Forum - View topicNEWS: Manga Fan Asō Tarō Again in Running for Japan's Top Post
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Daimao Raki
 Posts: 593 Location: Dark Side of the Moon |
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The article did a good job of showing us the pros and cons of Asō. It didn't seem to be biased at all.
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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I agree. It showed where his views may be favorable to certain groups where both his and their interests meet, and it also manages to give us his not so good side, some of the statements of which I cannot agree with. But, the guy is still pretty interesting to hear and talk about. Especially when word of his becoming PM a possibility drives up stocks for Japanese anime companies 
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nobinobita
Posts: 75 |
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Wikipedia is not a great primary news source as it is often nationalistic, racist and xenophobic. For intance, the Wikipedia entry on Taro Aso makes sure to include information on his racist comments, yet if you look up John McCain there is no mention of his use of the word "Gook". Here's the full quote ""I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live." here is my source for the quote: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/hongop.shtml Yes, our possible future president made that statement to the press and somehow he got away with it. Anyway, I don't want to turn this into some sort of indictment of McCain, so much as I want to point out that as troubling as Taro Aso's racist remarks are, other public officials say things just as bad, if not worse. This sort of racism and corruption goes on in every level of society, and while it's easy to point fingers at other cultures, we should also look to fight this sort of evil in our own countries as well. |
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MJP
Posts: 126 |
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I'm glad that so many people are pointing out his denials of the comfort women, anti-Korean racism, and denials of the Rape of Nanking that are coming from Aso. He seems to be the Pat Buchanan or Ross Perot of the LDP and Japanese conservatism: far-right, hawkish, and just plain nuts.
Echoing what people have already said: if this man was German and the election was in Germany, he wouldn't have even made it into an electable party in the first place (parliamentary system aside). Isn't it worth noticing that manga is nothing special in Japan, that it's in broader circulation that anyone really acknowledges, and he's just playing the pop-culture card? And given the fact that Japan is a parliamentary democracy - e.g. you don't directly elect the PM - does it even matter that he'd campaign with anyone? I'd like to know the voting patterns, frequency, and party standings of Akihabara otaku. Then again, given the malapportionment of representatives (e.g. a rural district in Tochigi has the same representative as Shinjuku, Shibya, Roppongi, and other Tokyo districts despite the VAST difference in demographics, industry/agriculture, etc.) in the end the people will be screwed anyway, just like in all politics. I'm voting for Zero. |
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maaya
Posts: 976 |
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It does, but in here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain_presidential_campaign,_2000
But I'm not sure if a person reading 10-20 manga magazines a week is fit to lead a country .... sounds a bit too much. Even I don't read that much each week, and I'm a pretty big fan. |
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The Xenos
 Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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Well, you try staying in a POW camp in Vietnam for years and not hold any hostility toward your captors. I took it as a comment to his captors specifically, not all Asians or even Vietnamese. You are the one taking the statement out of context and making a whole racial commentary on it. Do you even know what Vietnam vets went through? I heard a story a teacher told us about his time there. The word 'gook' was used as a dehumanizing agent by the government for the troops. Not saying that was right, but it's something soldiers had put on them so they could kill enemy combatants. There are a couple more details like putting pins in killed Vietnamese like game after a skirmish to confirm your kills. Some messed up stuff. Never mind my teacher was never taken captive like McCain was.
Now I'm not saying that McCain was right for saying that, but have some context and some understanding. Plus the man did apologize for the outburst. It's really not comparable to what Aso said about his country's war crimes at all.
Yes, but you're not living in Japan. Manga is much cheaper over there. Plus manga magazines are common place. There's about as much manga on the racks at Family Mart as there are regular magazines. The reading of comics in Japan is much more common place than in America. To be honest, I was insanely jealous seeing that in the culture there. |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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How much time do you need to finish a manga magazine? As The Xenos said, manga magazines are dirt cheap in Japan (~US$4-6 for a volume of up to 1000 pages), and an experienced reader can finish one in less than 20 minutes.
We have manga on the racks at Family Mart in Taiwan as well (yes, FM has a division here). And that includes BL manga, so you are guaranteed to have some "resupply" at Saturday midnight. 
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nobinobita
Posts: 75 |
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What if McCain had used the word "[slur]" ? I'm sorry for actually spelling that word out, but it's an ugly terrible word. "[slur]." Doesn't it make you feel terrible just SEEING that word? If he had used that word, it would have completely ruined his career. But since he used the word "gook", a word just as ugly, but referring to a statistically negligible segment of the US population (Asian Americans just don't amount to much of a voting force) his career is left intact. Some would say that I'm taking McCain's quote out of context. But what is the proper context for using the word "gook"? If I had a bad experience with people of African descent, does that give me the right to call them "niggers"? I think it's very interesting that many people are willing to excuse McCain's racism as contextual racism, when there should never be a proper context for such a thing. Please, I want you to think about this. It's not about comparing attrocities, I'm not trying to say the war crimes in Vietnam are any worse or better than the war crimes in Nanjing or Manchuko, I'm not saying Asian Americans are treated any better or worse than African Americans, it's more about the principle of the matter: Racism is not excusable in any form. Racism is not always so obvious. It's easy to point fingers at other people, at other cultures, but it's more difficult to look inward. It occurs to me that an internet forum is probably the worst place in the world to discuss such a subtle and dicey matter as racism. I hope we can have a civil discussion about this. |
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nobinobita
Posts: 75 |
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But my point still stands, if you look at the Wiki entry on John McCain, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_mccain it says nothing of his controversial statements. The only mention of his racist remarks is in a seperate entry which is harder to find. Meanwhile if you look up Aso on wiki, there is a whole section devoted to his controversial statements. It's even titled "controversial statements" in big bold letters. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aso_Taro I'm not saying that Aso is any better than McCain. I think they're bout louts for the terrible things they've said in public. But you have to dig deeper to find more potentially negative information on McCain, even though he's a big public figure in the US. I think Wikipedia itself, as a whole, has a pretty strong bias towards certain groups, individuals and cultures. This is the natural course for things since it's moderated and updated by people and reflects their agendas. Racism is not always so cut and dry. It's often subtle, and manifests in ways that go unnoticed. |
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dangerwhat
 Posts: 187 Location: Central Florida |
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To some extent, it is. The Japanese Liberal Democratic Party is actually a better analog to our Republican Party, for whatever reason they end up with such a nomenclature. The problem with electing someone they way the Japanese system does is that the party in control gets an in with their man - that being the case, when/if he screws up it looks especially bad on his party. I imagine thats part of the problem then - he looks bad, his party looks bad, people don't like his party, his party gets upset, he resigns to save "face", the party is still in control, votes in someone new and so on. Yeah, I meant that he'd be resigning so that he whouldn't HAVE to commit Seppuku lol |
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The Xenos
Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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Huzzah. The PC Police rears their head. Zero tolerance, eh? Yeah, that sounds so open minded. Geez, and people complain about the Republicans talking in absolutes and being closed minded? Look in a mirror. If you really want to fight racism and prejudice, I suggest you do look inward and start being a little more compassionate and open minded. Funny, you write off years of treatment in a POW camp as just a 'bad experience'. I'm not even saying McCain was right in saying the word. Hell, even McCain said saying the word was bad afterward. I'm saying that I don't think the militant PC dogs need to jump down an ex-POW's throat for venting from a horrible experience. Yes, you are taking it out of some very important context. Call off your dogs. And again, this is a whole different thing from a candidate running for office slyly denying his country's war crimes. McCain said an outright racial slur. He even later apologized for it. If anything, Aso's racism is very underlying and thus so much worse. That was the issue at hand. Then someone brought up the unrelated and totally different issue of McCain. Talk about pointing fingers. Last edited by The Xenos on Wed Sep 03, 2008 3:11 pm; edited 4 times in total |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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If I could get manga that cheap, there would be a genuine possibility of me actually reading some! I guess this gives balance to the fact that anime is so expensive there. 600th post. That's 2 Spartas. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15304 |
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MJP:
Actually, they got some Reich-wingers in Austria a few years back, but they usually are only able to play the nationalist and anti-immigrant card nowadays. Xenos:
I thought he was "liberating" their country. 
Do you know what the people bombed by Agent Orange went through?
Considering he has no problem with applying that experience to innocent Arab prisoners, he's a bit of a hypocrite. |
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braves
 Posts: 2309 Location: Puerto Rico (but living in Texas) |
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Um...didn't he vote against torture? I think you need to explain yourself a bit more, 'cause I don't really get what you're trying to say.
Really, find me the quote which he said that he was "liberating" their country. You seem to make sound as if he declared war on Vietnam. He was a soldier, not a political member. EDIT (9:32 PM): Somehow, I missed this....
(bolded by me) You should really think before you type.
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GATSU
Posts: 15304 |
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brave:
Nope.
I didn't say he was personally liberating the place. That's just the argument used for that failed war.
Why? Was I somehow mistaken? |
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