Imagine a party has ruled for 70 years as opposed to 4 years of opposition rule.
They’ve slowly changed electoral systems to be more favourable to them. They have complete control over what is taught to children. The whole society is “moulded” to support the LDP (name of the party).
Japan’s economy has failed to grow since the 90s. But still the LDP is in power. That says something.
The leftist alternatives have been demonised for 50 years. As a result, the only viable opposition in the upcoming election is populist far right.
And don’t be fooled by their name as the “Liberal-Democratic Party” Wikipedia classifies them as Right-Wing: Populist Conservative Nationalist.
To elaborate. The LDP does not teach Japanese people about World War 2 in an accurate matter at all. The Nanking Rape is not mentioned or revised, the rampant sexual slavery (comfort women) is omitted, kamikaze is never mentioned. The main thing they learnt about the war is “Japan was fighting colonial oppression, and then the US dropped atomic bombs to stop us”.
The left wing alternatives to the LDP dispute that. And so a lot of Japanese people view those alternatives as lying to make people feel guilty and in favour of “colonialism”.
If you have any questions, I can ask my wife, she worked for a left wing party in Japan.
Imagine a party has ruled for 70 years as opposed to 4 years of opposition rule.
They’ve slowly changed electoral systems to be more favourable to them. They have complete control over what is taught to children. The whole society is “moulded” to support the LDP (name of the party).
Japan’s economy has failed to grow since the 90s. But still the LDP is in power. That says something.
The leftist alternatives have been demonised for 50 years. As a result, the only viable opposition in the upcoming election is populist far right.
And don’t be fooled by their name as the “Liberal-Democratic Party” Wikipedia classifies them as Right-Wing: Populist Conservative Nationalist.
To elaborate. The LDP does not teach Japanese people about World War 2 in an accurate matter at all. The Nanking Rape is not mentioned or revised, the rampant sexual slavery (comfort women) is omitted, kamikaze is never mentioned. The main thing they learnt about the war is “Japan was fighting colonial oppression, and then the US dropped atomic bombs to stop us”.
The left wing alternatives to the LDP dispute that. And so a lot of Japanese people view those alternatives as lying to make people feel guilty and in favour of “colonialism”.
If you have any questions, I can ask my wife, she worked for a left wing party in Japan.