It seems that at least part of the explanation for the Liberal Democratic Party's curious ability to almost always win in Japan is that the CIA set things up to work that way. The story seems a bit similar to how the old Christian Democratic Party dominated postwar Italy, before falling apart in the Tangentopoli scandal.
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A CIA Endorsement Helps
30 Jul 2007 01:04 pm
Comments (16)
I'm getting puzzled. Did the LDP win on Sunday? I'm hearing the opposite--that the Japanese electorate, under the mistaken impression that they were voting for an actual alternative, threw the rascals out of the upper house.
I find this hard to believe after reading the NY Times Book Review review of "A Legacy of Ashes" which detailed decades of CIA impotence and incompetence.
I find this hard to believe after reading the NY Times Book Review review of "A Legacy of Ashes" which detailed decades of CIA impotence and incompetence.
Follow the link. It's to an excerpt from "A Legacy of Ashes."
"Follow the link. It's to an excerpt from "A Legacy of Ashes."
Interesting. I wonder if Weiner takes Feldman's quote at face value though: Is Feldman giving himself and the CIA more credit for their influence in Japan than is warranted?
Indeed. They literally invented the party and regularly paid off most of it's leaders for decades. I'm happy with one link in a day, but out of pride I would note that I blogged about just this last week. I also talked a bit about the absurd conservative interest in the election...
As someone who has spent lots of time studying East Asia I have never ehard of the CIA thing before and I tend to discount it as not being that important.
The big way the LDP always wins is because they have rigged the game in its favor. If you can win the relatively unpopulated country side tehn you can control the government. The LDP does this spending massive amounts of money on public works projects in the country side. I have seen beuatiful bridges in unpopulate areas of Japan.
Since they will always win, if you want to have influence you will join the LDP. This of course means there is no such thing as a consistent ideology within the party other then trying to stay in power.
I'm reading Legacy of Ashes now. It's really a history of failure after failure, whether short or long-term.
In light of all these failures, Japan is actually a success story, a country that didn't descend into communism/dictatorship/theocracy because of the CIA's meddling, but actually ended up a fully developed nation with a functioning democracy.
Or perhaps that's in spite of the CIA's meddling...
Nathanial: Really? The CIA-LDP connection is pretty well-known.
Walt, let me rephrase what I said, I have never heard of the claim that the CIA was a serious reason for why the LDP stayed in power. Yes it is well known the CIA gave them money, but in discussions of post war Japanese politics, I have never heard it come up as a significant factor.
Access to money is not something the LDP ever lacked. So while yes CIA money is nice, it was not needed for the LDP to maintain its hold on power.
Also note that the CIA supported Japanese neo-Nazi gangs (uyoku) and mafia (yakuza). Their main contact in Japan for years was Yoshio Kodama, a convicted war criminal who was released on CIA orders. Kodama also happens to be the man who formed the LDP...
The other reason the LDP remained in power for so many years (aside from the over-representation of the rural parts, bought off with many many pork projects) has been that the alternatives (JSP and DSP) were just so abysmal. It's only been a few years since the JSP has stopped squabbling about whether Marx or Lenin was more correct.
The "LDP" isn't actually a party held together by any particular set of ideas, aside from once-you-get-your-nose-in-the-trough-stay-there. Note that when the head of a faction died in Japan, it's very standard for all of his followers to split off and form a "new political party."
I find it hysterical that the CIA might have protected the LDP all these years "as a bulwark against communism." When one looks at how Japan works with its group dynamics, it's the most communistic society on the planet.
"When one looks at how Japan works with its group dynamics, it's the most communistic society on the planet."
I caught this on the last thread about Japan too- Why do people think this? I spent a long time there, and communistic certainly isn't how I'd describe it.
"Interesting. I wonder if Weiner takes Feldman's quote at face value though: Is Feldman giving himself and the CIA more credit for their influence in Japan than is warranted?"
Sometimes the Keystone Kops can actually have a success. They were able to kill Patrice Lumbaba, General Schneider, help prop up Marcos, etc. even if they did have some rather fcking stupid failures. Paying off the LDP is easy by comparison.
"I caught this on the last thread about Japan too- Why do people think this? I spent a long time there, and communistic certainly isn't how I'd describe it."
I'm guessing a lot of Americans think homogeneity + collectivist mentality + the developmental state's heavy tinkering in the free market = communist behavior, if not actual communism, as inherent in East Asian societies. The intense hatred between the two Koreas based on politics should be a major counter-example.
Posted by Reality Man | July 31, 2007 3:46 AM:"Sometimes the Keystone Kops can actually have a success."
You mean a stopped clock is right twice a day. Try to distinguish between the CIA as a fellow traveler and the CIA as a cause. There is no way that the CIA played any significant role in the dominance of the LDP. They may have wanted it, but there is no reason to think that LDP wouldn't have done just what it did anyway.
Posted by Reality Man | July 31, 2007 3:46 AM:"They were able to kill Patrice Lumbaba, General Schneider, help prop up Marcos, etc. even if they did have some rather fcking stupid failures. Paying off the LDP is easy by comparison."
Actually no. They did not kill Lumbaba - indeed there is little evidence they had much of a clue about what Mobutu was doing and even Mobutu did not kill Lumbaba. He handed him over to his enemies in Katanga and *they* killed him. Despite your claims I see no evidence the CIA was involved in the plot to kill Schneider. Kidnap him perhaps but none of those plans came off. Again, the Chileans would have done something anyway. Help prop up Marcos? As if they needed that help.
The record of the CIA is mostly failure with a lot of things that would have happened anyway happening with either claims of CIA credit (if you're on the Right) or CIA blame (if you're on the Left). All in all, if they never created the Agency nothing would have changed.
As for the story itself, if the CIA helped keep the Communists out of power in Japan as they did in Italy, good for them. Not that there is any evidence whatsoever that they played any significant role whatsoever. The real reason the LDP remained in power so long was the utter stupidity of the Japanese Opposition Parties. As soon as they dropped mass murder as a center of their platform, the Japanese elected them.
Comments closed August 13, 2007.
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Heads in the Sand
Zengakuren!
Posted by Petey | July 30, 2007 1:09 PM