. |
I share your disgust. The ignorance of these forums is staggering. That's why I don't go on the ANN forums very much. |
(Hey, you were jumping off the diving board too...) 
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CastMember1991
Joined: 06 Feb 2012
Posts: 858
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Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2014 7:31 am
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| EricJ2 wrote: |
| CastMember1991 wrote: |
| EricJ2 wrote: | So, board policy is, we're all falling sucker for the "Anime has struck with bold political criticism of Abe's tax policies!" story without the faintest question because it's such a net-sexy topic, and nobody's going with "It's just Nobita being Nobita" and "Looney overreacting press, who never watch the show anyway because there's too much social stigma of grownups associating with it", then, because it's too boring?
Just checking. Didn't want to go against the majority. |
I share your disgust. The ignorance of these forums is staggering. That's why I don't go on the ANN forums very much. |
(Hey, you were jumping off the diving board too...) |
Didn't catch myself doing that.  My apologies, I just couldn't resist myself. People on forums (guilty as charged) have zero sense of reality sometimes. Even I can fall into that category.
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CastMember1991
Joined: 06 Feb 2012
Posts: 858
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Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2014 7:38 am
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| EricJ2 wrote: |
| penguintruth wrote: | |
I'm just a bill, sitting on Capitol Hill...
I think kids will probably just like how silly it is since Nobita is just being selfish and suffers for it, as usual, and probably ignore the political implications. |
Doraemon basically tries to be pre-school educational along with its wacky wish-fulfillment fun. (Eg., episodes where Nobita goes back in Japanese history, or gets a gadget that parodies famous folktales.)
Here, it was pretty much the Schoolhouse Rock "I'm just a Diet Bill", giving preschoolers the idea of how much work goes into the economy, and why you can't always do whatever you want even if you get elected president--And Nobita will ALWAYS be lazy, self-indulgent and use gadgets to get what he wants, whether it's getting more money for snacks or how to skip homework, until he learns better...That's how it was in pre-boom 1980, and that's how it is in today's series.
The fact that one political party sees "Sneaky disingenuous current-issue propaganda to our children" sounds a lot like Republican senators seeing "Deliberate attacks on the wealthy" in the Disney Muppet movie. |
Well, here's how I think about this whole episode (and yes, I'm probably going to sound ignorant again)... I'm a conservative Republican myself, so I see this as somewhat of a critique of government taking control of our lives. You're gonna disagree with me greatly when I say that, but I just wanted to get out my thoughts.
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