Discussion Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe assassinated.

[CastletonSnob]

July 8, 2022 Shinzo Abe shot dead in Nara, Japan

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has died after being shot during a speech in Nara, Japan. Follow here for live updates.

www.cnn.com

I tell ya, what is this world coming to?

What do you think will happen as a result of this assassination?

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

I've already seen people blame foreigners for this shooting even though the perpetrator was identified as Japanese. Hoping against hope that this is just a few loonies but I think this will sadly just increase anti-immigrant sentiment among the public.

 

[Drifting in a Dream]

What a tragedy.

I always thought the way politicians here campaign out in the open face-to-face with the public was neat and even symbolic of the political climate. It's hard to imagine political campaigns continuing just as they have. And, what does this mean for Abe's policies in particular going forward, I wonder.

I've already seen people blame foreigners for this shooting even though the perpetrator was identified as Japanese. Hoping against hope that this is just a few loonies but I think this will sadly just increase anti-immigrant sentiment among the public.

If I had to guess in regards to immigration, more than the assassination itself, seeing some people in neighboring countries celebrate Abe's death will cause hesitance on the issue among the non-radical public. I don't doubt that the situation is ripe for conspiracy theories among radical communities though.

 

[Christo750]

Holy shit. This is wild.

 

[BlueSpirit20]

Absolutely tragic.

 

[Deleted member 341]

Wow. What the fuck. Thats some crazy ass story to see after coming home from work.

 

[Phosphorescent Skeleton]

As much as I thought the guy was a piece of shit (forever fuck the LDP), I fear his assassintion will only make things worse here. I wish he could have lived to see his ideology and legacy in ruins.

 

[Roger Rabbit]

As much as I thought the guy was a piece of shit (forever fuck the LDP), I fear his assassintion will only make things worse here. I wish he could have lived to see his ideology and legacy in ruins.

Yea, it would have been good to see him and his wife actually face investigation of some of the scandals they were involved in.

Bet the family of the junior assistant who was driven to suicide from trying to cover up Abe's involvement are thinking that Abe got his just desserts.

Abe was an absolute turd. As if someone had combined the worst traits of Trump and Johnson.

 

[Brock Reiher]

what a way to go

 

[Zellia]

Not going to shed any tears for a war crime denying ultranationalist. Nothing good will come of assassinating him though.

 

[Raccoon]

Not going to shed any tears for a war crime denying ultranationalist. Nothing good will come of assassinating him though.

This is about how I feel. Regardless of the man himself, the assassination of a previous elected official is an alarming tragedy.

 

[Phantoon]

This is awful. Having had two MPs killed here in the last six years it's areally bad thing, regardless of the point of view of a human being killed. It puts an added distance between our elected officials and us. They're supposed to work for us, they shouldn't fear for their lives.

 

[Mekanos]

As much as I thought the guy was a piece of shit (forever fuck the LDP), I fear his assassintion will only make things worse here. I wish he could have lived to see his ideology and legacy in ruins.

This is true. Won’t lose a wink of sleep over a fascist getting sent into the next life but you’re already seeing a rise in racism and nationalism among reactionaries.

Including people blaming Hideo Kojima:

 

[7threst]

This is true. Won’t lose a wink of sleep over a fascist getting sent into the next life but you’re already seeing a rise in racism and nationalism among reactionaries.

Including people blaming Hideo Kojima:

W T F???? Damien Rieu is crazy AF....

 

[Raccoon]

This is true. Won’t lose a wink of sleep over a fascist getting sent into the next life but you’re already seeing a rise in racism and nationalism among reactionaries.

Including people blaming Hideo Kojima:

if this were a joke it'd be entirely inappropriate but very funny

 

[WestEgg]

I’m curious about the reaction in Japan. Like, obviously he’s not super popular here, but this still has to be pretty culturally traumatic.

 

[samouraï]

I’m curious about the reaction in Japan. Like, obviously he’s not super popular here, but this still has to be pretty culturally traumatic.

This is just my anecdote based entirely on the people I follow on twitter, but there's a lot of shock and sadness. He's decently popular there, people in the Anglosphere like to paint him as a divisive Trump-esque ultranationalist or something but from what Japanese people have told me he's just a blasé conservative.

 

[Phosphorescent Skeleton]

This is just my anecdote based entirely on the people I follow on twitter, but there's a lot of shock and sadness. He's decently popular there, people in the Anglosphere like to paint him as a divisive Trump-esque ultranationalist or something but from what Japanese people have told me he's just a blasé conservative.

This is also anecdotal, but I've never met or seen a left leaning Japanese person who didn't think he was a nationalist piece of shit at best and a fascist at worst.

 

[Mekanos]

This is just my anecdote based entirely on the people I follow on twitter, but there's a lot of shock and sadness. He's decently popular there, people in the Anglosphere like to paint him as a divisive Trump-esque ultranationalist or something but from what Japanese people have told me he's just a blasé conservative.

I'm not really sure people in the anglosphere would claim he's "divisive?" I think it's pretty clear Japanese politics have ratcheted right for the last 50 years, so conservatives will like him, which there are a lot of in Japan. The country hasn't had a serious left-wing movement since the 1960s (which reactionary forces, including the CIA, violently suppressed).

If you're talking about the greater East Asian sphere of politics, "divisive" is putting it mildly. In South Korea he had an approval rating of 3%. Understandable as he was the most prominent apologist and defender of Imperial Japan, one of the most destructive and evil military forces in modern history.

 

[Koyota]

This is also anecdotal, but I've never met or seen a left leaning Japanese person who didn't think he was a nationalist piece of shit at best and a fascist at worst.

This is probably true of people who are exposed internationally and also left-leaning of the country (Communist party has 5% of the seats etc.)

Problem is there are less left-leaning people then you expect, his party had a Super Majority for most of the time he was prime minister.
The stuff that he lost points for amongst general public wasn`t being a fascist , it was sending out shoddy masks to people and political scandals.

 

[Koren Lesthe]

Get damien rieu's ass and kick it at least seven hundred times with a Metal Gear Rex, PLEASE.

 

[KingOnion]

Leave it to the internet to make a bad situation worse and dumber. Hopefully these false Kojima implications will die out quickly. I also saw some hubub on twitter about an opposing politician in Japan saying the assassination was deserved due to the policies Abe pushed for, which goes to show America isn’t the only country with classless politicians.

 

[Terrell]

I’m curious about the reaction in Japan. Like, obviously he’s not super popular here, but this still has to be pretty culturally traumatic.

You’re likely to only see reactions of shock and sadness. Anecdotal evidence suggests that people within Japan who would have the most negative things to say about him are intentionally holding their tongues on the subject (for what I should think are obvious reasons), so you’ll never get an even mildly accurate picture of the sentiment on the ground without deep ties to leftist Japanese people who know you are safe to express their political opinions to. When you’re not hearing from anyone but LDP supporters/apologists and the apolitical population who are just shocked the guy they kept seeing on TV is dead, it skews the reality of the reaction.

This is probably true of people who are exposed internationally and also left-leaning of the country (Communist party has 5% of the seats etc.)

Problem is there are less left-leaning people then you expect, his party had a Super Majority for most of the time he was prime minister.
The stuff that he lost points for amongst general public wasn`t being a fascist , it was sending out shoddy masks to people and political scandals.

Actually, there’s likely MORE left-leaning people than you’d expect, but the problem is that the majority of them are below the age of 50 and are so politically disengaged that it would make the GOP jealous. Japan has one of the lower average voter turnout percentages in the OECD, and youth turnout in particular is near the absolute bottom. There are a number of reasons for this level of political disengagement in younger people there:

• Young people below the legal age to vote are prohibited by law from expressing political views publicly (no, seriously, look it up)
  • Prior to the lowering of the voting age in 2016 to 18, that meant that you couldn’t talk politics until you were 20
• Japanese schools offer near-zero civics education prior to university political science courses
  • Teachers are actually scared off from even attempting to teach it, for a combination of reasons
• University student-led protests and political action are prohibited by law (again, seriously, look it up)
  • It’s a holdover law from the US caring more about postwar Japan being an anti-socialist ally by ensuring the LDP stay in power and stamping out anti-US military occupation protests wherever possible
• Terrible, lop-sided or non-existent private and public media coverage of politics
  • the LDP leadership vote, for example, was said to have received an overwhelming amount of media coverage compared the actual elections themselves, and even that wasn’t all that much
• A social culture of discouraging political discourse by the public in general
• A gerontocratic and deeply discriminatory political system
  • Politicians treating voters like customers, with policies that cater exclusively to common repeat voters, of which the elderly are over-represented
  • Something like 3 quarters of Diet representatives are men over 60
  • Women politicians make up less than 10% of elected officials at any level of government and face constant misogyny, which naturally discourages any increase in that percentage
  • Other social/socioeconomic minorities (like LGBTQ people and the burakumin as a few examples) are almost never represented in politics (and if they end up in politics, it’s often by taking GREAT pains to hide these parts of themselves)
  • The number of elected officials in the Diet under 40 during Japan’s entire democratic history can probably be counted on your hands
  • I have never heard of a non-Japanese individual, even if born there (even if a member of the Ainu indigenous population), holding political office in Japan… like imagine if Congress was 100% white
• An intentionally unapproachable political discourse, with politicians regularly relying on impenetrable PoliSci jargon when discussing policy and their beliefs

And this is just off the top of my head stuff.
What all of that leads to is a youth population who are barely informed of what political parties properly match their ideals, what politicians actually stand for, not permitted or heavily discouraged from discussing politics (and growing their political beliefs as a result) and a system that shows no consideration for them or their needs. All that can lead to is either political apathy, apoliticism, a fear their political beliefs are ill-informed (which remains that way due to few avenues to investigate and challenge those beliefs) and a confusing mess of discourse to wade through just to participate politically and engage in a “democratic” vote for politicians who mostly do not represent them in the slightest but for a handful of exceptions. So yeah, I’m sure leftist sentiment is there in ways we barely realize, but you’d never hear most Japanese people admit to holding such beliefs, more often than not.

Japanese democracy is non-existent in these conditions, it exists as it does by being legitimized as a genuine democracy by other liberal nations that find these conditions advantageous to their interests, and I feel no amount of reform can properly repair the damage done, especially as Japan is approaching a brick wall where the under-employed “lost generation” will be unable to create the tax base or work force necessary to support the massively-inflating elderly population, or the nation as a whole. It’s a slow-motion car crash that everyone’s just watching in real time and doing nothing meaningful to stop.

 

[Fercho]

Well the worse thing about this is that conservatives and his supporters are going to use it as ammo in order to harass minorities in Japan, regardless to the fact that the assassin is Japonese (because that´s how these fucking ghouls roll, Japan or not).

Other than that i will not shed any tears for this man may he rest in piss.

 

[Koyota]

Actually, there’s likely MORE left-leaning people than you’d expect, but the problem is that the majority of them are below the age of 50 and are so politically disengaged that it would make the GOP jealous. Japan has one of the lower average voter turnout percentages in the OECD, and youth turnout in particular is near the absolute bottom. There are a number of reasons for this level of political disengagement in younger people there:

Thanks, Your detailed post is not in anyway incorrect regarding the problems with political systems in Japan, and explains very well the reasons why it is difficult for anyone but the status que to hold on to power. The population has not woken up.

Just going off the data that we have, though current polls, show you are actually more likely to vote left the older you are.
Support LDP the younger you are. Could be attributed to variety of factors like: the only youth that vote are the ones that are pushed by parents, celebs etc along with disengagement you pointed out.

Obviously low voter-turnout, means this is not the population at large. However I expect the rest of the youth population would tell you they have no political opinion.

People over 65 are more likely to have grown up in left wing University Protest period, when people were more politically awaken.


https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Datawatch/Japan-s-LDP-gains-more-popularity-among-people-under-40

JP link for the left poll
By Age group. Bright Red = LDP, Light Red = Komeito (LDP`S coalition party) Grey = Other, Light Blue = Nippon Ishin no Kai　(Right wing party), Dark Blue = Communist Party, 2nd Dark Blue = CDP the liberal opposition party.

 

[Terrell]

Thanks, Your detailed post is not in anyway incorrect regarding the problems with political systems in Japan, and explains very well the reasons why it is difficult for anyone but the status que to hold on to power, the population has not woken up.

Just going off the data that we have though current polls show you are actually more likely to vote left the older you are.
Support LDP the younger you are. This could be attributed to variety of factors like the only youth that vote are the ones that are pushed by parents, celebs etc along with all the disengagement you pointed out.

Obviously low voter-turnout etc means this is not the population at large, However I expect the rest of the youth population would tell you they have no political opinion.

People over 65 are more likely to have grown up in left wing University Protest period, when people were more politically awaken.


https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Datawatch/Japan-s-LDP-gains-more-popularity-among-people-under-40

JP link for the left poll
By Age group. Bright Red = LDP, Light Red = Komeito (LDP`S coalition party) Grey = Other, Light Blue = Nippon Ishin no Kai　(Right wing party), Dark Blue = Communist Party, 2nd Dark Blue = CDP the liberal opposition party.

The data from this poll doesn't seem to present the nitty-gritty statistics necessary for it to be rendered credible, like number of participants in each age bracket and in total, and I do not see a "don't know/can't say" option in this data, which suggests this is either data only from affirmative respondents in the polling or the poll required an answer from these set choices, which would grossly skew results.
It's also quite easy to suggest, as you mentioned, a level of influence from others and/or a certain level of influence from the default heuristic, where the less informed you are about your choices, the more likely you are to choose a default option (when, speaking of politics, is usually the governing party of the day and/or the one you're most familiar with due to your association with others), especially if you are in a position to not feel any negative effects from that choice.

Based on all that missing information and the ways it could have been skewed, you'll have to forgive me when I say that I'd need better data to make the same conclusion.