[...]Whatever. At least they didn't bring up Japan's rising "right-wing nationalism" (like most Western media outlets).
By dispensing with ideological rhetoric and focusing on welfare and jobs, the JCP has struck a chord with students, the unemployed and the estimated 10 million Japanese earning less than 2m yen (about £14,000) a year.
[...]
The JCP is barely recognisable from the party of 30 years ago. Now, dialectic materialism has been replaced by a commitment to "democratic change within the current framework of capitalism".
"The JCP of today is very different," said Go Ito, a professor of politics at Meiji University in Tokyo. "The modern party is pragmatic, which is why it has managed to tap into the dissatisfaction being felt right across Japanese society."
On the topic of communism, I'd probably agree with a typical communist in identifying major problems in the world. His solutions to those problems, though, mark him as batshit-crazy to me. I guess that makes me a liberal...
Saw the headline in "The Guardian", but didn't bother to read the article, as I suspected that it was probably bollocks. I'm a liberal, quite possibly even a socialist, yet I don't really know what "communism" might mean in practice in the modern world.
ReplyDeleteTafkass,
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm a liberal/"socialist" on most issues except, perhaps on some things related to personal responsibilities and freedoms.
The problem with the article, like so many about Japan, is that it notices some minor tick and extrapolates a nation-wide trend out of it. Someone outside of Japan might be confused by the notion of a xenophobic, whale-eating, right-wing communist, who spends his free time reading rape manga, going to maid cafes...