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This article was incredible informative about the current major areas that are sucking up a lot of Japan's spending like social benefits and military spending. But it also gives a detailed outline on how Japan aims to combat their debt but I'm unsure if these predictions are too optimistic?

It's interesting to see how Japan's government is interacting with the market in an attempt to create a flow of money that will ease its deficit. The fact that they raised their sales tax is very interesting when we consider how Japan entered its recession in 1997 because the government raised the national consumption tax to 5% from. Has Japan learned its lesson and will it enter another recession again as a result of their new tax hike?

It is cool to see precisely which sectors are consuming the larger portions of Japan's budget through data. I also liked how Japan thought about balance their budget.

Both Japan and France rank in the top 50 for Global Peace Rankings-- Japan 8th and France 48th. The biggest difference in their rankings comes from France's possession of heavy and nuclear weapons. The Japanese have limited possession of heavy and nuclear weapons as a result of the pacifist constitution they were forced to adopt following WWII which limited their ability to arm for war. Furthermore, France is involved in more conflicts and exports more weapons than Japan, which is also heavily related to the restrictions placed on Japan following WWII. However, Japan has a worse record when it comes to relations with neighbors which may be related to actions from WWII and rising tensions between Japan, China, and South Korea. Yet, perhaps unrelated to WWII and relating more to culture of society, France has a higher level of violent demonstrations and internal organized conflict than Japan. Japan has a homogenous population that has a main focus of work and a culture that accepts the social and economic hierarchy, but France has a more heterogeneous population with many disenfranchised groups that were once colonized that continue to face discrimination.

In Japan, schools have been steadily improving their earthquake preparedness for the last 20 years. Since 2002 the mission of making schools safer has taken off. National government funding has been provided when the budget was exceeded. After the earthquake in 2011 the schools also aimed to become tsunami safe. Japan is now helping to fund schools in other countries such as Peru to make them safer for the children.

Much of Japan's reputation abroad is still heavily impacted by its actions pre- and post-WWII. China and South Korea are still at odds with Japan because they believe Japanese school books overlook the heinous crimes committed by the Japanese military during WWII. Yet, many other countries grew dependent on Japan following WWII. Following WWII and Japan's adoption of a more democratic constitution, it quickly gained some respect as a global aid donor and its booming car and technology industries made it a source of capital and credit for countries all over. Japan was able to make such a quick leap to the top following WWII thanks to the market bubble it could find in the U.S.; Japan maintained this productivity through its traditional social and employment hierarchies that have lead many people to work the same job their entire life. However, Japan's economic growth began to go in the opposite direction in 1990's with growing debt that multiple governments have failed to curtail. Currently, the population of Japan is rapidly aging, but the few young who are around are pushing for more Westernization and the Japanese government is even attempting to find a solution for its debt; not to mention, the Japanese government has made movements to amend the constitution to gain more military power in recent years.

I wonder if the seemingly perpetual nature of this pandemic will cause the people to question government legitimacy. Japan's isolation, while drastic compared to most places, has been beneficial to health, but it may hinder many other areas of potential growth.

Close to 10,000 protestors lined up outside of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's office building to protest a law changed which would permit the expansion of Japan's military and deployment soldiers overseas. Japan's constitution banned any 'collective self-defense' or aiding any other country under attack. The Japanese military is currently only for defense of Japan. What's more important than the fact that the constitution will be changed, is that the constitution will potentially changed without consultation of the people. The generally accepting citizens of Japan are up in arms at this assault on their democratic freedoms. More than half of the Japanese population is opposed to the change in the constitution, but Abe claims the change is necessary due to rising tensions with China's military expansion and North Korea's missile program growth. Rise in political unrest as of late in the usually peaceful Japan.

This article maps out the Postwar Constitution that Japan drafted and adopted in order to remove Allied occupation. The Postwar Constitution was called a "revision" to the Imperial Constitution that was previously followed in Japan, but it came as more of an Allied Powers overhaul of the monarchical regime that lead Japan throughout the war. The main articles of the Postwar Constitution focus on removing Japanese ability to declare war or have any industry related to arming for war, and granting democratic individual freedoms to the people of Japan (i.e. democratic elections and freedom of speech, to petition, to assemble, religion, thought, etc) Though, there is an article in the Postwar Constitution which allows amendments to be made, the amendments must be pass to through both houses of the bicameral Diet with a ⅔ majority before it is passed to the people. No amendments have been ratified since 1947, but as of late the Liberal Democratic Party have continually made pushes for amendments.

The Japanese economy was stagnant from 2002 to 2012. In 2012 Shinzo Abe became Prime Minister, and Haruhiko Kuroda was appointed as the new governor of the Bank of Japan. Abe and Kuroda came in trying to increase inflation from -0.3 percent to 2.0 percent because Japan has seen slow deflation in the 10 years between 2002 and 2012. Questions about the ability of a central bank to increase inflation without increasing national debt, or will money just be pumped into the economy and push the debt crisis further along. Abe and Kuroda hope that the weakened yen will improve Japan's company competitiveness by lowering the cost structure for companies allowing them to produce cheaper products to be consumed in the market. Japan hopes that slowly the price of goods will increase at about 2% a year and hope to see the debt to GDP ratio decrease.

This article provides information on the guidelines for Empire of Japan's surrender at the end of WWII as written by U.S. President Harry S. Truman Jr., U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Chairman of the Nationalist Government of China Chiang Kai-shek. This article's main focus was highlighting the Potsdam Declaration as the forceful conversion of the Empire of Japan into a democratic regime, rather than monarchical regime, with more civil liberties for the people including, but not limited to, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of thought. This article also explains how the Potsdam Declaration caused Japan to open itself up to the growing democratic world and forced Japan to change or face destruction, leaving Japan very little choice in terms of regime. Furthermore, this article brings attention to the amount of military force that came along with the Potsdam Declaration. It is made clear that this was more than just a declaration by the Allied Forces, it was more of a threat to the Japanese to surrender on the Allied Force's terms or be utterly destroyed. Unfortunately, it is also highlighted that within less than a month of the declaration, the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

This article, from a self proclaimed "unbiased" German media source, explores how Japan was able to limit covid cases so well. Compared to most other countries, Japan has significant risk factors: a dense population with a large concentration of old people and a flow of traffic from neighboring China. Yet, they have wildly low numbers of cases and deaths. Although some political scientists theorize that the government has under tested in order to appear organized and keep their 2020 olympics position, many believe that tests were simply preserved in case of emergency. In either case, Japan's hygienic culture is indisputably helpful. An interviewed citizen said that they "didn't need" covid to "teach" them how to wash their hands or wear a mask. In fact, wearing a mask is seen as a civic duty and is seen as the bare minimum for every person. (Flu rates actually decreased due to such strict mask wearing). As a result, Japanese people are able to continue with many regularly scheduled activities; school, festivals, even amusement parks began to re-open by March.

I think it's really interesting how unspoken rules/cultural norms were able to in some ways make up for the failures of the Japenese government's response in terms of testing.

Hi Cooper! It is so interesting how the different cultures have influenced how much the virus spreads. Seeing how in the US, the government played a huge role in influencing the spread of the virus, I'm curious if any other political factors have also played a role in Japan's success.

Japan is holding a state funeral for Shinzo Abe, the country's longest-serving prime minister, who was assassinated in July at a political rally. The event has sparked controversy, however, with a protest of around 10,000 people today in Tokyo after a man set himself on fire near the PM's office earlier this week. The pushback is associated not only with the cost of the funeral, at around $11 million, but primarily with disagreement around giving such a high honor to a relatively unpopular political figure. Japanese state funerals have been historically reserved for members of the imperial family with only one other politician receiving a state funeral since WWII, back in 1967.

This is disappointing but not unexpected considering the elderly conservative demographics of Japan now. Abe has so much on his record that should have disqualified him from such an honor. At his core, he was a war crime apologist. His government had Japanese educational texts redacted to gloss over the crimes of the Japanese Empire in WWII, including the crimes of his beloved grandfather, who was nicknamed "The Monster of the Showa Era". He denied that Japan exported "comfort women" for their soldiers from conquered nations, and pressured the victim countries into silence. He refused to recognize the Ainu people - the indigenous people of the Japanese isles - until 2019. He tried to remilitarize Japan to bolster nationalism, thankfully unsuccessfully. The Japanese people and East Asia as a whole will be better off with his apologist mouth shut for good.

TOKYO - Government officials from Japan and North Korea held their first talks in four years on Wednesday, amid hopes that the North's new leader could be trying to reduce tensions with Japan and by extension, the United States.

I find both North Korea's political and social situations fascinating. Kim Jong-Un succeeded his father Kim Jong-Il as the "Supreme Leader of North Korea" in December of 2011, and less than a year later seems to be considering solidifying economic ties with other countries. North Korea has been notorious for its isolationism thus its miraculous that the government is willing to begin talks. It will be interesting to see what will happen In Communist North Korea as Cuba (also Communist) becomes open to US travelers for the first time in decades as long as they are with an educational group.

Let's talk about what we know about North Korea's new leader--hopeful or scary?

Deflation has really destroyed Japan's economy. Japan is in even more trouble, especially due to its debt and graying population. Western powers fear that the same fate is in store for them, especially if they are unable to stimulate their economies.

Title: Japan scrutinizes Chinese rail patents

High speed rail revolution- "...In Europe and Japan, the seeds for high speed rail were sewn in the 1960s and 1970s, when high oil prices, growing highway congestion, and an aging and congested rail system prompted countries to think deeply about how best to move people in the future. Later on, air quality concerns, prospects for economic development, and rising airport congestion helped push more countries to build high speed rail..."

This article gives an overview on the cultural attitudes towards suicide in Japan.

-This article gave up-to-date information on the economic position of Japan and the yen.