#with hopes to increase birthrates in japan

[cosmomoore]

I feel like we are continually on the verge of discovering that Elongated Muskrat is a D@rling in the Fr@nxx stan and that the propaganda worked on him.

[papirouge]

Have you been to Hungary? My friend is living there and is currently going to move soon since there were laws places that basically taxes women who didn’t have kids by 30. She’s faced so much racism there that she knows these laws are being passed because they’d rather force women there to have babies by any means to raise their birth rates than have black people living there

Never been in Hungary and tbh Eastern countries don't interest me that much... Racksm plays a big part ofc but there's nothing that I find truly appealing in them...Russia looks nice though but I wouldn't go there alone this time 😅 (I usually love travelling alone).

But tbh and maybe that's a controversial opinion but..... I don't mind countries favoring national fertility over immigration... Countries are entitled to regulate their intake of foreigners and tbh I don't understand how a country encouraging female citizens to have kids (with financial help, free housing for big families, etc.) would have any negative impact on immigrants who are already there🤔 Eastern countries are harsh but I don't think even them "force" women to get pregnant... maybe it would be more of "positive action" type of thing, but not straight up forceful impregnation 😅

Maybe that's bc we both live in country with a fair balanced fertility rates, but we truly don't realize how much of a tragedy declining birth rates are for society and economy.

I've been lurking on japanese message boards and Japan is infamous for its declining birth rates. The government is trying to find solution to put up with the aging population (which is expensive to take care of + has a more and more long life expectancy) and lack of labor since the population in age of working is collapsing. For that, it has to increase taxes, push the retirement age/make the elderly work (using robots...) and illegal work (to put up with labor shortcoming) is increasing... This is bad, and I totally understand why some countries are taking mesures to avoid this disaster.

There are plentiful of thread with women saying they couldn't afford a kid/gave up their hope of becoming a mother bc pretty much like every country in the northern hemisphere the inflation is affecting households big time. Add to that a growing ressentment of the young generation towards their elders in an aging society that's fated to become more accomodating to old people and totally disregarding their own specific aspirations and vision for the future (this clash of generation perfectly translated by the totally out of touch Olympics bureau, who, after the post C0vîd reorganization, removed from the ceremony everything that could be remotely ace/interesting for the younger gen (i.e Perfume performance/Michiko creative direction) and played it safe by capitalizing off the most predictable aspects of Japan culture (gaming, anime....).

Japan's declining birthrate apocalypse is a cautionary tale about what happens when a society is destroyed by the cost of living and social apathy, and Eastern countries are absolutely right to take the decisions to sustain their nation population.

[zeldahime]

So there's a couple reasons.

First, there's the very valid concern of, essentially, maintaining a labor force that is significantly higher than the number of non-working people. The people who are already born are likely to live into old age and age out of the labor force, and someone needs to care for them. Traditionally, this has been their offspring; more recently, it's been a combination of their offspring + nursing staff. It causes massive problems when the elderly population grows too large as a percentage of the total population. In Japan, 10% of the population is over the age of 80 and nearly a third are over the age of 65; as the Japanese birthrate continues to decline, that percentage will continue to grow. Even with their relatively generous social welfare system, it's already causing cultural and economic problems that the Japanese government is being very slow to address.

I thought this Master's thesis a very good summary of the problems caused by this population imbalance is causing Japan. There's not enough resources to care for the elderly. There's not enough money and there's not enough people. The elderly are dying poorer and lonelier; their adult children, especially their daughters, are working twice as hard and having to be caretaker to both their aging parents and their own children. It's a self-reinforcing cycle, because those adult children delay or forego romantic relationships and childbirths themselves, and when they are old in 30 years, they'll have the same problems, compounded.

In general, in order to maintain a healthy proportion of working-aged people, it's considered advisable to have a fertility rate a little over 2, as a replacement rate. (A little higher than 2, because children and young people do still die, tragically.) This is usually represented as 2.1, but it varies by region.

For what it's worth, I don't read any judgement from the Economist article. They're reporting a fact: the birthrates in wealthy Western countries are low, they're especially low with younger women and are predicted to stay low as they age, and governments are trying to use economic incentives to increase birthrates rather than looking at alternatives to increase the working population such as allowing higher levels of immigration. They're talking like economists, which I know can sound uncompassionate, but it doesn't mean they think 16-year-olds should become baby mills.

This isn't just a problem of wealthy countries, either; fertility is falling in middle- and low-income countries too. Immigration won't fix that. There's going to be a massive demographic crisis in about 50-100 years if current trends continue. I may still be alive in the beginning phases—and if I am, as an elderly person of limited means and no children, I'll definitely suffer it. (This is the Lancet paper cited in the Economist article; I haven't read it quite yet, but I intend to when I get home tonight.)

Yet some considerations should give politicians pause. The extra children produced by targeted policies will probably not turn into the productivity-boosting professionals that governments most desire. Only 8% of the children of American-born non-college-educated parents are themselves expected to obtain a bachelor’s degree, and during his or her adult life the average high-school graduate boosts the public finances by less than a tenth of the net contribution of a college graduate. Therefore the financial benefits of pro-natal policies aimed at working-class women would probably be overwhelmed by their costs, given the expense associated with even well-targeted programmes. The best hope for such policies would lie in boosting the life outcomes of extra children. Early evidence from trials such as the one in Flint and covid-19 assistance programmes suggests that cash transfers lift children’s performance in early schooling and improve access to health care. Another consideration for politicians is the morality of such interventions. Policymakers sought to break the norm of young motherhood for a reason. Each year a woman goes without childbearing, her expected lifetime earnings increase. A first-time American mother in her mid-30s will earn more than twice what she would have earned had she had her first child aged 22. Women who give birth aged 15 to 19 are more likely to develop health problems; their first child is more likely to drop out of high school and to grow up without having both parents at home. In Flint many mothers express regret that they did not manage to “get things sorted” before they started to have children. “Hang on,” says one outside a community centre. “The idea is that I get paid just enough to make me have another kid? But that’s all that changes? Where doing it [raising a kid] right, later on, it’s all me? That doesn’t seem right.” The 26-year-old mother of three leans back, and laughs.

The article concludes with this: the reason birthrates are falling and are not likely to increase any time soon, even with all the interventions being reported upon in this article. It's better for the women and it's better for the children, for women not to have children when they're still very young.

[paulagnewart]

Sonic the Oz-Hog Act 5/12: Best Laid Schemes (of Mikes and Mobians)!

Sonic the Hedgehog issue 134 AU Publication Date: 17th May 2004 Price: $5.40

For the first time in its life, Sonic fandom truly understood the meaning of war.

Never let it be said humanity will someday exhaust new and depraved ways to destroy one-another. From religious to political spats, extortion to embezzlement schemes, even petty squabbles in carparks. All it takes is a bruised ego and makeshift weapon to bring one or more life to a violent end in the barbarous pursuit of perceived justice.

The tragedy yielded upon thousands of innocents during September 2001 left the western world reeling. Months of anguish soon devolved to hatred, citizens and politicians desperately seeking answers and faces to paint as "the enemy". Taking a leaf from Ronald Reagan's book, US President George W. Bush proudly proclaimed his mission to "lead the world to victory". The media lapped it up, declared him "the avenger" in "a monumental struggle of good versus evil", and by the dawn of 2004, multiple nations were swept into the 21st century's first war.

Fictitious children's entertainment was far from safe. Swaths of "Mah Paytriatizm!" echoed across message boards and group chats. Fans projected such sentiments through art and stories, depicting their favourite characters decked out in full realistic militaristic garb, ready to fight their cause. In time, they too descended into anarchy when fansites boasted about going to war with each other.

Restoring the environment after Summer bushfires ravaged Dubbo and Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park was inconsequential. When not gleefully orchestrating the modern equivalent of Harold Holt's "All the way with LBJ!" speech supporting Bush's war in Afghanistan, then-ruler of the land John Howard (one day I'll get a chance to discuss a different Prime Minister, I swear!) waged war on migrants and contraceptives. Responding to a droop in national birthrates, the government hoped to persuade voters by dangling $3000 over their heads. The "Baby Bonus" announced in May 2004's budget instantly went down in infamy after offsider Peter Costello emphatically begged Aussies to "Have one for mum, one for dad and one for the country!". A temporary boost which totally wouldn't backfire on the housing market decades down the line.

After nine years dominating the war on morning entertainment, not even Cheez TV escaped its clutches when news of cancellation leaked online two weeks prior. In a move mirroring the final fate of longtime rival Agro's Cartoon Connection, Monday 3rd May 2004 saw 30 minutes permanently stripped from its timeslot, host segments reduced to barely a minute, and parody songs/skits virtually nonexistent. Any few remaining Cheezoids tuning in 17th May watched the premieres of Dragon Ball GT episode 'Saying Goodbye', and Pokémon Master Quest finale 'Hoenn Alone!'. How ironic. Both franchises at one point the hottest craze in the country, now long past their prime and cast aside in favour of new, more exciting animated imports.

And Sonic fans verged on a little civil war of their own.

To think 2004 began with such promise. Having boasted on IGN how 2003 was "Year of the Sonic", the only way was up for SEGA's mascot. New games like Sonic Heroes and Sonic Advance were on their way to shifting over a million units each. A new anime pulling respectable ratings in Japan and the US. Merchandise and fast food promotions sold well, and with annual profits up 300 percent, other companies were taking note. Archie Sonic equally enjoyed success with increased circulation figures and media attention thanks to co-creator Yuji Naka's contribution to their 10th anniversary milestone issue.

After years of crafting stories around SEGA/editorial mandates, head writer Karl Bollers entered 2004 with a spring in his step and a bold new vision for Knothole's finest. Having nailed the details with editor Justin Gabrie over the weekend, he dropped by the KP WWWBoard on the afternoon of 4th January to wish readers a happy new year and discuss canonicity of the impending 'Mobius: 25 Years Later'. This message was well-received by fans. Or at least the select few who saw, for it was deleted within the hour. Bollers tried again shortly thereafter, only for the webmaster to yet again hit delete. His days answering questions and chatting with fans on that site were over.

Thanks to prior (or more fittingly "Pryor") experience writing Marvel's favourite mutants, long-running fansite ComiX-Fan invited Bollers to host a section of their message board in August 2003. Initially limited to X-Men discussions, the floodgates opened 5 days later for Sonic fans. No longer would they have to rely on contact through other boards or ICQ chats, though he still occasionally visited Sonic HQ's Knothole Village to put Dan Drazen in his place. Excellent resource as it was, sadly would not survive to see year's end.

Among the numerous stories discussed was issue 134's 'Say You Will', the culmination of his 'Home' saga. To say its 19 pages raffled the fandom's jaffas is an understatement.

But as is the way with many works, general consensus changes over time. Contemporary sources like the Archie Sonic Wiki will boast the "massive outrage" it brought, and how Sally's reputation "went downhill with fans". Such hyperbolic inaccuracies are par the course unfortunately. From the perspective of someone who lived this issue and its fandom the first time around, the truth is far more nuanced.

Sally Acorn had been a popular target long before 'Say You Will' hit shelves. From video game purists demanding no "canon foreigners" in their favourite media, to shippers with the pointless yet staggering "Sally Vs. Amy" debate which gained traction among online fans since the release of Sonic Adventure. Sites who already looked down upon Archie's efforts including Sonic Anime, The GHZ and Sonic CulT were given more ammunition to push their views, declaring anyone who liked this supposed "Psycho Sally" not a true fan.

If outrage existed, one wouldn't have found it on pro-Archie sites like Sonic HQ. Once a major watering hole, readers heaped praise on the story. "This argument had to come eventually" they said, or how "Superman and Lois split up not long before they got married, so all is not lost". Newcomer artist and then-forum moderator Jon Gray also received his fair share of love, having "brought a life to the comic I haven't seen in ages", and "everything about it is vibrant and lively, the characters seem to burst off the page, they're that expressive". Residents of the Knothole Village Message Board overall viewed it "a treat for me and a delight to read", going so far to vote 'Say You Will' the best story of 2004.

Other websites proved indifferent, split or worse. The Sonic Foundation and TeamArtail, the latter of which hosted plenty of Archie Sonic fans, remained civil. DeviantArt not so much. And despite longtime fan Ian Potto summarising the story in his review as "brilliant", the KP WWWBoard spent weeks at each other's throats. Bollers was heavily targeted for Sonic and Sally's fight, Bunnie's newfound firearm appreciation and more. Yet none moreso than webmaster BobR who went straight for the jugular after this issue's release, launching a scathing verbal strike and ousting the identities of writers Benny Lee and Romy Chacon.

Was 'Say You Will' the unspeakable abomination touted by fans today? Hardly. It's true plenty of vocal detractors hated the new direction, but others equally sang high praise. Which is far more than can be said for the likes of 'Return to Angel Island', 'Sonic's Angels' and 'Line of Succession', all of which were even worse recieved by fans at the time. Many diehards chose to wait it out and see where the story went before casting final judgement, but they would never get the chance. By the time of release, Justin Gabrie was gone and Mike Pellerito stepped in to weave his editorial red pen, swiftly cancelling any and all prospects of 'One Year Later' seeing fruition.

Sadly this will be the last retrospective to feature Karl Bollers, on what was fittingly enough his final 'full' story. There are a plethora of excellent comics under his belt worth discussing, and wouldn't mind tackling them another day. In the meantime, it's cathartic knowing he's continuing to make an impact on the industry. Having joined Oni Press last year, I have no doubt that if asked, he'd be perfect for their recently announced 'Biker Mice from Mars' miniseries. Goes without saying he's had plenty of experience writing a turbo-revving freedom fighting anthropomorphic rodent's gang who protect the environment from a portly intergalactic warlord.

To conclude this excessively long-winded post, I'm reminded of a coincidentally fitting event; throughout May 2004, the Australian music chart was a constant battleground between two performers, each rising and falling from top spot. D12's 'My Band' took a swing at the superego, chronicling singer Eminem's public perception as the band's star attraction. The hero. The main man. The one who gets the job done overshadowing everyone else. Anastasia meanwhile told a gripping, emotion-charged ballad 'Left Outside Alone', reciting her feelings of anguish towards a failed relationship. How she wasted years imagining a fairytale ending only to face for the harsh realisation it would never happen, slowly gather her voice, and defiantly speak out against her fears.

Two entirely different musical genres and themes. Yet they both perfectly encapsulate Sonic and Sally's respective feelings by issue's end. Each wanted the same thing but refused to meet in the middle, irreparably hurting one-another in the process.

And if us humans aren't willing to meet in the middle to work through our differences, what hope did a pair of comic book characters have?

Next Time: The phrase "Go Big or Go Home" is rarely thrown around anymore. But for a time, Archie Sonic was willing to indulge both. One of their "big"gest outputs will be going under the knife, shamelessly boasting a special surprise or two along the way.

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[newstfionline]

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

First Arctic Navigation in February (Bloomberg) A tanker sailed through Arctic sea ice in February for the first time, the latest sign of how quickly the pace of climate change is accelerating in the Earth’s northernmost regions. The Christophe de Margerie was accompanied by the nuclear-powered 50 Let Pobedy icebreaker as it sailed back to Russia this month after carrying liquified natural gas to China through the Northern Sea Route in January. Both trips broke navigation records. The experimental voyage happened after a year of extraordinarily warm conditions in the Arctic that have sent shockwaves across the world, from the snowstorm that blanketed Spain in January to the blast of cold air that swept through Canada in mid-February, moving deep into the South as far as Texas. The Arctic is warming more than twice as quickly as the rest of the world and the area covered by ice there has reached historic lows multiple times over the past 12 months. The melting in the region is already in line with the worst-case climate scenarios outlined by scientists.

Biden mourns 500,000 dead, balancing nation’s grief and hope (AP) With sunset remarks and a national moment of silence, President Joe Biden on Monday confronted head-on the country’s once-unimaginable loss—half a million Americans in the COVID-19 pandemic—as he tried to strike a balance between mourning and hope. “We often hear people described as ordinary Americans. There’s no such thing,” he said Monday evening. “There’s nothing ordinary about them. The people we lost were extraordinary.” The president, who lost his first wife and baby daughter in a car collision and later an adult son to brain cancer, leavened the grief with a message of hope. “This nation will smile again. This nation will know sunny days again. This nation will know joy again. And as we do, we’ll remember each person we’ve lost, the lives they lived, the loved ones they left behind.” He said, “We have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow. We have to resist viewing each life as a statistic or a blur or, on the news. We must do so to honor the dead. But, equally important, to care for the living.”

Texans Needed Food and Comfort After a Brutal Storm. As Usual, They Found It at H-E-B. (NYT) The past week had been a nightmare. A winter storm, one of the worst to hit Texas in a generation, robbed Lanita Generous of power, heat and water in her home. The food she had stored in her refrigerator and freezer had spoiled. She was down to her final five bottles of water. But on Sunday, as the sun shined and ice thawed in Austin, Ms. Generous did the same thing as many Texans in urgent need of food, water and a sense of normalcy: She went to H-E-B. “They’ve been great,” she said, adding with just a touch of hyperbole: “If it hadn’t been for the bread and peanut butter, I would have died in my apartment.” H-E-B is a grocery store chain. But it is also more than that. People buy T-shirts that say “H-E-B for President,” and they post videos to TikTok declaring their love, like the woman clutching a small bouquet of flowers handed to her by an employee: “I wish I had a boyfriend like H-E-B. Always there. Gives me flowers. Feeds me.” For many Texans, H-E-B reflected the ways the state’s maverick spirit can flourish: reliable for routine visits but particularly in a time of disaster, and a belief that the family-owned chain—with a vast majority of its more than 340 locations inside state lines—has made a conscious choice to stay rooted to the idea of being a good neighbor. “It’s like H-E-B is the moral center of Texas,” said Stephen Harrigan, a novelist and journalist who lives in Austin. “There seems to be in our state a lack of real leadership, a lack of real efficiency, on the political level. But on the business level, when it comes to a grocery store, all of those things are in place.”

Hunger in Central America skyrockets, U.N. agency says (Reuters) The number of people going hungry in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua has nearly quadrupled in the last two years, the United Nations said on Tuesday, as Central America has been battered by an economic crisis. New data released by the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) showed nearly 8 million people across the four countries are experiencing hunger this year, up from 2.2 million in 2018. “The COVID-19-induced economic crisis had already put food on the market shelves out of reach for the most vulnerable people when the twin hurricanes Eta and Iota battered them further,” Miguel Barreto, WFP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, said in a statement.

Prison riots in Ecuador leave 62 dead (AP) Sixty-two inmates have died in riots at prisons in three cities in Ecuador as a result of fights between rival gangs and an escape attempt, authorities said Tuesday. Prisons Director Edmundo Moncayo said in a news conference that 800 police offices have been helping to regain control of the facilities. Hundreds of officers from tactical units had been deployed since the clashes broke out late Monday. Moncayo said that two groups were trying to gain “criminal leadership within the detention centers” and that the clashes were precipitated by a search for weapons carried out Monday by police officers.

Mount Etna eruption lights up Sicily's night sky (BBC) Mount Etna is erupting again, and its hot lava fountains are illuminating the Sicilian sky. The eruption began earlier this week, and Etna has since been spewing massive orange plumes of smoke and thick clouds of ash. Etna is Europe's most active volcano, and it erupts relatively often. The last major eruption was in 1992. Its eruptions have rarely caused damage or injury in recent decades - and officials believe this eruption is no exception. Stefano Branco, the head of the National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) in the nearby city of Catania, told Italian news agency AGI earlier this week: "We've seen worse."

Cow science (Foreign Policy) A new national exam on cows developed by the Indian government-backed National Cow Commission has been shelved following controversy over its less-than-scientific contents. The curriculum for the test involved erroneous claims about the virtues of Indian cows that were widely ridiculed by the country’s scientific community. Among the “facts” on display: That Indian cows have a special “solar pulse” in their humps which can supposedly convert sun rays into vitamin D that is then passed on to milk, and an assertion that Indian cows are “strong” whereas foreign cows are “lazy.” The issue of cows, considered sacred by Hindus, and their treatment has become even more of a cultural wedge issue in India following the rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government, with sometimes deadly results. Attacks by vigilante “cow protection” groups killed 44 people between 2015 and 2018 according to Human Rights Watch, with Muslims among the majority of those targeted.

Japan creates Minister of Loneliness to fight COVID-19 suicides (New York Post) Japan just appointed a Minister of Loneliness—to try to combat its exploding suicide rate amid COVID-19. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga named Tetsushi Sakamoto, a cabinet member already trying to beef up the depressed country’s birthrate, to the post. Suga noted earlier this month that Japanese women, in particular, have been struggling with depression since the coronavirus pandemic began about a year ago—with nearly 880 female suicide victims in the country alone in October, a 70 percent increase over the year before, the BBC reported. Japanese suicide expert Michiko Ueda told the BBC that part of the problem involves an increasing number of single women in the country who don’t have stable employment. “A lot of women are not married anymore,” she said. “They have to support their own lives, and they don’t have permanent jobs.”

Facebook Strikes Deal to Restore News Sharing in Australia (NYT) Facebook said on Monday that it would restore the sharing and viewing of news links in Australia after gaining more time to negotiate over a proposed law that would require it to pay for news content that appears on its site. The social network had blocked news links in Australia last week as the new law neared passage. The legislation includes a code of conduct that would allow media companies to bargain individually or collectively with digital platforms over the value of their news content. Facebook had vigorously objected to the code, which would curb its power and drive up its spending for content, as well as setting a precedent for other governments to follow. The company had argued that news would not be worth the hassle in Australia if the bill became law. But on Monday, Facebook returned to the negotiating table after the Australian government granted a few minor concessions.

U.S.-Saudi ties (Foreign Policy) The families of the three U.S. service members killed and 13 others injured by Mohammed Alshamrani, a Saudi airman who went on a shooting spree at Naval Air Station Pensacola in 2019, are suing Saudi Arabia’s government, alleging that the kingdom failed to screen him appropriately before sending him to the United States for training. The families are filing the lawsuit against Saudi Arabia based on a 2016 law that allows U.S. citizens to sue foreign governments over terrorist attacks—legislation that was initially passed in order to allow the families of 9/11 victims to bring a civil suit against Saudi Arabia.

Italian Ambassador Among Three Killed in Attack on U.N. Convoy in Congo (NYT) For Luca Attanasio, Italy’s ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, humanitarian work was at the core of his mission. The 43-year-old had moved with his wife to the capital, Kinshasa, in 2017, where their family grew to include three young daughters. He rose to the rank of ambassador in 2019, the pinnacle of his diplomatic career. On Monday, Mr. Attanasio was among three people killed in an attack on a humanitarian convoy near the city of Goma, the World Food Program and Italy’s Foreign Ministry said, the latest in a wave of violence in that part of the central African nation. The deaths of Mr. Attanasio; an Italian Embassy official, named by the Foreign Ministry as Vittorio Iacovacci; and Mustapha Milambo, a driver for the World Food Program, have rattled the international diplomatic community and drawn condemnation from across the globe.

Flood damage and insurance (NPR) Right now, over 4 million houses and small apartments in the contiguous United States are at substantial risk of expensive flood damage, and the cost of flood damage to homes will increase by 50 percent over the next 30 years according to the First Street Foundation. As the climate changes, places that were perfectly safe to live in will no longer be as sure of bets as they once were, and the costs are about to be a serious reality check. The National Flood Insurance Program is $36 billion in debt because of underestimated risks. Over the next several years, FEMA plans to raise rates up to 18 percent a year until prices are accurate, starting this October.

[ryo-yamamoto-blog]

My response to societies issue in Japan

Currently, election campaigns to select Diet members are active in Japan. Whenever this topic comes up, the problem always comes up with "low turnout". The LDP, now in power, has formed a coalition government with New Komeito and holds a majority of the seats. This is not a problem in itself, but the problem is that, taking advantage of having a majority of seats, the government is implementing policies and bills it wants to implement without much discussion. Many of these policies, such as the consumption tax hike and an increase in the acceptance of foreign workers, are being carried out at a rapid pace in preparation for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, despite the fact that they must be prepared in terms of public awareness and systems before their enforcement. In particular, many people have doubts about the consumption tax hike because the problem of children on waiting lists and deflation has not been solved. Some may say, "IT CAN'T BE HELPED BECAUSE THE PEOPLE CHOSEN IT IN THE ELECTION." but the problem is "the number of votes the LDP received in an election in which the LDP took power". The figure at this time was only 18%. In other words, the LDP is supported by only 18% of the people. In a democratic society, this figure does not fully reflect the will of the people. The reason the LDP was able to take power is that the voter turnout for the election was about 50%. Moreover, less than half of them (18 ~ 35 years old) are suffering from deflation, pay cuts and the consumption tax hike. Still, they think, "I don't like the consumption tax increase because it will run out more money.". However, if they had voted properly, the LDP might not have been in power, but the reasons for not voting were "bothersome" "EVEN IF I Vote, IT WON'T CHANGE." and "(Because the previous Democratic administration was terrible,) better than Democrats.". This is why it is called "The Japanese are indifferent to politics.". Although they are dissatisfied with the policies, they do not vote in elections to express their will. The number of young people who think like this is increasing year by year. Such a situation would make it difficult for the will of the people to be reflected in the future of Japan, which faces a number of major problems such as deflation, a declining birthrate and an aging population. To do so, I will have to go to the polls myself and gradually expand my "importance of one vote". Young people today also find it troublesome to look at the manifestos of each political party. This is because the individualistic idea of "Other people are others, I am myself." is firmly established. It is true that not everyone needs to have the same idea, but as long as we have democracy and a system in which we choose our own representatives, I believe that young people, including myself, should actively think about the current situation and convey their will. Even with the "Other people are others, I am myself.", Japan is indeed a "his own country" so I share videos of political parties' policy speeches on SNS sites in order to build a sense of ownership. I hope that as many young people as possible will vote.

[kleeklutch]

What started as the question of “How many kids are in a grade in District 12?” grew into a project of sorting out age-structure demographics for all of Panem because, why not?

Using information from pai.org (this document in particular) and indexmundi.org, about our world today and the relationship between age-structure and its influence on a country and vice versa, the conditions of a country and its influence on age structure, I believe it is possible to reverse engineer the age demographics of Panem.

Huge thanks to @randomnoteforfuturereference for lending me headcanon populations of Panem as well as a good bit of feedback while working through the data ^_^

Age Structure Demographics give an important snapshot of a country’s conditions and its effect on the population and one can infer the impact of the age structure on the country as well. For my purposes, age structure is divided into 5 main bins (standard): children 0-14, young adult 15-24, working class 25-54, older adult 55-64, and aged 65+. The relative percentages in each of these bins make up the age structure. I tended to focus on the “children” bin and “aged” bin the most and fill out the rest of the tables with suitable estimates. The aged population was key to understanding the long term conditions of a country/district so it was a very important factor to me. The child population’s importance is that it reflects birthrate and is an indicator of future conditions of the country/district.

I started with District 12 where my keenest interests lay (not sure rn if it should be lay or lie or past tense lied or whatever damn English grammar). So my first goal was to rummage around various countries and find ones that most closely fit what we know of district 12 and I felt like places like Mexico and India were good fits (I was also generally keeping to better known larger countries). For district 11 I used African nations like Central African Republic or Somalia because I feel like it’d have a similarly high brithrate due to the need for many workers, and also harsh conditions because of trackerjackers, trigger-happy PKs, harder work conditions that inevitably shorten life, and probably even less healthcare than was available in Twelve. For the Career districts I used a generous US percentage (i.e. similar to US, but higher birthrate and smaller aged population) and for Capitol I used Japan, only a little more extreme towards having a reduced birthrate and increased older adult percentage. Across all of the districts I kept a lower percentage of aged compared to  what we know here due to lack of overall healthcare. I do headcanon that Capitol probably vaccinated its citizens in the self interest of herd immunity and keeping production going. They wouldn’t want epidemics wiping out swaths of the population. But in terms of being able to see a doctor when sick? No. People had to tough it out, get creative, see apothecaries or herbal healers, but resources for that would be small. Anyway, I hope you enjoy! Feel free to ask questions or share input if you have any additional thoughts.

Oh yeah so there were about 171 kids per grade in district 12.

[kayleemaxin]

Ok, I understand the basis of this argument BUT! I also see how its possible

The example I will be using is earth and true it might not apply to other worlds considering life span and evolution. But in terms of earth

If we woke up and 50% of the worlds population and resources disappeared, the world would possibly be better off. 

1. Pollution would be cut immediately. Global warming would possibly be put on hold and the earth would have some time to recover hopefully (I do recognise that if half the Flora disappeared that this might not be the case but considering none of the Wakanda trees and bushes turned to dust during the fight I’d say thats unlikely to be the case) 2. With the assumption that Flora is untouched that would mean there would be more recourses for the remaining animals. Animals would thus be able to repopulate at a far faster rate. (Animals due tend to mature in faster life cycles then humans) Especially in more remote areas. (this would also depend on if the 50% were taking randomly but evenly across the world or truly at random with for example similar rain forest areas loosing more birds then monkeys and vis versa)

3. If human’s lost 50% of their population there would be a whole range of social stages. Such as panic, some political uprising, ect. But lets make this simple and not pull on that atm. Humanity would loose 50% of its work force. 50% at random would mean some needed skills might have much less people e.g farmers. Additionally think about it what of out of the 50% remaining people a majority were elderly? It would mean that in a few years time there would be a lower birthrate due to the ages of those remaining and a higher number of those dead by age (simplified assumption but I hope you get where I am going here). It can also be opposite if a majority of those remaining were young children. A lack of accessible food would mean a higher death rate. 4. We also need to take into account how a loss of 50% of the population would effect diffrent areas of the world. e.g Country vs city, Japan vs Norway. It think its safe to say each nation and area would not lose exactly half the population in their area after all in Tony’s battle out of the 4 humans in the area 3 of them disappeared rather then 2. What would happen to those in less populated areas? Would the remaining people move to a city? Or would the people in the city start spreading out more into the country due to the lack of workforce and need for more people to be working agriculture. (I do understand the argument about technology and machines but we can go in two ways, increase in technology or a lack of specialised workers, man power or material to build those machines might turn to humans spreading out in order to try to gather those resources and using manual labour in the mean time.

Conclusion. There is a possibility Thanos is right about obliterating 50% of population and resources “resetting” a planet. However that depends on a wide range of factors such as social structure life spans of both fauna and flora and the reaction of species to the event. It is not immediatly out of the rehelm of possibility. 

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

[iwazuhi]

japanese high school kids are hilarious

some (paraphrased) lines from japanese high school kids' english speeches:

"today, i have confessed my love for BIGBANG to all of you"

"i think most of you have your own smartphone and i also think some of you use it too much"

"today, i will talk about parallel universes"

"a solution to the declining birthrate in japan is to increase the number of attractive men" --> "in conclusion, i hope for more attractive men"

[newstfionline]

Headlines

Life on Venus? Astronomers See a Signal in Its Clouds (NYT) High in the toxic atmosphere of the planet Venus, astronomers on Earth have discovered signs of what might be life. If the discovery is confirmed by additional telescope observations and future space missions, it could turn the gaze of scientists toward one of the brightest objects in the night sky. Venus, named after the Roman goddess of beauty, roasts at temperatures of hundreds of degrees and is cloaked by clouds that contain droplets of corrosive sulfuric acid. Few have focused on the rocky planet as a habitat for something living. The astronomers, who reported the finding on Monday in a pair of papers, have not collected specimens of Venusian microbes, nor have they snapped any pictures of them. But with powerful telescopes, they have detected a chemical—phosphine—in the thick Venus atmosphere. After much analysis, the scientists assert that something now alive is the only explanation for the chemical’s source. Some researchers question this hypothesis, and they suggest instead that the gas could result from unexplained atmospheric or geologic processes on a planet that remains mysterious. But the finding will also encourage some planetary scientists to ask whether humanity has overlooked a planet that may have once been more Earthlike than any other world in our solar system.

Global views of U.S. plunge to new lows amid pandemic, poll finds (Washington Post) President Trump defended his handling of the coronavirus pandemic during an interview with Fox News over the weekend, arguing that he took “tremendous steps” early in the outbreak, which “saved probably two or two and a half million lives.” But the rest of the world does not appear to share in the conclusions of his self appraisal. In a new poll of 13 nations released Tuesday, a median of 15 percent of respondents said the United States had handled the pandemic well, while 85 percent said the country had responded poorly. The data, released by Pew Research Center, suggests that the international reputation of the United States has dropped to a new low in the face of a disorganized response to the novel coronavirus that saw the country come to lead the world in virus-related deaths. Among some traditional allies like Germany, views of the United States have declined to the lowest levels since Pew began tracking them nearly two decades ago.

400,000 Immigrants Can Be Forced to Leave the U.S., Court Rules (NYT) A federal appeals court ruled on Monday that the Trump administration acted within its authority in terminating legal protections that have allowed hundreds of thousands of immigrants to live and work legally in the United States, sometimes for decades, after fleeing conflict or natural disasters in their home countries. The 2-1 ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit effectively strips legal immigration status from some 400,000 people, rendering them deportable if they do not voluntarily leave the country. The decision affects the overwhelming majority of beneficiaries of a program offering what is known as “temporary protected status,” which has permitted them to remain in the United States after being uprooted from their unstable homelands. The Trump administration has argued that the emergency conditions that existed when people were invited to come to the United States—earthquakes, hurricanes, civil war—had occurred long ago. The program, it said, had inadvertently conferred permanent immigration status for people from places like El Salvador, Haiti and Sudan, most of whom it said no longer needed safe haven. The long-awaited decision does not immediately end the protections. The Trump administration has agreed to maintain them until at least March 5, 2021, for people from five of the affected countries and until November 2021 for people from El Salvador.

Triple the U.S. population? (Washington Post) Much of the recent debate over immigration to the United States has been about how to reduce it. Matthew Yglesias, a Vox co-founder, offers a different idea: Increase immigration—by a lot. His new book, “One Billion Americans,” argues for radically increasing the country’s population through immigration and a higher birthrate. Yglesias points out that even if all of the new Americans lived in the continental U.S., it would still have less than half the population density of Germany. And only if the U.S. vastly increases its population can it hope to keep pace with the growing power of authoritarian China, he argues. “Rather than being paralyzed by racial panic, ecopessimism, or paranoia about the loss of parking spaces,” he writes, “America should aspire to be the greatest nation on earth.”

Choking air from Western fires just won’t ease up (AP) Relief from putrid, dangerous air spewing from massive wildfires across the West won’t come until later in the week or beyond, scientists and forecasters say, and the hazy and gunk-filled skies might stick around for even longer. People in Oregon, Washington and parts of California were struggling under acrid yellowish-green smog—the worst, most unhealthy air on the planet according to some measurements. It seeped into homes and businesses, sneaked into cars through air conditioning vents and caused the closure of iconic locations such as Powell’s Books and the Oregon Zoo in Portland, the state’s biggest city. The air was so thick that on Monday Alaska Airlines announced it was suspending service to Portland and Spokane, Washington, until Tuesday afternoon. Hazy, smoky skies fouled Washington state and experts said some parts of California might not see relief until next month. Some areas of central California blanketed by smoke are not likely to see relief until October, said Dan Borsum, the incident meteorologist for a fire in Northern California.

US tariffs on China ruled to be illegal by world trade body (AP) The World Trade Organization said Tuesday that Trump administration tariffs on Chinese goods totaling more than $200 billion are illegal under the rules of the global trade body. In its decision, the WTO ruled against the Trump administration’s argument that China has engaged in practices harmful to U.S. interests, on issues including intellectual property theft, technology transfer and innovation. The ruling, in theory, would allow China to impose retaliatory tariffs on billions worth of U.S. goods—if the process is completed. But the U.S. government can appeal the decision announced by the WTO’s dispute settlement body, and the WTO’s appeals court is currently no longer functioning—largely because of Washington’s single-handed refusal to accept new members for it. The U.S. tariffs target two batches of Chinese products. Duties of 10% were imposed on some $200 billion worth of goods in September 2018, and were jacked up to 25% eight months later. An additional 25% duties were imposed in June 2018 against Chinese goods worth about $34 billion in annual trade.

Venezuela says it has captured American ‘mercenary’ plotting to blow up power plants, oil refineries (Washington Post) Venezuela’s authoritarian government claimed Monday that it had dismantled a covert operation to blow up power plants and oil facilities to destabilize the socialist state, saying it had detained eight plotters including an American traveling with heavy arms, explosives, surveillance footage and cash. In a nationally televised address, Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab said active members of the Venezuelan military had aided the American, identified by authorities as Matthew John Heath. Saab said that Heath had a background working “as a mercenary” for U.S. intelligence in Iraq and that items in his possession had linked him to the CIA. Saab did not provide evidence for the claims. If true, the alleged plot would be the latest in a series of foiled operations against the government of President Nicolás Maduro. In May, two former U.S. Green Berets—Airan Berry, 42, and Luke Denman, 34—were detained on the Venezuelan coast in connection with a ragtag raid aimed at capturing or ousting the autocratic leader.

Fear in Northern Ireland, as Boris Johnson threatens the E.U. over Brexit (Washington Post) Boris Johnson is moving forward on his threat to override the Brexit withdrawal agreement with the European Union — a move that every living former British prime minister warns against — and the people of Northern Ireland again find themselves fearful that decisions made in London and Brussels could upend the hard-won peace and prosperity on the island. Britain will leave the European Union at the end of 2020, with or without a new free-trade deal, Johnson promises. With just three months to go before the end of a transition period, a pact between the sides seems as far away as ever. Relations between Europe and Britain have grown shouty, underlining the high stakes of the showdown, as Britain and Europe both struggle to recover from deep pandemic recessions. Rachel Powell grew up in South Armagh, where during the Troubles a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland was patrolled by British troops, often attacked by Irish Republican militants. She said she’s deeply concerned about what will happen next. “The British government has not got a clue about what it is like to live on the border, and it is again using it as a political football,” said Powell. Powell said border communities are “horrified” over the uncertainties and brinkmanship of Brexit.

Japan’s Next Prime Minister Emerges From Behind the Curtain (NYT) Yoshihide Suga charted an unlikely course to the cusp of Japan’s premiership. While most leading Japanese lawmakers come from elite political families, Mr. Suga is the son of a strawberry farmer and a schoolteacher from the country’s rural north. He is known more for expressionless recitations of government policy than flashes of charisma. And at 71, he’s even older than Shinzo Abe, who suddenly announced in late August that he was resigning as prime minister because of ill health. Yet on Monday, Mr. Suga, the longtime chief cabinet secretary to Mr. Abe, was overwhelmingly elected as leader of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party during a conclave at a luxury Tokyo hotel. The party has governed Japan for all but four years since World War II and controls Parliament, virtually assuring that Mr. Suga will be elected prime minister during a special session this week. He will have to hit the ground running. Mr. Suga will take office in the middle of a pandemic that has devastated Japan’s economy, effectively erasing years of growth under Mr. Abe. Japan also is facing deepening pressure from China and North Korea. While Mr. Suga has vowed to pick up where Mr. Abe left off, but he has never clearly articulated his own vision for Japan, the world’s third-largest economy.

Indonesia to beef-up patrols after China coastguard raises suspicion (Reuters) Indonesia will increase maritime security operations near some of its islands in the South China Sea after a Chinese coastguard vessel was spotted nearby, raising suspicions about its intentions, a senior security official said on Tuesday. The vessel entered Indonesia’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off the northern Natuna islands on Saturday and left on Monday after radio challenges over jurisdiction, Aan Kurnia, chief of the maritime security agency, Bakamla, told Reuters. Wang Wenbin, China’s foreign ministry spokesman, said the ship was undertaking “normal patrol duties in waters under Chinese jurisdiction”. While China has made no claim to islands, the presence of its coastguard nearly 2,000 km (1,243 miles) off its mainland has concerned Indonesia, after numerous encounters between Chinese vessels in the EEZs of Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, which disrupted fishing and energy activities. A weeks-long standoff occurred 10 months ago when a Chinese coastguard vessel and accompanying fishing boats entered the northern Natuna Sea, prompting Indonesia to send fighter jets and mobilise its own fishermen.

Violence in the Ivory Coast (Foreign Policy) Protests against Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara’s decision to seek a third term as president have turned violent in the country’s largest city, Abidjan. The violence centered on a district loyal to former President Laurent Gbagbo, whose loss to Ouattara in the presidential election in 2010 plunged the country into a civil war that killed around 3,000 people. The recent surge of violence has raised concerns that next month’s election could spark a return to war. Ouattara has faced widespread criticism due to the constitution’s ban on individuals serving more than two terms as president. But he and his supporters argue that because the constitution was ratified in 2016, it does not apply to Ouattara, who started his term in office in 2010.

Millions of African children rely on TV education during pandemic (Reuters) Five-year-old Kenyan student Miguel Munene sits between his parents, holding their hands as he watches cartoon characters teaching him to pronounce “fish”. The television has replaced Munene’s teachers and classmates after the government shut schools indefinitely in March to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. They are closed until at least January. Many children don’t have the option to learn online—the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF says at least half of sub-Saharan Africa’s schoolchildren do not have internet access. So some, like Munene, watch a cartoon made by Tanzanian non-profit organisation Ubongo, which offers television and radio content for free to African broadcasters. “Other programmes are just for fun, but Ubongo is helping children,” Miguel’s mother Celestine Wanjiru told Reuters. “He can now differentiate a lot of shapes and colours, both in English and Swahili.” In March, programmes by Ubongo—the Kiswahili word for brain—were broadcast to an area covering about 12 million households in nine countries, said Iman Lipumba, Ubongo’s head of communications. That rose to 17 million in 20 countries by August.

Zimbabwe government abuses critics, allege rights groups (AP) Godfrey Kurauone, a Zimbabwean opposition official, sang a protest song at the funeral of a party member in July. For that, and other political charges, he spent 42 days in jail before the prosecution dropped one charge, and acquitted him of another charge of blocking traffic. Hopewell Chin’ono, an investigative journalist who used his Twitter account to expose alleged government corruption, was held in the notorious Chikurubi maximum security prison for nearly six weeks before being granted bail on charges of inciting violence for tweeting his support for an anti-government protest. Internationally acclaimed author and filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga spent a night in detention for standing by a Harare road and holding up a placard that said “We Want Better. Reform Our Institutions.” From tweeting to Whatsapp texting, singing in public or marching in the streets, those who speak out against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government are finding themselves in trouble. Some have been abducted and tortured, according to human rights groups.

[girldick-official]

Shinzo Abe's secret plan of making the entirety of Japan horny in hopes of increasing their declining birthrate

human race collectively fucking ridiculous

[reneeacaseyfl]

Shinzo Abe Appears to Be Headed to Victory and Place in History as Polls Close in Japan

TOKYO — As polls closed in Japan on Sunday after lackluster turnout in national elections, voters appeared to have delivered a victory to the governing party of Shinzo Abe and its allies, according to the public broadcaster NHK, all but ensuring his place in history as the country’s longest-serving prime minister.

It was not yet clear whether Mr. Abe and his allies had also secured two-thirds of the seats in the Upper House of Parliament, a supermajority needed to fulfill his long-cherished ambition of revising a pacifist Constitution that has been in place since American occupiers created it in 1947.

Nevertheless, the projected result represented a striking moment for Mr. Abe, who just a dozen years ago was forced to resign in disgrace after one year as prime minister, following a humiliating defeat of his party in a parliamentary election. Now, Mr. Abe, who returned to power in 2012, is just four months shy of setting Japan’s leadership record.

During the campaign, Mr. Abe did not emphasize his desire to revise the Constitution, On Saturday night at his party’s final campaign rally in Tokyo, supporters waved Japanese flags as Mr. Abe promised to secure the country’s finances and touted his personal relationship with President Trump.

“We will firmly protect Japan,” he said.

Mr. Abe appeared headed to secure the electoral victory despite struggling to accomplish his other professed goals, including turbocharging the economy, raising the country’s sluggish birthrate or dramatically increasing the proportion of women in management and politics. In many ways, Mr. Abe’s success stems from the lack of a strong opposition rather than a public mandate for his party’s vision.

“The opposition is no good,” said Makoto Mugikura, 68, a voter who had wandered into the rally not as an ardent supporter but because he happened to be drinking in the neighborhood. “There is nothing but the Liberal Democrats.”

With five major opposition parties, many voters have a hard time keeping them straight. New parties crop up in each election as old parties split and reconstitute.

“The opposition’s problem comes down to marketing and identity,” said Jeffrey W. Hornung, a political scientist at the RAND Corporation who focuses on Japan. “It’s hard to be able to have any sort of consistent voice when you come and go with different elections, and Abe and the L.D.P. have been able to capitalize on that.”

Some of the opposition parties hoped to distinguish themselves by putting forward more female candidates.

Under a law enacted last year, Japan’s political parties are encouraged to strive for gender parity in their candidates. A record 28 percent of candidates in the election on Sunday are women, with the Constitutional Democratic Party fielding a slate that is almost half female.

While Mr. Abe often says he envisions a society in which “women can shine,” fewer than one in six candidates for the Liberal Democratic Party are women, and there is only one woman in his cabinet.

Mr. Abe’s agenda for women is “window dressing,” said Noriko Sakoh, the author of “Doing Too Much Housework Will Destroy Japan.” She pointed to government policies such as tax abatements for husbands whose wives do not work and persistent waiting lists for government-subsidized day care despite the low birthrate.

Ms. Sakoh said she was attracted to a new progressive party called Reiwa Shinsengumi, which is backing a range of candidates from diverse backgrounds, including a single mother and two people with physical disabilities. On Sunday evening, Kyodo News said that Yasuhiko Funago, a candidate who uses a wheelchair and has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, had won a seat.

In a country where one-fifth of the population is now 70 or older, all the major parties focused on the national pension system during the campaign.

Just under two months before the election, the Financial Services Agency, a government regulator, warned that the country’s social security system would not be able to support the living standards of the elderly through retirement. Given the long life expectancies in Japan, the agency’s report suggested that an average couple would need an additional 20 million yen, or about $185,000, to live comfortably.

Officials in the Abe administration swiftly repudiated the report, and on the campaign trail Mr. Abe promised to increase annual pensions for low-income retirees by about $560.

Such pledges rang hollow to some protesters who showed up for Mr. Abe’s final rally on Saturday, shouting “Abe quit!” and “Don’t bully poor people!”

Mr. Abe has said the government will fund the payments by encouraging more women and the elderly to work, and his party has vowed to raise the country’s consumption tax to 10 percent in the fall, as previously scheduled.

All five major opposition parties have said they would not raise the tax, although Yukio Edano, leader of the Constitutional Democrats, says the government has a responsibility to secure the retirement of its citizens.

“Isn’t it the job of the government to figure out how we can build a system that will work even if people don’t save 20 million yen?” he said last month.

In his final campaign speech on Saturday, Mr. Abe dismissed the opposition’s criticism.

“Regarding pensions and other social security benefits, the opposition parties are only fanning unease among the people without presenting alternative plans,” he said. “Without raising burdens, we cannot increase social security.”

A supporter at the rally said he did not plan to depend on the government for his retirement.

“I will take care of myself,” said Ichiro Hasumi, 65, a retired shipping company worker who said he was voting for Mr. Abe’s party because “he will best protect the national interest.”

“It’s Japan first,” he added.

Mr. Abe has worked hard to establish himself as a leader on the world stage, persistently courting Mr. Trump and working to improve ties with President Xi Jinping of China. During Mr. Trump’s visit to Japan in May, the relationship seemed to pay off when the American president said on Twitter that he would hold off on thorny trade negotiations until after the Japanese election this month.

For the opposition, it can be hard to counter such symbols of Mr. Abe’s power. It is also difficult to break through to a public that values stability or offer compelling new ideas for how to solve the country’s most difficult long-term problems, which are dictated by the demographics of a declining population and aging society.

“The challenges that Japan faces are very complicated, so there are in general not a lot of easy answers,” said Kristi Govella, assistant professor of Asian studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Opposition parties tend to get pushed into an anti-Abe or anti-status-quo position, and that can be a difficult place to build a base of new, exciting policy ideas from.”

Credit: Source link

The post Shinzo Abe Appears to Be Headed to Victory and Place in History as Polls Close in Japan appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/shinzo-abe-appears-to-be-headed-to-victory-and-place-in-history-as-polls-close-in-japan/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=shinzo-abe-appears-to-be-headed-to-victory-and-place-in-history-as-polls-close-in-japan from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.tumblr.com/post/186445131602

[velmaemyers88]

Shinzo Abe Appears to Be Headed to Victory and Place in History as Polls Close in Japan

TOKYO — As polls closed in Japan on Sunday after lackluster turnout in national elections, voters appeared to have delivered a victory to the governing party of Shinzo Abe and its allies, according to the public broadcaster NHK, all but ensuring his place in history as the country’s longest-serving prime minister.

It was not yet clear whether Mr. Abe and his allies had also secured two-thirds of the seats in the Upper House of Parliament, a supermajority needed to fulfill his long-cherished ambition of revising a pacifist Constitution that has been in place since American occupiers created it in 1947.

Nevertheless, the projected result represented a striking moment for Mr. Abe, who just a dozen years ago was forced to resign in disgrace after one year as prime minister, following a humiliating defeat of his party in a parliamentary election. Now, Mr. Abe, who returned to power in 2012, is just four months shy of setting Japan’s leadership record.

During the campaign, Mr. Abe did not emphasize his desire to revise the Constitution, On Saturday night at his party’s final campaign rally in Tokyo, supporters waved Japanese flags as Mr. Abe promised to secure the country’s finances and touted his personal relationship with President Trump.

“We will firmly protect Japan,” he said.

Mr. Abe appeared headed to secure the electoral victory despite struggling to accomplish his other professed goals, including turbocharging the economy, raising the country’s sluggish birthrate or dramatically increasing the proportion of women in management and politics. In many ways, Mr. Abe’s success stems from the lack of a strong opposition rather than a public mandate for his party’s vision.

“The opposition is no good,” said Makoto Mugikura, 68, a voter who had wandered into the rally not as an ardent supporter but because he happened to be drinking in the neighborhood. “There is nothing but the Liberal Democrats.”

With five major opposition parties, many voters have a hard time keeping them straight. New parties crop up in each election as old parties split and reconstitute.

“The opposition’s problem comes down to marketing and identity,” said Jeffrey W. Hornung, a political scientist at the RAND Corporation who focuses on Japan. “It’s hard to be able to have any sort of consistent voice when you come and go with different elections, and Abe and the L.D.P. have been able to capitalize on that.”

Some of the opposition parties hoped to distinguish themselves by putting forward more female candidates.

Under a law enacted last year, Japan’s political parties are encouraged to strive for gender parity in their candidates. A record 28 percent of candidates in the election on Sunday are women, with the Constitutional Democratic Party fielding a slate that is almost half female.

While Mr. Abe often says he envisions a society in which “women can shine,” fewer than one in six candidates for the Liberal Democratic Party are women, and there is only one woman in his cabinet.

Mr. Abe’s agenda for women is “window dressing,” said Noriko Sakoh, the author of “Doing Too Much Housework Will Destroy Japan.” She pointed to government policies such as tax abatements for husbands whose wives do not work and persistent waiting lists for government-subsidized day care despite the low birthrate.

Ms. Sakoh said she was attracted to a new progressive party called Reiwa Shinsengumi, which is backing a range of candidates from diverse backgrounds, including a single mother and two people with physical disabilities. On Sunday evening, Kyodo News said that Yasuhiko Funago, a candidate who uses a wheelchair and has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, had won a seat.

In a country where one-fifth of the population is now 70 or older, all the major parties focused on the national pension system during the campaign.

Just under two months before the election, the Financial Services Agency, a government regulator, warned that the country’s social security system would not be able to support the living standards of the elderly through retirement. Given the long life expectancies in Japan, the agency’s report suggested that an average couple would need an additional 20 million yen, or about $185,000, to live comfortably.

Officials in the Abe administration swiftly repudiated the report, and on the campaign trail Mr. Abe promised to increase annual pensions for low-income retirees by about $560.

Such pledges rang hollow to some protesters who showed up for Mr. Abe’s final rally on Saturday, shouting “Abe quit!” and “Don’t bully poor people!”

Mr. Abe has said the government will fund the payments by encouraging more women and the elderly to work, and his party has vowed to raise the country’s consumption tax to 10 percent in the fall, as previously scheduled.

All five major opposition parties have said they would not raise the tax, although Yukio Edano, leader of the Constitutional Democrats, says the government has a responsibility to secure the retirement of its citizens.

“Isn’t it the job of the government to figure out how we can build a system that will work even if people don’t save 20 million yen?” he said last month.

In his final campaign speech on Saturday, Mr. Abe dismissed the opposition’s criticism.

“Regarding pensions and other social security benefits, the opposition parties are only fanning unease among the people without presenting alternative plans,” he said. “Without raising burdens, we cannot increase social security.”

A supporter at the rally said he did not plan to depend on the government for his retirement.

“I will take care of myself,” said Ichiro Hasumi, 65, a retired shipping company worker who said he was voting for Mr. Abe’s party because “he will best protect the national interest.”

“It’s Japan first,” he added.

Mr. Abe has worked hard to establish himself as a leader on the world stage, persistently courting Mr. Trump and working to improve ties with President Xi Jinping of China. During Mr. Trump’s visit to Japan in May, the relationship seemed to pay off when the American president said on Twitter that he would hold off on thorny trade negotiations until after the Japanese election this month.

For the opposition, it can be hard to counter such symbols of Mr. Abe’s power. It is also difficult to break through to a public that values stability or offer compelling new ideas for how to solve the country’s most difficult long-term problems, which are dictated by the demographics of a declining population and aging society.

“The challenges that Japan faces are very complicated, so there are in general not a lot of easy answers,” said Kristi Govella, assistant professor of Asian studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Opposition parties tend to get pushed into an anti-Abe or anti-status-quo position, and that can be a difficult place to build a base of new, exciting policy ideas from.”

Credit: Source link

The post Shinzo Abe Appears to Be Headed to Victory and Place in History as Polls Close in Japan appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/shinzo-abe-appears-to-be-headed-to-victory-and-place-in-history-as-polls-close-in-japan/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=shinzo-abe-appears-to-be-headed-to-victory-and-place-in-history-as-polls-close-in-japan from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.tumblr.com/post/186445131602

[weeklyreviewer]

Shinzo Abe Appears to Be Headed to Victory and Place in History as Polls Close in Japan

TOKYO — As polls closed in Japan on Sunday after lackluster turnout in national elections, voters appeared to have delivered a victory to the governing party of Shinzo Abe and its allies, according to the public broadcaster NHK, all but ensuring his place in history as the country’s longest-serving prime minister.

It was not yet clear whether Mr. Abe and his allies had also secured two-thirds of the seats in the Upper House of Parliament, a supermajority needed to fulfill his long-cherished ambition of revising a pacifist Constitution that has been in place since American occupiers created it in 1947.

Nevertheless, the projected result represented a striking moment for Mr. Abe, who just a dozen years ago was forced to resign in disgrace after one year as prime minister, following a humiliating defeat of his party in a parliamentary election. Now, Mr. Abe, who returned to power in 2012, is just four months shy of setting Japan’s leadership record.

During the campaign, Mr. Abe did not emphasize his desire to revise the Constitution, On Saturday night at his party’s final campaign rally in Tokyo, supporters waved Japanese flags as Mr. Abe promised to secure the country’s finances and touted his personal relationship with President Trump.

“We will firmly protect Japan,” he said.

Mr. Abe appeared headed to secure the electoral victory despite struggling to accomplish his other professed goals, including turbocharging the economy, raising the country’s sluggish birthrate or dramatically increasing the proportion of women in management and politics. In many ways, Mr. Abe’s success stems from the lack of a strong opposition rather than a public mandate for his party’s vision.

“The opposition is no good,” said Makoto Mugikura, 68, a voter who had wandered into the rally not as an ardent supporter but because he happened to be drinking in the neighborhood. “There is nothing but the Liberal Democrats.”

With five major opposition parties, many voters have a hard time keeping them straight. New parties crop up in each election as old parties split and reconstitute.

“The opposition’s problem comes down to marketing and identity,” said Jeffrey W. Hornung, a political scientist at the RAND Corporation who focuses on Japan. “It’s hard to be able to have any sort of consistent voice when you come and go with different elections, and Abe and the L.D.P. have been able to capitalize on that.”

Some of the opposition parties hoped to distinguish themselves by putting forward more female candidates.

Under a law enacted last year, Japan’s political parties are encouraged to strive for gender parity in their candidates. A record 28 percent of candidates in the election on Sunday are women, with the Constitutional Democratic Party fielding a slate that is almost half female.

While Mr. Abe often says he envisions a society in which “women can shine,” fewer than one in six candidates for the Liberal Democratic Party are women, and there is only one woman in his cabinet.

Mr. Abe’s agenda for women is “window dressing,” said Noriko Sakoh, the author of “Doing Too Much Housework Will Destroy Japan.” She pointed to government policies such as tax abatements for husbands whose wives do not work and persistent waiting lists for government-subsidized day care despite the low birthrate.

Ms. Sakoh said she was attracted to a new progressive party called Reiwa Shinsengumi, which is backing a range of candidates from diverse backgrounds, including a single mother and two people with physical disabilities. On Sunday evening, Kyodo News said that Yasuhiko Funago, a candidate who uses a wheelchair and has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, had won a seat.

In a country where one-fifth of the population is now 70 or older, all the major parties focused on the national pension system during the campaign.

Just under two months before the election, the Financial Services Agency, a government regulator, warned that the country’s social security system would not be able to support the living standards of the elderly through retirement. Given the long life expectancies in Japan, the agency’s report suggested that an average couple would need an additional 20 million yen, or about $185,000, to live comfortably.

Officials in the Abe administration swiftly repudiated the report, and on the campaign trail Mr. Abe promised to increase annual pensions for low-income retirees by about $560.

Such pledges rang hollow to some protesters who showed up for Mr. Abe’s final rally on Saturday, shouting “Abe quit!” and “Don’t bully poor people!”

Mr. Abe has said the government will fund the payments by encouraging more women and the elderly to work, and his party has vowed to raise the country’s consumption tax to 10 percent in the fall, as previously scheduled.

All five major opposition parties have said they would not raise the tax, although Yukio Edano, leader of the Constitutional Democrats, says the government has a responsibility to secure the retirement of its citizens.

“Isn’t it the job of the government to figure out how we can build a system that will work even if people don’t save 20 million yen?” he said last month.

In his final campaign speech on Saturday, Mr. Abe dismissed the opposition’s criticism.

“Regarding pensions and other social security benefits, the opposition parties are only fanning unease among the people without presenting alternative plans,” he said. “Without raising burdens, we cannot increase social security.”

A supporter at the rally said he did not plan to depend on the government for his retirement.

“I will take care of myself,” said Ichiro Hasumi, 65, a retired shipping company worker who said he was voting for Mr. Abe’s party because “he will best protect the national interest.”

“It’s Japan first,” he added.

Mr. Abe has worked hard to establish himself as a leader on the world stage, persistently courting Mr. Trump and working to improve ties with President Xi Jinping of China. During Mr. Trump’s visit to Japan in May, the relationship seemed to pay off when the American president said on Twitter that he would hold off on thorny trade negotiations until after the Japanese election this month.

For the opposition, it can be hard to counter such symbols of Mr. Abe’s power. It is also difficult to break through to a public that values stability or offer compelling new ideas for how to solve the country’s most difficult long-term problems, which are dictated by the demographics of a declining population and aging society.

“The challenges that Japan faces are very complicated, so there are in general not a lot of easy answers,” said Kristi Govella, assistant professor of Asian studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Opposition parties tend to get pushed into an anti-Abe or anti-status-quo position, and that can be a difficult place to build a base of new, exciting policy ideas from.”

Credit: Source link

The post Shinzo Abe Appears to Be Headed to Victory and Place in History as Polls Close in Japan appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/shinzo-abe-appears-to-be-headed-to-victory-and-place-in-history-as-polls-close-in-japan/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=shinzo-abe-appears-to-be-headed-to-victory-and-place-in-history-as-polls-close-in-japan

[its-a-lark-blog]

Aggretsuko vs. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 -- "Woman's Work"

I care about issues. I care because people are people; And people have feelings. Even if those people are neurotypicals who want to see my autistic brain zapped out of existence for the heinous sin of being different to theirs? I still wouldn't want to see them suffer. I might want to hammer some empathy, care, and wisdom into them, but I'd never want to see them suffer.

I've pointed this out before -- If a feminist is shitty to a trans person, I'll still support feminism because feminists don't deserve to suffer. If a trans person is shitty to otherkin, I'll still support them for the same reason. I wish more of the supposedly sapient life on this planet actually understood this and practised it. I'm just dumbfounded by the lack of care. You want care but you're not really willing to give it? That's kind of selfish and narcissistic, don't you think?

It's interesting how many cultures of men have an issue with this as well. Oh, they'd like their largely imagined grievances heard but they'd turn a blind ear to all the suffering women have to endure. Aggretsuko is a grand illustration of this and it's why Japan's birth rates are dropping like a stone. Oh, no, they are! if this keeps up then the Japanese ethnicity will be gone within a few generations and no amount of paid off Swingles nights from the Japanese gov't could fix it.

Why don't Japanese women want to take interest in the men?

"Women's work."

And Aggretsuko explains this sublimely. If you've not watched it (it's on Netflix), then I'd heartily recommend it. This is why some white Alt-Right dudes -- who've got their heads so far up their arses that they see only very narrowly through their own nostrils -- didn't understand the problem with Xenoblade Chronicles. You see, it wasn't just that Pyra -- one of the main characters -- had an outfit meant for men to ogle, but that her job was woman's work.

That's why straight Alt-Right guys are invariably single? Are there any gay Alt-Right people despite the Alt-Right being homophobic? Probably, people are just that stupid that they'd forgive those who hate them or hate others. I'm not quite that forgiving, myself, as I think that causing another person to suffer just 'cause you're trying to appeal to a Nazi status quo is the very, very worst kind of awful cowardice. If you do that, you're betraying everyone, including yourself.

I don't want to digress too much -- But this is why I give gay people who shit on trans people, or trans people who shit on otherkin a lot of flack. They're spineless cowards who make things worse for everyone and I wish they'd stop identifying as gay/trans or whatever else they think they are because by identifying in that way and appealing to the Nazi status quo, they're just making things worse for everyone. We'd all be better off if they just packed up and left, I'm sure they would much more prefer an officially recognised position as brainwashed Nazi lapdogs anyway. I think that'd make them happier. They'd get to wear gimp suits and say "Yes Sir" a lot. That'd do it for them, I think.

Anyway, there are gay people who don't attack trans, just as there are trans people who don't attack otherkin, et cetera. Why? They recognise that the Nazi status quo is harmful to everyone. We're all human beings, after all, we're all sepient creatures that have feelings and we can all suffer. As such, it's humane and caring to realise that if you don't want to suffer, other people don't either. Only narcissists fail at this equation, I think. And like I said, they can go and prostrate themselves before Nazis. Enjoy the gimp suits.

Deeply unpleasant people, really. Nasty lot. And we shouldn't give anyone who can't recognise that other people are equal and deserve to not suffer a free pass. It's like what I spoke of with Karl Popper's Paradox of Intolerance. If we aren't incredibly intolerant of intolerance, then tolerance dies. That's the way of things, so we have to be willing to not pull our punches. If someone's being a Nazi, you call them a Nazi; If someone's being a Nazi lapdog, you call them that, too.

And yes, feminists, trans people, gay folk, otherkin, or anyone of any group that experiences prejudice can be a Nazi lapdog. It's mostly spineless cowardice, in that they'd prefer to kowtow to Nazi thinking for a quiet life rather than to stand with the rest of us in a show of solidarity. We're all in this together, right? No mwatter what walk of life you're from, you should stand up to supremacist Nazi sentiments of inequality. You need to be willing to put yourself on the line for other people.

I actually do that, in real life and on the internet. It doesn't give me the easiest life, I'll tell you that, but would you like to know what I can do that Nazi lapdogs will never be able to? I can sleep well at night.

Inequality that leads to suffering is Nazi thinking and needs to be stamped out.

And the notion of 'woman's work' is as much a supremacist Nazi notion as any other. Japan's not immune to Nazi sentiment, there's as much of it there as there is anywhere else. Birthrates are dropping because the men are all wound up in Nazi sentiment and they think that being a stay-at-home wife who rears and raises children, who organises the house, who cooks for the man? Well, that's 'woman's work' and that's what all women should aspire to. Women are just sick of it, no matter where in the world they are. It's why -- as studies show -- both Japanese men and Alt-Right men alike can't land a date, they're all single.

Let's get back to Xenoblade Chronicles and the issue I had with it that Nazi lapdogs would prefer to delude both themselves and others about, they'd rather think they don't see it and therefore neither do we. You see, being a submissive woman who's a healer -- a nurse, effectively? That's 'woman's work.' Whereas being a frontline fighter? That's 'man's work.' Sadly, you even get women being apologists for this, the US Gamer website had one journalist who believed it acceptable to behave this way. Just another cowardly Nazi lapdog.

Aggretsuko starts off like that -- She's an apologist for Nazi thinking and puts up with mistreatment by men. It's only thanks to two powerful women (the secretary secretarybird Washimi, and the gorilla Gori) that she even begins to take the kind of stand she'd need to enjoy happiness in life. She has a lot of incredibly toxic ideas at first that she has to work through to become a more complete and hpapy person. In the end, she outright refuses to be a lapdog any longer and is rewarded with fulfilment and happiness.

Her life might be less easy now that she's standing up for herself but at least now she won't be walked all over by men who dictate to her what women can and cannot do. The problem with a game like Xenoblade Chronicles 2 -- and why I'm so mad at Japan despite loving so much of it -- is with characters like Pyra who quietly accept what is 'women's work' and, supposedly, 'men's work.' Pyra naturally has to be a submissive healer, not a frontline brawler.

Similarly, men can't ever serve the role of healer because it's 'demeaning' for a man. This is why I have an equal amount of umbrage for Overwatch and what its community healthily refers to as 'healsluts.' Women meant for men to ogle who do 'women's work' for the men. Huzzah, Nazi sentiment defining people, woo. Not like that ever went horribly wrong, right?

Bloody hell. Kids these days. Dew dew. Sometimes I want to smack them all collectively with a very large newspaper. A newspaper large enough to do that. I don't think there is one, nor do I know where they all are, so they're off the hook for now and this is a chance for them to get their act together.

I'd recommend Aggretsuko for any short-sighted blowhard who's unable to understand what women have to deal with. And it's disingenuous to assume this is just in the eastern workplace as well; In the USA and Europe there are still plenty of old men in corporate structures who have incredibly outdated views of what men and women can and cannot respectively do. I wish I could've bought Xenoblade Chronicles 2 -- It has a talking tiger that's actually an AI stored in a living weapon. I live for that nonsense. Yet I'm not allowed to enjoy it as confoundingly Nintendo thought it all right and completely acceptable to leave Nazi sentiment lingering in that game instead of actually doing the work to improve it for everyone.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are some women in Japan who import certain localised games from the West simply because of this improved state of affairs. For example, Xenoblade Chronicles X was localised to fix many of these issues, with only a few left lingering, and as such it's an objectively superior experience when compared against the Japanese original. I feel bad for Japanese women though; Even though they're putting their foot down with their men, their blissfully oblivious men are too vacuous to notice.

That's unfortunate, but it's still not acceptable. It does make me happy to see creations like Aggretsuko though and I certainly hope we see more of them. What we need is more of Aggretsuko and less of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Nintendo, you wonder why the popularity of Japanese games is dropping in the West? This is why. It hurts your sales, because the contingent of Alt-Right people who'd think this acceptable is tiny compared to those who'd want to make a statement by leaving it on the shelves -- As I did.

It's this kind of thinking that'll sink the good ship Nintendo. They need the western market, so they need to improve their equality game to appeal to a wider range of customers. The world needs to keep moving towards more and more equality, to say no to Nazi sentiments and shame cowardly Nazi lapdogs.

Sigh.

Thankfully, there are good people out there who'll understand this. I feel that the number of them are increasing every day. I want to believe that empathy is becoming more commonplace, that the sentiment of appeasing a Nazi status quo is being replaced with punching Nazis in the face for being horrible monsters. That's where the world needs to go.

We're all human beings. We can all suffer. If you can suffer, so can I. If I can suffer, so can you. And there's much we have to suffer together, so there's no reason we shouldn't all stand together as a united front against the real enemy. The kinds of Nazi sentiments that cause us to suffer in the first place.

There are three concepts that I've declared as my mortal enemies, whom I'm ready to stamp out whenever and wherever I get the chance. I've declared them in numerous past posts but I want to do so again, until I'm blue in the face. Your problem isn't with trans people, or gay people, or otherkin... Stop being a Nazi lapdog! Your suffering is sourced from Nazis thanks to three incredibly toxic ideologies that they hold dear.

Supremacy – Where any person believes themselves to be better than another;

Enforced Suffering – Where any person is forced to experience torture and anguish against their will;

Institutionalised Uselessness – Where the world is designed in such a way that some people are never allowed to offer their worth.

It's those concepts and the ones who hold them that you have to fight, tooth and nail, in whatever way you deem necessary. A Nazi is anyone who holds those three toxic ideologies, and sadly there is a contingent of these people in every culture, today; And worse, there's a larger contingent of cowardly, spineless lapdogs who kowtow to them and obey them.

In this case, the three toxic ideologies manifest as 'women's work.'

Why?

Supremacy -- Men who believe themselves superior to women so there are tasks they believe they can achieve with more efficiency or that there are tasks that women aren't capable of at all;

Enforced Suffering -- The self-esteem and confidence of women is whittled down intentionally to 'keep them in their place,' this is so that men can continue to hold their power over women and keep the status quo;

Institutionalised Uselessness -- Women are conditioned, brainwashed, to accept tehir role in life and never question it, this has been referred to as 'internalised misogyny' but the problem runs much deeper than that, it's a programmed feeling of the uselessness of their gender that they can't shake.

And that's fucking awful. That's why characters like Pyra in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 bother me so much -- Because she seems so brainwashed into Nazi thinking that she's unable to be anything other than the objectified, man-serving nurse that she was literally made to be. And that's telling, isn't it? She was created by a man to serve these roles, she was programmed to obey them and find them fulfilling. Which, apparently, Nadia Oxford at US Gamer doesn't see as problematic.

That's because I think Nadia has been programmed in exactly this way. She isn't aware of it, so she simply repeats the Nazi signal to uphold the status quo.

This attitude is commonplace in Japan, that women should be seen in the way Pyra is seen. A xexy, submissive nurse ready to serve the needs of men at the drop of a hat, putting the desires of men above everything else, including their own happiness as if they were nothing more than robots. And in Xenoblade Chronicles they bloody ARE robots, which is just a fetish.

Here's what I'm trying to get at: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a fetish game. It's a fetish game about the desired end-point for women, where the female gender is forced to abandon what little agency, sapience, independence, individuality, and drive it has in Japanese culture and become nothing more than a pretty drone, waiting on men hand and foot.

Sure, sure, sure... Xenoblade Chronicles 2, at one point, makes a half-hearted attempt to point out that this is toxic. It's mumbled under the breath as a sort of disclaimer so that they can get back to enjoying fetishised views of women. It's not exactly a core tennet of the game, it never was. The primary tennet of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is that women are made to serve men.

Which is why there are so many female blades.

It's a fetish game.

Thankfully, all of Japan isn't like that. Thankfully. And things are beginning to slowly turn around, there. What needs to happen though is for the Japanese gov't to actually realise that the misogyny that's become so acceptable in Japanese culture is why birthrates are dropping. This is why it's imperative for them to do more to fix this via laws and education -- Young men should have it explained to them in school from a very young age why this isn't okay. Why it's just as acceptable for a man to be the stay-at-home wife as it is for the woman to be successful at business. This is for the Japanese gov't to do, and until they do, birthrates will just continue to drop like a stone.

When actual fetish games like Xenoblade Chronicles 2 are being developed and released over there? That's when you know you have a problem. The only way they could possibly have made this worse is if they'd actually dressed up the women in gimp suits to exemplify their brainwashed lapdog status.

Japan should be encouraging its men to see their women as more akin to Washimi than Pyra.

[hi2shinji]

WSJ【寄稿】日本が負う「薬価を下げるリスク」- Japan’s Dangerous Embrace of Medicine Rationing

See on Scoop.it - 大麻 - Marijuana, Japanese Sacred Herb

先行きを考えずに薬の価格を統制すればイノベーションの停滞につながる

A short-sighted attempt at price controls risks stifling innovation and increasing long-term spending.

会見する加藤勝信厚生労働大臣（3日） 

PHOTO: KIM KYUNG-HOON/REUTERS 

By Kenneth E. Thorpe     2017 年 8 月 23 日 17:04 JST 更新 

Mr. Thorpe is a professor of health policy at Emory University and chairman of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease.

――筆者のケネス・E・ソープ氏は米エモリー大学の教授（医療政策）で、医療関係者や患者などで結成されたパートナーシップ・トゥ・ファイト・クロニック・ディジーズ（PFCD）の会長 ＊＊＊ 

Kyoto University, one of the top research universities in Japan, will soon begin testing a revolutionary new drug. Scientists have engineered a special kind of stem cell to combat fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, a rare condition that slowly replaces muscle tissue with bone and can lead to paralysis. 

　日本有数の研究大学として知られる京都大学で、革命的な新薬の治験が間もなく始まろうとしている。研究者たちが試みるのは、人工多能性幹細胞（iPS細胞）を使った進行性骨化性線維異形成症（FOP）の治療だ。極めてまれな疾患であるFOPは、筋肉などの組織の中に徐々に骨が作られ、まひの原因にもなる病気として知られる。 

Such innovation has become an existential necessity for Japan. The country’s population is aging rapidly, driving up health-care costs at an unsustainable rate. The Japanese people need new and better drugs. Yet, in hopes of limiting short-term health spending, Tokyo may soon impose price controls that will deny patients access to the best medicines. 　このようなイノベーションは、日本の将来にとって必要不可欠だ。同国の高齢化は急速に進み、医療ケアのためのコスト���将来的に維持できない速度で増え続けている。日本の国民は改良された新しい医薬品を必要としている。しかし目先の医療費を抑えるため日本政府は薬価をコントロールしようとしており、患者たちが最善の薬を手にできなくなる可能性がある。 

Rationing won’t solve the nation’s impending health-care crisis. Japan can only reduce its long-term health spending by encouraging the development of cost-saving cures.

　政府が薬を配給するような制度は、日本に迫る医療危機の解決に結びつかない。日本が長期的に医療費を下げていく唯一の道は、コストを下げる治療方法の開発を進めていくことだ。 

Health-care costs in Japan are rising due to demographics, not drug prices. Some 27% of Japan’s population is older than 65, compared to 15% of the U.S. population.

　日本の医療費が上昇している原因は、薬価ではなく人口動態だ。米国の人口の中で65歳以上が締める割合は15％だが、日本ではそれが約27％にも達している。

Meanwhile, Japan’s birthrate, which has been stuck below replacement levels for years, continues to fall. Total annual births dropped below one million last year for the first time on record. People 80 and older form the fastest growing demographic group in the whole country.

それと同時に日本の出生率は長年にわたり、総人口の維持に必要な人口置換水準を下回って低迷を続けている。出生数は、2016年に初めて100万人を下回った。年齢別にみると、80歳以上の国民の割合が最も速いスピードで増え続けている。

  Elderly people suffer higher rates of costly chronic diseases. Seven million Japanese have diabetes, and the cost of care for the average patient is about $3,600. Dementia costs Japan roughly $130 billion annually.

　治療費の負担が大きい慢性疾患は、高齢者の方が罹患（りかん）しやすい。日本には700万人もの糖尿病患者がいて、その治療にかかるコストは平均すると約3600ドル（39万4000円）だ。認知症の治療には、日本全体で年間1300億ドルのコストがかかっている。

These bills will only grow. Japan will spend nearly $6 trillion between 2010 and 2030 to treat noncommunicable diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and respiratory ailments, according to a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research.   　こうした費用は今後も上昇する一方だ。全米経済研究所（NBER）の新たな推計によれば、日本政府は2010年から2030年にかけてがんや循環器・呼吸器疾患といった非感染性疾患の治療に6兆ドルを支出する。 

There aren’t enough young, healthy workers to pay into the health system to cover those costs. So to lower spending, Japan wants to cut patients’ use of expensive therapies. 　このコストを支払い保健医療制度を支える、若く健康な労働者の数は十分ではない。そのため、日本政府は医療コストを下げるために患者が高額治療を受けられる回数を減らそうとしている。 HTAの導入で英国の二の舞いに 

Tokyo currently determines the prices for all drugs sold through the national insurance program. It re-evaluates, and generally reduces, prices every two years. This results in an average price cut of 6% to 8%. 　日本の公的医療保険制度を通して販売されるすべての薬は現在、国が公定価格を決めている。薬価改定の頻度は2年に1回程度で、大抵の場合は価格が下げられる。薬価の下落率は平均して6％から8％程度だ。 

As part of a new reform effort, the Japanese government is set to clamp down on prices even more. The government is considering the introduction of a “Health Technology Assessment,” which would score medicines based on how much they extend patients’ lives. It would then use these HTA scores to refuse to cover or significantly limit access to medicines deemed insufficiently cost-effective. 　日本政府は制度改革の一環として、さらに薬価を下げようとしている。政府は患者の寿命をどの程度延ばしたかで薬を評価する医療技術評価（HTA）の導入を検討。そのHTAのスコアを元に、費用対効果が不十分な薬については負担を拒否、または入手を制限する考えだ。 

That would be a disaster for Japanese patients. The proposed HTA program would be similar to one run by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), an arm of Britain’s single-payer health system. NICE routinely denies British patients’ access to the life-saving treatments that Japanese patients freely access. 　これは日本の患者たちにとっては災難な事態となるだろう。提案されているHTAは、単一支払者制度を導入した英国にある英国立医療技術評価機構（NICE）のプログラムと似たものだ。日本の患者は人命に関わる場合に治療を自由に受けることができるが、NICEは人命に関わる治療であっても英国の患者に提供しないことが多い。

For instance, thousands of British patients suffering from hepatitis C have been denied new, highly effective treatments. Most patients can’t afford to pay out of pocket, so they’ve gone without and gotten sicker. Likewise, many British cancer patients can’t get access to lifesaving therapies.   　英国に何千人もいるC型肝炎の患者たちが、効果の高い新薬での治療を受けられないのもその一例だ。多くの患者は実費で医療費を支払うことができず、治療を受けないまま症状が悪化している。同様に、英国では多くのがん患者も命を救うための治療を受けることができていない。

  NICE rations about one in every five drugs, leading to immense patient suffering, disease and death. If Tokyo adopts the HTA program, it would import that carnage to Japan. 　NICEは5種類につき1種類の薬しか配給しておらず、これが患者にとって激しい苦しみ、病気の悪化、そして死につながっている。日本政府もHTA制度を導入すれば、この修羅場がそのまま持ち込まれることになるだろう。

The program also would discourage innovation. Drug researchers almost never experience eureka moments that lead to major breakthroughs. A typical new drug for, say, late-stage breast cancer, isn’t a cure. It’s an improvement over existing treatments that adds months, maybe a year, to the life span of the average patient.   　HTAはまた、イノベーションの停滞を引き起こす。製薬研究者たちが突然のひらめきで貴重な新薬を発見することはほとんどない。例えば末期の乳がん患者のための新たな薬は、治療薬ではない。それは既存の薬の改良版のようなものであり、それまでの薬と比べて平均的な患者の寿命を数カ月から数年ほど伸ばす類いのものだ。 

These stepping-stone treatments advance scientific understanding and improve patient outcomes over time. By cutting reimbursements for such treatments, the HTA would make it harder to one day wipe out cancer, dementia and other age-related diseases. 　治療方法が一歩ずつ前進することで医学の理解は深まり、患者への効果も時間をかけて改善されていく。HTAの導入によってこのような治療にかかる費用を払い戻さないことになれば、がんや認知症など加齢に伴う病気の克服が一層遠のくことになる。

These short-sighted price-control measures will result in higher long-term health spending as patients lose out on treatments that prevent costly hospitalizations and nursing-home stays. If Japan’s leaders want to reduce health-care costs, they need to encourage more medical innovation and develop policies that address noncommunicable diseases, the main driver of rising health-care spending. Other reforms simply won’t work.   　先を考えずに薬価をコントロールすれば、治療を受けられなくなった患者は入院したり施設に入ったりして高額の出費を強いられ、長期的に見れば政府の医療支出が増える。日本のリーダーたちが医療費を抑えたいと考えているのであれば、医療面でのさらなるイノベーションを促進し、医療支出増大につながっている非感染性疾患への対応を取るべきだ。その他の改革を行っても、うまくいくことはまずないだろう。 関連記事 * 米国の薬価高騰、後続品が売れないカラクリ

http://on.wsj.com/2fdXrsB

  * 米政府、日本の薬価引き下げ計画の見直し要求

http://on.wsj.com/2fef4J0

  *【バロンズ】薬価下落も株価上昇する銘柄は？ 

http://on.wsj.com/2fdD66U

*【バロンズ】ヘルスケアセクター投資の好機 

http://on.wsj.com/2fdX8Oz

* 製薬業界、安心するのはまだ早い　不透明な薬価の先行き

http://on.wsj.com/2fdba2S

Shinji Nakamura's insight:

WSJ #医療大麻 #医療ツーリズム #インド #スリランカ