- Joined
- May 3, 2022
me in japan will be like
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Seems like TPTB just do not want anything regarding the Japan status quo to veer off course. Its either LDP-Ishin-DPP or CDP-Ishin-DPP and its looking more likely to be the latter unless the LDP can meaningfully deter it from happening (at least from how I see it). First non LDP PM in over a decade soon?Komeito has broken coalition with LDP. This is probably the biggest shift in Japanese politics since 2011. I'm not used to "things happening" and it's a bit scary.
On one hand, fuck Komeito. It's a cancerous cult (look up soka gakkai) with a powerful voting block and the worst policy ever (pro-china, anti-nuclear, pro-old people pensions and welfare). LDP will be forced to negotiate with the defectors and fringe right if they want to survive. relying on komeito isnt sustainable because their voting base is literally dying of old age.
on the other hand, a left-opposition coalition might actually gain power and then do what they always do: immediately self destruct from infighting, get nothing done, cement another 20 years of gerontocracy hell
a new "coalition" of LDP + ishin + DPP would be the most likely result but right now no right party gains from fully joining the coalition since their whole existence is to end the establishment for being too lib. the only people who win from this alignment are osaka metro supporters
i really envy how effective the powers that be in taiwan are compared to japs. japan has way more natural resources and industrial capacity but exports so much less than it should. it must be trauma from constantly getting kicked in the teeth by america over trade deficit.
LDP and DPP negotiations broke down. LDPSeems like TPTB just do not want anything regarding the Japan status quo to veer off course. Its either LDP-Ishin-DPP or CDP-Ishin-DPP and its looking more likely to be the latter unless the LDP can meaningfully deter it from happening (at least from how I see it). First non LDP PM in over a decade soon?
They need to cut throats of old boomers who expect everyone to leave work after them,
Japan will continue to deport people who are caught without valid visas. The same policy that’s been in effect forever. Made up bullshit catches a lot more attention than the simple truth, typically, and that’s really unfortunate.
The viral fake news story about Prime Minister Takaichi launching "mass deportations" of foreigners continues to spread. It now looks like it's being shared among Spanish-speakers too. Community Notes don't seem to be keeping up with the misinformation.
So far, the Takaichi Administration's official statements on immigration policy have basically recycled the language used by the Ishiba Administration. There is no indication that they are seeking mass deportations of foreigners. Expect legal immigration to continue.
Ian miles cheong spread the fake news. Oliver Jia responds:Newsweek has published a Japanese language version of their story on the fake news about Prime Minister Takaichi launching mass deportations of foreigners. Neither the prime minister nor any cabinet member has made statements suggesting plans for “mass deportations.”
This where things get funny:Nowhere in this video does Takaichi say she would prefer to “let the population shrink.” Then again this is Ian Miles Wrong we’re talking about, so I’m not surprised to see him lying through his teeth on a subject he knows nothing about yet again.
It appears that the viral fake news story about Prime Minister Takaichi creating a new ministry that will prioritize "mass deportations" originated with a Twitter user who claims to be a conservative Japanese person, but is actually British.


An X user calling himself "Colonel Otaku Gatekeeper" spent the last few years pretending to be a conservative Japanese person, gaining followers while frequently sharing bad takes & completely false information about Japan. In a now-deleted post, he admitted he's a British man.
As part of his "I am a real Japanese person" act, Colonel Otaku Gatekeeper frequently took photos from other social media users and passed them off as his own. I highly recommend blocking him if you don't want to encounter wrong information about Japan.

Embarrassingly bad Photoshop edits of Google Steetview images to pretend he was going for walks. Very normal behavior.






People like this bear dipshit will make up stuff about Japan for his zombie followers to consume and because AI doesn’t have a conscience, it will often regurgitate false information. Do your own research, without AI. We’re entering a bizarre era.
Grok failed badly at verifying the content of a video that a racist account posted with a totally false description.The video shows CDP candidate Sato Nobuhiro's reaction to losing an election in 2023. (The clip went viral in Japan at the time)
Guy that claims that foreigners can’t possibly know what’s going on in Japan reports that Shinjuku is in Kyūshū. On the ground coverage…clearly from someone else.

Immigration is a hot topic globally right now and with the introduction of monetization on 𝕏 there is a slew of accounts that do nothing but stir the pot for engagements, and by extension creator revenue.
While a lot of these accounts focus on immigration issues in the west, there is a niche set of aggro accounts that have set their sights on Japan.
Japan (as you know) has very strict immigration laws, which makes the population of Japan pretty homogenous with more than 97% of the population being ethnically Japanese. The remaining few percent are largely Asian foreigners, but there are a few foreigners from outside of Asia mixed into that (myself included).
The Japanese language is a difficult language to learn and as such there can be a language barrier when it comes to news coming from Japan, which means many people rely on second hand reporting coming out of the country to get their Japan fix.
While the English level of the Japanese population is improving, the English literacy rate is quite low in Japan. Generally people who speak English as a second language are likely to have learned it through interactions with native English speakers in some capacity.
There are some accounts on this platform that have positioned themselves as authority figures when it comes to reporting about Japan. The things they have in common are:
- They post in English (for an English speaking audience)
- They focus on posts that generate animosity towards foreigners in Japan
- They claim to be ethnically Japanese (and in Japan)
- They all have obviously fake profile pictures
Some of these accounts even go as far as to say they are Japanese nationalists and are posting for the cause, but they only post in English and do not appeal to a voting base of Japanese people who would vote for more nationalistic parties.
And whole I understand that of the things these accounts post is correct (I certainly don’t support foreigners committing crimes in Japan) it is obvious that the main purpose of these accounts is to rage bait for ad revenue and they don’t actually care about Japan at all.
These fluent English speakers clearly want to communicate with the world and have obviously had good interactions with native English speakers if their English is so good. But these people quickly show their true colours if you disagree with them and will target even long term residents of Japan as “problem foreigners.” It seems a bit weird for these people to be open minded linguists when they are interacting with their English speaking fans but suddenly become staunch ethnonationalists when they speak to people who disagree with them.
There’s a pretty big difference between foreigners that have lived in Japan for a long time and have committed no crimes, and foreigners that are on short term visas who are on the news for stealing copper cables (or other more serious offenses). But these LARP accounts will say that all foreigners need to go the second you push back on anything they say.
As I mentioned before, these people clearly do not care about Japan. They are likely foreigners outside of Japan using translation software and pretending to be Japanese to boost their “credibility” and act as authority figures. The fact that they are especially hostile to long term foreign residents of Japan makes me think that they actually really wish they were in Japan themselves but can’t actually get themselves together to improve their lives and do it properly.
I am not Japanese. I’ve never claimed to be. I just do my best to do my part in Japan, paying my taxes, interacting IRL with the locals and doing my part to preserve traditional martial arts.
Be careful where you get your info from.
Is that the Cult of Progress, as the kids say, "coping and seething"?[...]
Possible negative (for LDP) concessions
Possible positive concessions
- Deregulation, tax cuts, subsidy cuts. This is bad for LDP because they depend on the rural vote. Never underestimate farmer's ability to completely devastate the country as leverage
For Ishin, the cost of all this is stability. Many of Ishins domestic interests are fundamentally incompatible with LDP's rural interests. Ishin wants to cut spending and entitlements and infrastructure spending, Takaichi's LDP wants infinity gibmedats for old people and farmers funded by infinity bonds and infinity foreign investment. If Ishin is seen as too establishment, their core constituency will fuck them into the ground before they can accomplish any policy wins. Party members are already pissed over Ishin being willing to overlook the donation thing. Inner party opposition is feeling pressure to do something before the party loses all of its founding principles.
- Welfare and social security cuts can finally be politically justified
the absolute minimum mandatory pension contribution for all Japanese citizens is 114 dollars a month. health insurance is about 70 dollars. Total minimum tax obligations for a minimum wage worker is about 25% of gross income. This is for a full time minimum wage laborer, so $15700 a year. US minimum obligations are about 20% of gross income, but they have far more options for deductions and a much lower consumption tax (at the cost of having to deal with the most dysfunctional healthcare system ever created).Holy shit. I mean at least they aren't ccp shills... at least there's that i guess..... -_-
the absolute minimum mandatory pension contribution for all Japanese citizens is 114 dollars a month. health insurance is about 70 dollars. Total minimum tax obligations for a minimum wage worker is about 25% of gross income. This is for a full time minimum wage laborer, so $15700 a year. US minimum obligations are about 20% of gross income, but they have far more options for deductions and a much lower consumption tax (at the cost of having to deal with the most dysfunctional healthcare system ever created).
Japanese obligations balloon into about 33% quickly once you hit middle class income and cap out around 50% for wagies. For property owners, taxes can get absurdly high to the point where people would rather abandon land than use it productively.
Consumption tax is the most reviled tax in Japan. It was 0-3% all the way until the 2010s when it got cranked up to 10%. Pension and healthcare used to be low, but steadily climbed up from 3% to 10% to 15% since the 90s in order to support the inverted population pyramid.
A rule of thumb is that middle class Japanese pay about 125 - 150% more than the average american in social obligations.
Despite being "progressive" on paper, it's really just a enormous wealth transfer from young working people to senior citizens. It's nice that you can theoretically eke out a subsistence lifestyle on pension if you retire with no savings (assuming the entire pension system doesn't collapse in 30 years), but paying a 15% of your income on social security sucks when you are bagging burgers in mcdonalds that you cant even afford to eat.
As for the subsidies, most of it is just blatant vote-buying and union corruption. The rice shortage scandal proves that fostering non-competitiveness for your food supply is a really bad idea.
note: all these tax and social security trends happened under near uninterrupted LDP-komeito control in the last 40 years
all things considered, pretty good, prices for drugs and procedures are tightly controlled, and the overall level of public health is high enough to keep the system working, but the demographics are awful and people are living way too long. You mentioned Canada, but Japan's system is from the same liberal public/private template but actually functions. I cant think of a country with a better system that serves this many people.Speaking of, what is the current state of health care in Japan?