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Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is

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Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or

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Speaker 1: learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A

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Speaker 1: production of iHeart Radio.

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Speaker 2: Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,

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Speaker 2: my name is Noah.

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Speaker 3: They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our

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Speaker 3: super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you

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Speaker 3: are you. You are here. That makes this the stuff

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Speaker 3: they don't want you to know. Guys, you remember that

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Speaker 3: it's an observation that only grows more relevant over time.

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Speaker 3: People say, no one wants to be living through the

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Speaker 3: times of which history is made, right.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, kind of impossible though, because I guess history is

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Speaker 4: sort of always being made in it we're working live

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Speaker 4: well now.

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Speaker 2: I think it means people want to not have the

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Speaker 2: stress and maybe fear and all of the things that

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Speaker 2: come with a big historical event.

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Speaker 4: Right too bad suckers, where you find yourself.

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Speaker 2: We want smooth sailing, I think I think generally that's

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Speaker 2: what human beings want. But we've also got this thing

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Speaker 2: where in our media and things, most of the stuff

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Speaker 2: really interested in is the exciting, crazy.

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Speaker 3: Stuff from the past. But also from the present as

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Speaker 3: long as it's not touching us. Yeah, and the future

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Speaker 3: as long as it's not over the horizon quite yet.

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Speaker 3: And history proves time and time again. We've seen this

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Speaker 3: on every show we have touched, as EPs, as voice actors,

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Speaker 3: as writers, as hosts. History proves that in chaotic times,

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Speaker 3: the public will look for alternatives to the status quo,

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Speaker 3: whatever that status quo may be. Sometimes this leads to

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Speaker 3: things that history calls good revolutions, the French and American

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Speaker 3: Revolution right when the rejection of monarchy, and then sometimes

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Speaker 3: you know, it gets a little sith lordie. Chaos can

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Speaker 3: lead to a search for alternatives like fascism or dictatorships

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Speaker 3: or coups. Chaos reigns, Chaos reigns, and chaos is a

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Speaker 3: ladder for better or worse.

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Speaker 2: I watched a Mister Robot episode where one of the

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Speaker 2: characters use that term and used it in that way.

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Speaker 4: It was robot fun twist on a child's board game

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Speaker 4: would be coups and ladders.

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Speaker 3: I love it. Yeah, I think it's brilliant. What we

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Speaker 3: also see here is that, just like our discussion with

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Speaker 3: governments and AI, the modern information age hasn't really changed

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Speaker 3: this tendency. Instead, it's ushered in a new toolbox, a

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Speaker 3: new way to escalate this pattern. That's why there are

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Speaker 3: so many world governments accused of interfering with elections and

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Speaker 3: sovereign domestic politics. And tonight's story. First off, yes, this

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Speaker 3: is a story about political conspiracies, but also it's a

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Speaker 3: story about patterns. This is about a country that might

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Speaker 3: be facing something similar as we record the rise of

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Speaker 3: the far right in Japan and the growing allegations that

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Speaker 3: there may be a conspiracy powering it.

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Speaker 4: Absolutely, But first we're gonna hear a quick word from

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Speaker 4: our sponsor.

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Speaker 3: Here are the facts, all right, We've talked about this

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Speaker 3: a lot. I don't want to sound like a wiyaboo,

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Speaker 3: and we're going to keep any personal anecdotes to a

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Speaker 3: bare minimum.

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Speaker 4: Not me, I'm putting it all out there.

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Speaker 2: Can I just say I think your experience, Ben, in particular,

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Speaker 2: would be extremely helpful for this episode. I feel a

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Speaker 2: bit in the dark as we're going into this, but

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Speaker 2: just really.

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Speaker 4: In terms of on the ground experience of this kind

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Speaker 4: of thing, because you know, a lot of these things

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Speaker 4: don't even make the news over here. A lot of

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Speaker 4: the things that we're going to be talking about today,

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Speaker 4: let alone being available for us to you know, set

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Speaker 4: our very eyes on and see the way of functions.

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Speaker 2: I just think your input and or any anecdote you've

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Speaker 2: gotten could be extremely helpful for me personally to understand

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Speaker 2: this a little better.

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Speaker 5: Ah.

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Speaker 3: I think we'll I hear you and appreciate it. I

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Speaker 3: think will also be darkly surprised by how many parallels

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Speaker 3: are going to be in this story. Across the Ocean's blue,

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Speaker 3: Across the Ocean's blue. I'm of a maritime sort of mind.

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Speaker 4: What are we talking about? We're talking about the crime cruise, right,

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Speaker 4: so that's called but it's sort of like that. We're

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Speaker 4: doing a Virgin Mega Cruz True Crime. Theend are going

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Speaker 4: to be on the high seas coming up pretty soon.

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Speaker 4: I think you could still buy your tickets, y'all.

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Speaker 3: I believe so. Yeah, this is our organic mention, and

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Speaker 3: we're being so smooth with it. October tenth through the fifteenth.

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Speaker 3: Join us for smooth seas, you know, that's the hope.

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Speaker 2: And look, if you come on this thing, you might

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Speaker 2: go snorkeling with us. Weird, there might be sharks involved.

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Speaker 4: Trivia, you know.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you might see a shipwreck. You'll definitely go through

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Speaker 3: the Bermuda Triangle with us, where we have hatched up

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Speaker 3: the bride idea of recording our Bermuda Triangle episode live

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Speaker 3: from the location.

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Speaker 4: No tempting fade there. It's gonna be fine. Join us.

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Speaker 4: You can hold hands, guys.

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Speaker 2: I've got the first version of the video and I'm

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Speaker 2: working on the sound design and music. Right now. That's

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Speaker 2: gonna play. I guess people are coming in. We're gonna

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Speaker 2: make people feel so freaking uncomfortable and scary people.

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Speaker 3: We're gonna bring people together.

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Speaker 4: This is not sanctioned by the Version Corporation.

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Speaker 3: Matthew and like the decembers said, you know, if worst

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Speaker 3: comes the worst, we'll both go down together.

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Speaker 4: Also said, I'm a jolly little chimbley boy.

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Speaker 2: Is that a veiled if we're both going down together?

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Speaker 3: Is that a I think that one's about jumping off

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Speaker 3: of a building. It's metaphor. Laden's okay. There's a lot

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Speaker 3: of possibility there, and this will be This will be

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Speaker 3: great because it will get all of us together in

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Speaker 3: this one place and we'll be focused on one thing

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Speaker 3: and we'll probably agree what the revelations we discover. And

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Speaker 3: that's cool because it doesn't usually happen anywhere else in

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Speaker 3: human society. Right outside of a focused show or exploration.

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Speaker 4: You're just outside of our particular friend group. Never does occur.

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Speaker 3: We'll fight all the time.

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Speaker 2: In the end, we're going to explore mysteries and you'll

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Speaker 2: take away whatever you take from it.

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Speaker 4: Right, But in the end, possibly you're a souvenir.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but you'll be in the Bermuda triangle.

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Speaker 4: It's gonna be sick. I'm excited. I haven't been on

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Speaker 4: a cruise before, and I'm really really looking forward to

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Speaker 4: hanging out with you guys on the high seas and

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Speaker 4: talk about some some spooky stuff.

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Speaker 3: And with that, the reason we're emphasizing this idea of

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Speaker 3: agreeing being on the same page, and why that is

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Speaker 3: so important is because pretty much any other place you go,

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Speaker 3: or any other human endeavor you counter, you will see

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Speaker 3: that everyone disagrees. And Japan is no different. Japan is

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Speaker 3: full of competing ideologies and political parties. This is not unique,

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Speaker 3: it is not unusual.

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Speaker 4: Well, and it's funny. I was just gonna ask, maybe

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Speaker 4: this is a dumb question, but like we're talking about

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Speaker 4: the right and the lefts like obviously, when when I

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Speaker 4: ask to the right or left of what the answer

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Speaker 4: is center? But who determines, like culturally, which ideology is

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Speaker 4: represented by which side of zero?

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Speaker 3: You know, that's an interesting question. That's when we'll get

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Speaker 3: to because every center party, you know, as a your

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Speaker 3: mileage may vary situation, and historically we'll get into this

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Speaker 3: a little bit. Historically you call Japan more or less

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Speaker 3: culturally conservative, and a lot of a lot of East Asia,

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Speaker 3: to be fair, is that way. But in Japan, you know,

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Speaker 3: just like anywhere else, anywhere you go, you're going to

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Speaker 3: find a spectrum of groups with priorities and values that

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Speaker 3: sometimes combine and converge and then sometimes contradict and people

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Speaker 3: get at loggerheads. Here in the United States, for example,

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Speaker 3: speaking of centrism, there are two big political parties. You

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Speaker 3: got the Democrats, you got the Republicans. But each of

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Speaker 3: those terms, as we've discussed before in some pretty cool stuff,

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Speaker 3: each of those terms is like a it's an umbrella

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Speaker 3: phrase because within under the umbrella of democracy you'll find,

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Speaker 3: you know, the little umbrellas of Democrats, little umbrella Republicans,

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Speaker 3: and under that a monopoly of tinier umbrellas, tighier movements.

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Speaker 2: And ultimately it all represents campaign finance donations, right, and

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Speaker 2: which which primary corporations and entities donate to which of

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Speaker 2: those two parties, and then how is that divided up

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Speaker 2: amongst individual candidates?

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Speaker 4: And not to mention that I mean you're talking about

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Speaker 4: campaign I mean we're talking about a collection of campaign

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Speaker 4: promises and sort of treatises that are put out there

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Speaker 4: exclusively in the form of rhetoric, you know, and let's

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Speaker 4: just call it what it is, propaganda that doesn't always

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Speaker 4: add up to the way things actually end up, you know,

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Speaker 4: when folks are elected from either side.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, I just want to make that point that it's

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Speaker 2: it ends up those cliques that we're talking about inside

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Speaker 2: like the bigger umbrella groups, often those are divided up

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Speaker 2: amongst groups of people, groups of what appear to be

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Speaker 2: independent let's say representatives or people from certain states or

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Speaker 2: a scattering of states. You can use money and like

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Speaker 2: CARDI B make money moves to create like clicks and

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Speaker 2: movements of belief of you know what a group is

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Speaker 2: all about within this umbrella. And all you got, all

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Speaker 2: you have to do is inject enough money to get

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Speaker 2: enough candidates to believe the same thing. Then you can

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Speaker 2: push that and push it and push it and grow

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Speaker 2: it and make it larger until it potentially can take

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Speaker 2: over one of these umbrellas.

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Speaker 3: Mm hmm and becomes the establishment.

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Speaker 4: And it's so cynical, I know, but I mean, I

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Speaker 4: can't help but think that the only true belief is

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Speaker 4: in the money, that a lot of the other ones

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Speaker 4: are just sort of weaponized.

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Speaker 3: Beliefs that are used.

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Speaker 4: To sort of manipulate the populace. Like I just have

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Speaker 4: a real hard time believing in true believers in governments,

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Speaker 4: you know.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I hear you. The one thing we would add

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Speaker 3: as an asterisk to this is that money is a

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Speaker 3: representation of resource, right, it's labor over time. So there

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Speaker 3: are historically massive upheavals in social dynamics where people are

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Speaker 3: starving and someone comes along and says, I'll feed you, right,

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Speaker 3: and you can worry about the other stuff. We can

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Speaker 3: talk about that later. But wouldn't you like to eat

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Speaker 3: something when you like some rootabagas, some squash, et cetera,

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Speaker 3: and please.

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Speaker 2: That's a good way to get loyalty, right.

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Speaker 3: Right exactly. And so money then is an escalation of

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Speaker 3: that age old concept and these. Yeah, I love your

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Speaker 3: point about the Overton window.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 3: So here in the US, sure, the big boys, the

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Speaker 3: Democrats and the Republicans actively work together like Pepsi and

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Speaker 3: coke to repress competitors, to kill them in the womb, really,

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Speaker 3: or to buy them or buy them, neuter them somehow, right, sanitize,

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Speaker 3: sterilize them. And that's why far right movements and far

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Speaker 3: left movements and independent movements are all over the US.

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Speaker 3: But the FEC won't let them be uh. And that's fine.

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Speaker 4: That is Federal Election Commission.

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Speaker 3: That is Yeah, check out our episode on that speaking.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, good luck getting on a debate that it means

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Speaker 2: anything whatsoever one of those parties.

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Speaker 4: It's sort of like Oscar campaigns. Like everyone thinks magically

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Speaker 4: that the best things win the Oscar, But the things

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Speaker 4: that win the Oscar are the ones that had the

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Speaker 4: big money behind them to make their Oscar campaigns. You know,

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Speaker 4: it's I mean, it's just it's it's an illusion of

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Speaker 4: quality or this illusion of like democracy, I guess, or

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Speaker 4: you know, what's the word I'm looking for.

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Speaker 3: Meritocracy. Yes, meritocracy. I love that word and I wish

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Speaker 3: it was practiced more often. Also. You know, one thing

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Speaker 3: that's totally different from that, of course, is the podcast awards.

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Speaker 3: Everybody tune in for the MP's and the Webbies coming

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Speaker 3: to a town near you.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely the fixes and in on those.

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Speaker 3: So we see that these smaller groups, right may team

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Speaker 3: up with the big dogs on certain issues, right like

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Speaker 3: the the LDP, which is a weirdly misleading name, is

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Speaker 3: the big party in Japan. We'll get to them, but

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Speaker 3: they have under their umbrella they have a lot of

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Speaker 3: other smaller parties that agree with them on certain issues,

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Speaker 3: and we'll team up with them to vote for certain

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Speaker 3: things and policies. But at the same time, these smaller crews,

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Speaker 3: these smaller clicks, are still pushing other parts of their

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Speaker 3: respective agendas. That happens constantly.

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Speaker 4: In Japan is a quote unquote proper democracy, right, Well, yes, okay, okay,

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Speaker 4: I'm just just asking the question. Yeah, I don't know,

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Speaker 4: it's not on it like, it's just not something that

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Speaker 4: I am completely immersed in, you know, And I think

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Speaker 4: I get it in general, but I want to know

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Speaker 4: when a lot of these shifts took place, and I

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Speaker 4: have to imagine that some of them took place after

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Speaker 4: the war.

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Speaker 2: It's a democracy on a diet.

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Speaker 3: It's a democracy on a diet. Diet, let's get a drug,

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Speaker 3: let's get Dylan. Thank you for anybody who notices that

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Speaker 3: is an amazing joke. That's very well written, and thank

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Speaker 3: you for that. Matt. Yeah, maybe the way to say

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Speaker 3: it is Japan is a diet is the funniest way.

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Speaker 3: But Japan is a democracy that loves its royal family well.

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Speaker 4: And one could maybe argue that that makes it easier

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Speaker 4: to control, and that there's probably it's a little more

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Speaker 4: consistent than things over here might be right.

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Speaker 3: Yes, it's similar to what we see in European style

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Speaker 3: democracies that still have a royal family that might have

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Speaker 3: largely symbolic power, but a great deal of economic heft

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Speaker 3: because they own a lot of stuff from back in

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Speaker 3: the day. But they have these weird agreements that say

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Speaker 3: something like, yes, you are required as the you know,

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Speaker 3: the king of this place or the queen of this place,

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Speaker 3: to show up for these events. You make these speeches,

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Speaker 3: you know what I mean, where that funny outfit, where

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Speaker 3: this specific outfit, and then you go back home and

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Speaker 3: we're going we the elected representatives are going to handle

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Speaker 3: the day to day business of government and the wheel

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Speaker 3: of power, and that's that's a thing that sounds silly,

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Speaker 3: but it is an important distinction. And the United States,

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Speaker 3: not once, but at multiple times got so very close

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Speaker 3: to having acknowledged monarchs, and it's a bullet we keep

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Speaker 3: trying to matrix dodge.

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Speaker 4: It was absolutely a post war situation when they had

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Speaker 4: a constitution drafted and became a democracy after being you know,

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Speaker 4: having their asses handed to them.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, at the end of World War two.

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Speaker 4: Oh, we we'll get to that, but we have to

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Speaker 4: point out too and is answering my own question that

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Speaker 4: genuine I just was guessing that that was probably tasty, have.

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Speaker 3: Omami to it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we're gonna have to get in the weeds when

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Speaker 2: it comes to like what the what the democracy actually

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Speaker 2: looks like, how it functions, the different ways it's split up.

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Speaker 2: And then the emperor has some sneaky stuff in there

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Speaker 2: that's way more powerful than you'd expect, and we'll get

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Speaker 2: let's get into that, but first of all, let's let's

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Speaker 2: jump back to the US really quickly, because we're talking

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Speaker 2: about some of the ways in which these sub parties, right,

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Speaker 2: not the big players can actually play a role in

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Speaker 2: let's say election right.

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Speaker 3: In pushing the Overton window of conversation. You know, the

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Speaker 3: Green We're probably never going to have a Green Party

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Speaker 3: president in most of our listener's lifetimes. And you might

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Speaker 3: hear this and be in the US and you might say, look,

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Speaker 3: the Green Party, what a bunch of cuckoos. Anarchy is dumb,

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Speaker 3: Or you might not vibe with libertarians, or you might

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Speaker 3: be embarrassed by a local politician that you personally don't

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Speaker 3: support your neck of the woods. But the thing is

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Speaker 3: that's not inherently bad. When democracy works, it gives everyone

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Speaker 3: the opportunity to make their opinions known. The original donors

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Speaker 3: to any campaign were always supposed to be the voters.

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Speaker 3: Has changed post Citizens United, and that's never been true

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Speaker 3: in practice. But that's the idea on the paper.

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Speaker 2: It really is great in theory.

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Speaker 3: It's so much stuff is cool in theory. Like I

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Speaker 3: told you guys about trying to invent the farido, it's

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Speaker 3: a burrito that also utilizes the amazing technology of FA

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Speaker 3: and the world's just not ready quite yet.

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Speaker 2: There's called tortillas.

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Speaker 3: We'll see. Now we've just formed two different parties and

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Speaker 3: we can work together. Okay, So we know that these

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Speaker 3: times of instability, this is just the quick abstract structuralis

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Speaker 3: above it. The times of instability create opportunities for beliefs

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Speaker 3: and movements that would have been dismissed as fringe. Right,

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Speaker 3: everything's going to pot everything's going sideways and pear shaped,

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Speaker 3: and this leads us to the public to say, there's

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Speaker 3: got to be a better way, just like on a

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Speaker 3: made for TV commercial. That's why the threat of war

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Speaker 3: and economic collapse in particular historically often lead to nationalism,

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Speaker 3: to do countries saying hey us first.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we've been spending a lot of resources in

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Speaker 2: time out there in the others, in the other worlds.

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Speaker 2: What about this place? Man? What about my pension? And

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Speaker 2: I get that makes total sense.

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Speaker 4: I mean when the planes going down, they say put

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Speaker 4: the mask on yourself first, So you know, it does

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Speaker 4: to a certain degree. But then it becomes a rhetoric

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Speaker 4: in and of itself where it supplants like everything else

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Speaker 4: and sometimes even you know, things way outside of the

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Speaker 4: realms of like logic.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. The thing about binary in out group reasoning is

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Speaker 3: that it feels very convenient at the beginning, but you

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Speaker 3: have to realize those that ideology only gains power as

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Speaker 3: long as the inn group gets smaller and smaller. So

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Speaker 3: let's say you have a dozen friends, right, and then

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Speaker 3: eleven of you decide, Hey, we're going to ice this

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Speaker 3: one guy out and we're just not going to talk

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Speaker 3: to him. We'll have a separate group thread for that guy,

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Speaker 3: and then we the eleven real people are real friends,

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Speaker 3: will have our own thing and then from there to

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Speaker 3: continue that system. It's a Ponzi scheme of exclusion that

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Speaker 3: sounds way smarter than it is, but it's very accurate.

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Speaker 4: It seems a bit like what's happening with Putin and

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Speaker 4: Modi and China over there.

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Speaker 3: You know, just so, just so, and it happens to

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Speaker 3: a lot of microcosmics, like on the ground, individual friend groups.

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Speaker 3: So we know that an example of nationalism threatening democracy,

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Speaker 3: we can see it in the story of Marine General

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Speaker 3: Smedley Butler real pos back in the day. He probably

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Speaker 3: stopped a coup, a fascistic coup to overthrow democracy.

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Speaker 4: In the US brad podcast about it that you had

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Speaker 4: to hand in Ben called Let's start a coup? If

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Speaker 4: I'm not mistaken. If you want more on that, do

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Speaker 4: check it out.

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Speaker 3: Appreciate it. It's the most unhinged Sesame Street kind of

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Speaker 3: thing I've ever written, but it's a lot of fun.

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Speaker 3: Check out the phenomenal actors and our friends at the

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Speaker 3: School of Humans. And this is where we get to

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Speaker 3: the questions we're raising. Now we've talked about the US

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Speaker 3: Japanese parallels, We're going to see a lot of that's

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Speaker 3: in these conspiracies. Japan has a deep, deep history with

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Speaker 3: nationalism before the horrors of World War Two. You don't

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Speaker 3: have to look too far back in your history book

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Speaker 3: to see the evidence of that. These ultra nationalistic forces

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Speaker 3: committed heinous atrocities. They rationalized each and every one as

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Speaker 3: noble ACKs for a greater good Japan first.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's an interesting thing that occurs when nationalism

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Speaker 2: becomes like the main ideology, because when things are all

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Speaker 2: about you and us and what we're doing and how

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Speaker 2: to better us, it often leads that country or that

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Speaker 2: group or that empire into other places to then make

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Speaker 2: that stuff them, to make that stuff us right, And

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Speaker 2: we're talking about resources, we're talking about peoples, We're talking

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Speaker 2: about a lot of accumulation essentially through let's continue calling

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Speaker 2: them heinous acts and atrocities.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and this leads us to post World War two Japan.

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Speaker 3: Post World War two Japan, ever since the close of

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Speaker 3: the war, has always been a politically conservative democracy, and

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Speaker 3: you don't have to agree with the policies of the

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Speaker 3: dominant Liberal Democratic Party, which by the way, is again

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Speaker 3: just a farcical name. They're not particularly liberal, they're kind

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Speaker 3: of democratic. They do party though, so one out of three,

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Speaker 3: one out of three for their name, but the public

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Speaker 3: also so who votes for them. That's how democracy works.

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Speaker 3: So you don't have to like that party's policies, but

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Speaker 3: you do have to recognize that since World War Two,

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Speaker 3: in modern Japan, these have been, you know, the big dogs.

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Speaker 3: The most people agree on this party, and they're not

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Speaker 3: you know, they're not World War two cats. They're not

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Speaker 3: yelling from the rooftops to invade Banchuria. They're not saying, hey,

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Speaker 3: let's do hey, you guys, remember war crimes, let's do

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Speaker 3: some of those. They like global trade, they're not opposed to tourism.

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Speaker 3: And if you put aside the usual culture wars that

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Speaker 3: happened there and here in the US, the mainstream LDP

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Speaker 3: is a lot more like to your question. Note what

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Speaker 3: we would call center right, the way that the Democratic

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Speaker 3: Party is a neoliberal center right organization here in the US.

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Speaker 2: Interesting, should we talk a little bit just quickly about

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Speaker 2: the Constitution of Japan?

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Speaker 4: I'm interested. I mean, yeah, how did it come around?

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Speaker 4: How did it come about?

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Speaker 3: What?

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Speaker 4: You know, who was involved? I imagine there was no

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Speaker 4: small involvement from perhaps the Allies themselves or no.

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Speaker 3: A mandate. There you go, Val Shalt of all intel,

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Speaker 3: there you go. Yes for a constitution.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there was a constitution in eighteen ninety and it

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Speaker 2: was the one that the Empire of Japan essentially functioned

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Speaker 2: upon until the end of World War Two. And you

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Speaker 2: get this thing called what it's called the Constitution of Japan,

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Speaker 2: but it's known as a bunch of other things, like

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Speaker 2: the Peace Constitution or even the MacArthur Constitution, as in

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Speaker 2: US General MacArthur Constitution. That's probably the best name for it,

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Speaker 2: because he is the guy who ended up dictating a

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Speaker 2: lot of what went into.

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Speaker 3: It and when he came in post World War two.

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Speaker 3: I love that you're mentioning that previous document. The eighteen

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Speaker 3: nineties one is from the Meiji era, and that's when

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Speaker 3: Japan was undergoing this rapid modernization industrialization. The nation loved

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Speaker 3: the possibility of new technology, new systems, new processes, new resources,

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Speaker 3: but they also feared the erosion of traditional values and institutions.

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Speaker 3: So that first modernization, if we want to play the

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Speaker 3: reindeer games, that first modernization launched arguably part of or

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Speaker 3: informed the ultra nationalistic movements that arose and became such

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Speaker 3: a moving force in the Japanese activities and atrocities during

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Speaker 3: World War Two, because ever since the Meji era, there's

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Speaker 3: been this consistent concern about preserving traditional Japanese culture, protecting

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Speaker 3: it from the from falling prey to the collaborating foreign

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Speaker 3: hordes of the world outside, which is barbaric because it's

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Speaker 3: not Japanese.

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Speaker 2: Do you guys see any parallel between other island nations

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Speaker 2: that have empires from Britain what became the United Kingdom

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Speaker 2: and in Japan here that is an island nation that

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Speaker 2: is separated pretty fully from anyone else. You've got to

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Speaker 2: take a ship to get any goods across, to get

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Speaker 2: culture across one way or the other.

436
00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:14,240
Speaker 4: Yess, it is easier to be isolationists in those situations,

437
00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:14,880
Speaker 4: that's for sure.

438
00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:20,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, And those powerful archipelago nations historically are going to

439
00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:24,920
Speaker 3: beef up with the nearest mainland while they are culturally interconnected.

440
00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:28,520
Speaker 2: Yes, which is precisely right what happened with Britain over

441
00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:32,800
Speaker 2: scores and scores of years there. You think about Spain

442
00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:35,359
Speaker 2: and France and the other powers that are right around

443
00:24:35,359 --> 00:24:37,679
Speaker 2: that area, and then you think about China and Japan

444
00:24:37,800 --> 00:24:40,040
Speaker 2: in particular and other nations that were there that ended

445
00:24:40,080 --> 00:24:43,640
Speaker 2: up warring with So it is, I don't know, it's

446
00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:47,199
Speaker 2: very interesting because at least in these two instances, you

447
00:24:47,240 --> 00:24:53,919
Speaker 2: see tremendous power being built specifically for war for expansionism.

448
00:24:54,040 --> 00:24:59,440
Speaker 3: Right, yeah, hebens thrown. This is a very real historical precedent.

449
00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:03,000
Speaker 3: And you know, even in the modern day, let's jump

450
00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:06,160
Speaker 3: around in time. Even in the modern day with Japan's LDP,

451
00:25:06,600 --> 00:25:10,400
Speaker 3: we see there's a lot of internal dissent and they

452
00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:12,320
Speaker 3: argue about a lot of things. And one of the

453
00:25:12,320 --> 00:25:16,560
Speaker 3: things that is always up for vigorous debate or what

454
00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:22,440
Speaker 3: Corporate America calls healthy conversation, is that MacArthur imposed constitution.

455
00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:28,359
Speaker 3: So Uncle Sam kills so many people with world ending

456
00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:33,679
Speaker 3: technology and then says, good game. You do this rightly?

457
00:25:33,840 --> 00:25:36,920
Speaker 3: You would be pissed as well, right, And that's why

458
00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:41,480
Speaker 3: people always argue about revision to the Constitution of Japan,

459
00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:47,120
Speaker 3: specifically Article nine. Article nine is the US imposed. Well,

460
00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:49,080
Speaker 3: the whole thing's US imposed, but this is the big

461
00:25:49,119 --> 00:25:53,199
Speaker 3: tent item for the US and for the allies. It said, hey, Japan,

462
00:25:53,760 --> 00:25:58,680
Speaker 3: you can never again wage war to solve a conflict.

463
00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:02,680
Speaker 3: You cannot have, you know, a blue water navy or

464
00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:08,680
Speaker 3: maritime power. You cannot impose your will upon other entities

465
00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:11,560
Speaker 3: in the region through conflict and violence and kinetic war.

466
00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:15,720
Speaker 2: Bluewater navy, that's one that would be able to go

467
00:26:15,760 --> 00:26:19,359
Speaker 2: out and impose force further than a certain distance essentially

468
00:26:19,359 --> 00:26:21,600
Speaker 2: from the mainland. That's the concept, right.

469
00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:25,919
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, brownwater Navy, you can kind of run your coast.

470
00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:30,880
Speaker 3: Greenwater Navy, you can futs around in the region, get

471
00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:34,840
Speaker 3: up to some Saturday night Shenanigans, right of piracy and

472
00:26:34,880 --> 00:26:39,440
Speaker 3: crime or force projection. Bluewater Navy, you can go anywhere

473
00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:43,920
Speaker 3: in the world. You're the US and someone in two

474
00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:48,040
Speaker 3: Valu is talking mess you can send the boys out,

475
00:26:48,760 --> 00:26:52,919
Speaker 3: got it. But also it's very expensive and it's one

476
00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:54,840
Speaker 3: of those why would you do it? Things?

477
00:26:55,119 --> 00:26:55,320
Speaker 2: You know?

478
00:26:55,520 --> 00:26:59,000
Speaker 3: Anyway, that's maybe a different story, but the but.

479
00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:01,760
Speaker 2: What you can do is protect yourself, right, you can

480
00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:04,480
Speaker 2: have a defense force. That's cool. We're cool with.

481
00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:07,640
Speaker 3: That self defense force. We're joking about this off air

482
00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:11,919
Speaker 3: as a treat right, because then you know, rightly, you

483
00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:14,600
Speaker 3: have to give a country the ability to at least

484
00:27:14,600 --> 00:27:16,959
Speaker 3: defend itself. And this sort of gives lie to the

485
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:20,000
Speaker 3: idea of a Department of Defense in the United States

486
00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:24,000
Speaker 3: now Department of now department back to Department of War,

487
00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:26,159
Speaker 3: which it was for a long time. But you know,

488
00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:30,880
Speaker 3: the argument is, look, we get it says Japan. We're

489
00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:35,080
Speaker 3: not going to send out bombers over Vietnam or something, right,

490
00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:37,880
Speaker 3: or we're not going to take the Philippines. But if

491
00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:41,640
Speaker 3: someone comes and attacks Tokyo, we need to have some

492
00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:45,720
Speaker 3: resources to respond. And that seems very reasonable, right, sure.

493
00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:49,000
Speaker 2: As a treat now, and you can have that, and

494
00:27:49,040 --> 00:27:54,240
Speaker 2: that's okay, said the US pat But also, but really,

495
00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:56,919
Speaker 2: the way this is set up Article N is serious,

496
00:27:56,960 --> 00:27:59,080
Speaker 2: and that is one of the reasons, as you said, Ben,

497
00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:02,960
Speaker 2: that's like a sticking point. But the rest of it,

498
00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:07,800
Speaker 2: in its entirety was made up and created in the

499
00:28:07,880 --> 00:28:11,639
Speaker 2: moment following World War Two, after Japan's defeat, and it

500
00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:15,600
Speaker 2: was really really was imposed by there was this whole

501
00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:18,000
Speaker 2: thing that we can get into where the concept was,

502
00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:19,840
Speaker 2: we can have a bunch of smart people who know

503
00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:22,879
Speaker 2: the government in Japan get together and make the new constitution.

504
00:28:23,240 --> 00:28:25,440
Speaker 2: And they started doing that, but then the US came

505
00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:27,199
Speaker 2: in kind of at the last minute and said, well,

506
00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:30,240
Speaker 2: actually we're gonna use this one. And it was over

507
00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:34,360
Speaker 2: It was overseen by General MacArthur. So just the entirety

508
00:28:34,359 --> 00:28:36,719
Speaker 2: of the constitution ends up being this thing that's kind

509
00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:39,840
Speaker 2: of held over you if you're you know, a Japanese citizen,

510
00:28:40,600 --> 00:28:43,640
Speaker 2: as like, this is how we have to function. Why

511
00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:45,240
Speaker 2: does it have to still be like this?

512
00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:48,080
Speaker 3: And it was not written by the people of that country?

513
00:28:48,360 --> 00:28:52,960
Speaker 3: Is the important thing the US did. For another analogy,

514
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:56,560
Speaker 3: the US did something executive producers do. Came in and

515
00:28:56,600 --> 00:28:58,960
Speaker 3: saw what people are working on and said, great job, guys,

516
00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:01,520
Speaker 3: good hustle. I've got some notes. Can you do this?

517
00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:04,000
Speaker 3: But completely different and it's my thing, but now it's

518
00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:07,400
Speaker 3: yours and you have to do it. Great meeting, all.

519
00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:09,000
Speaker 2: Right, But also it's my thing and my name is

520
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:09,360
Speaker 2: gonna be on it.

521
00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:14,040
Speaker 3: Why don't we just call it the MacArthur Constitution. Anyway,

522
00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:17,080
Speaker 3: the other thing they fight about in the LDP is

523
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:20,640
Speaker 3: going to be how foreign policy should work with communist

524
00:29:20,720 --> 00:29:24,360
Speaker 3: countries in the region caugh cough, China right, not great

525
00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:28,240
Speaker 3: friends of Japan either on either side, So they also

526
00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:30,719
Speaker 3: talk about whether this will be important later. A lot

527
00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:33,520
Speaker 3: of other folks don't like this. There's a lot of

528
00:29:33,560 --> 00:29:37,800
Speaker 3: internal argument over the nature of ties with the United States,

529
00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:41,520
Speaker 3: which makes total historical sense, like how cool do you

530
00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:42,640
Speaker 3: want to be with these guys?

531
00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:46,560
Speaker 2: Well, barely really cool because you know stuff's booming over

532
00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:50,560
Speaker 2: here economically, train all these cars and video game systems

533
00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:53,880
Speaker 2: and tech and woo. Yeah, but also, oh wait, what

534
00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:54,960
Speaker 2: did those guys do to us?

535
00:29:55,120 --> 00:30:00,160
Speaker 3: Yeah? Also, everything you learn about diplomacy, no matter what

536
00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:03,200
Speaker 3: your genre of it is, can boil down to this

537
00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:09,560
Speaker 3: sweet till it isn't right. So we also see more

538
00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:13,720
Speaker 3: radical beliefs popping up. Anti immigration, like Benja turtles radical.

539
00:30:13,760 --> 00:30:18,240
Speaker 3: Those are like like wild off base radical. Sorry, yeah,

540
00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:23,440
Speaker 3: this is not bodacious, anti immigration, anti LGBT proposals, the

541
00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:28,080
Speaker 3: continual denial of historic war crimes. We've talked about the

542
00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:32,640
Speaker 3: idea of preserving culture in Japan or cultural identity which

543
00:30:32,680 --> 00:30:34,680
Speaker 3: may be another familiar thing you see a lot of

544
00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:38,120
Speaker 3: parallels to in other parts of the world. In recent years,

545
00:30:38,280 --> 00:30:43,840
Speaker 3: some very extreme versions of this conservative ideology have become

546
00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:48,760
Speaker 3: super powered in Japan, someone somewhat through some high octane

547
00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:51,720
Speaker 3: gas on the bonfire. This leads us to the current

548
00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:55,920
Speaker 3: far right, a new kid on the block called Santo

549
00:30:56,760 --> 00:30:58,360
Speaker 3: Pardner pronunciation.

550
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:02,640
Speaker 4: I think you did fine, a super conservative ultra nationalist

551
00:31:02,720 --> 00:31:07,600
Speaker 4: right wing party that was founded in twenty twenty, very recently. Yeah.

552
00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:12,280
Speaker 3: If the more conservative members of the LDP party in

553
00:31:12,320 --> 00:31:17,320
Speaker 3: the Upper House, if they are, if they are caffeine,

554
00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:22,360
Speaker 3: then Sanseto is cocaine in terms of the extremity of

555
00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:25,120
Speaker 3: their belief And the name is weird. It translates to

556
00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:28,880
Speaker 3: the Political Participation Party, but they also use the name

557
00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:32,960
Speaker 3: the Party of do it Yourself or the party love

558
00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:34,040
Speaker 3: it Amazing.

559
00:31:34,280 --> 00:31:38,120
Speaker 4: Do you get a political participation award for hanging out?

560
00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:41,040
Speaker 3: Yeah? But you have to make it yourself? Okay.

561
00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:43,160
Speaker 4: It's really a lot craft.

562
00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:47,520
Speaker 2: It gives you the feeling the sense of, oh, we

563
00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:50,200
Speaker 2: could we could actually decide what happens. You could decide

564
00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:54,240
Speaker 2: what happens, right like that. That's a pretty powerful concept

565
00:31:55,640 --> 00:31:58,040
Speaker 2: and it feels like something that you could buy into

566
00:31:58,160 --> 00:32:02,320
Speaker 2: before you even really understand what the party represents, or

567
00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:04,920
Speaker 2: you know what deep waters you're actually waiting into.

568
00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:09,040
Speaker 3: Why can't we be the masters of our fate, the

569
00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:13,280
Speaker 3: captains of our souls? Right? Quoting in Victis, they're paraphrasing.

570
00:32:13,600 --> 00:32:17,120
Speaker 3: So this party, Sansito, has people worried, diy party whatever

571
00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:21,720
Speaker 3: in their worried because there's this crazy political rise to

572
00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:26,479
Speaker 3: fame and success from a once fringe party. In some ways,

573
00:32:26,640 --> 00:32:31,560
Speaker 3: you could compare it to hanging out in the Midwest

574
00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:33,920
Speaker 3: with a friend of a friend or a friend of

575
00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:38,120
Speaker 3: your friend's cousin who just smokes weed and tells you

576
00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:43,240
Speaker 3: that Jewish space lasers are the world's most dangerous technology.

577
00:32:43,280 --> 00:32:45,280
Speaker 3: And now all of a sudden, that guy and his

578
00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:48,760
Speaker 3: buddies are in office. That's how people are reacting to

579
00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:52,040
Speaker 3: some of this. And the question is a logical question.

580
00:32:52,280 --> 00:32:55,040
Speaker 2: Yes, thinking about that one person from Georgia who has

581
00:32:55,080 --> 00:32:55,800
Speaker 2: said those things.

582
00:32:56,120 --> 00:33:01,440
Speaker 3: Yeah, that one person. There's this question, right, how did

583
00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:03,840
Speaker 3: this It's a logical one. How did this small group

584
00:33:04,280 --> 00:33:07,400
Speaker 3: has often dismissed as fringe and weing nuts and what

585
00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:09,840
Speaker 3: have you. How do they gain so much power so

586
00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:12,920
Speaker 3: much influence, so much attention over such a short span

587
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:17,120
Speaker 3: of time, which we'll get into. And despite their xenophobic

588
00:33:17,240 --> 00:33:24,240
Speaker 3: stances against all foreign powersliar right right parallels, as we said,

589
00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:28,720
Speaker 3: critics alleged this might all be a front that indeed

590
00:33:28,800 --> 00:33:33,520
Speaker 3: certain foreign powers are funding this party as helping this

591
00:33:33,960 --> 00:33:37,280
Speaker 3: They're helping this party to succeed, not because they want

592
00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:40,440
Speaker 3: Japan to succeed overall, but because it's part of a

593
00:33:40,600 --> 00:33:46,800
Speaker 3: long term conspiratorial scheme to weaken Japan from within. Oh God,

594
00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:58,240
Speaker 3: the home parallels. That's our ad break. Here's where it

595
00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:03,000
Speaker 3: gets crazy. All right, right parallels. As we're getting I

596
00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:04,640
Speaker 3: think we're going to find a lot of these as

597
00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:07,200
Speaker 3: we continue. Can we kick a little bit of the

598
00:34:07,240 --> 00:34:10,520
Speaker 3: origin story of Sanseto? Absolutely so.

599
00:34:10,800 --> 00:34:14,520
Speaker 4: For three years since Sayto existed as a little tiny

600
00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:18,279
Speaker 4: opposition party, holding just a single seat in Japan's two

601
00:34:18,360 --> 00:34:20,960
Speaker 4: hundred and forty eight seat upper house, also called the

602
00:34:21,040 --> 00:34:25,840
Speaker 4: House of Councilors. This changed in the recent election of

603
00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:30,520
Speaker 4: July twentieth, when Sanseeto walked away with a whopping fourteen

604
00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:32,040
Speaker 4: new seats in the House.

605
00:34:33,719 --> 00:34:36,359
Speaker 3: And this is not a this goes back to our

606
00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:41,880
Speaker 3: European comparison, you can have coalition parties, right, so you

607
00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:45,279
Speaker 3: can have a group of some people get you know,

608
00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:48,760
Speaker 3: X amount of seats, some other group gets wide amount

609
00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:52,320
Speaker 3: of seats and they team up and agree to largely

610
00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:56,480
Speaker 3: vote together. That doesn't really happen in US democracy because

611
00:34:56,520 --> 00:34:58,400
Speaker 3: we're a young country and we're still trying to figure

612
00:34:58,440 --> 00:34:58,919
Speaker 3: stuff out.

613
00:34:59,360 --> 00:35:03,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, quickly, let's talk about that diet thing because it'll

614
00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:06,279
Speaker 2: help us understand that upper house, because there's an upper

615
00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:08,759
Speaker 2: house in a lower house. Upper house, the House of

616
00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:11,680
Speaker 2: Councilors feels a lot like the Senate to me, although

617
00:35:11,719 --> 00:35:12,520
Speaker 2: it's not the same thing.

618
00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:15,560
Speaker 3: It's not the same thing, but the diet is Congress

619
00:35:15,560 --> 00:35:17,920
Speaker 3: house of Councilors. Yeah, let's think of it as the

620
00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:19,440
Speaker 3: Senate exactly.

621
00:35:20,040 --> 00:35:22,400
Speaker 2: And then you've got you have another house of representatives,

622
00:35:22,440 --> 00:35:25,480
Speaker 2: which is the lower House, which is it's very interesting.

623
00:35:25,520 --> 00:35:27,960
Speaker 2: There are four and eighty members in that house. But

624
00:35:28,440 --> 00:35:31,480
Speaker 2: I was looking through I think it's the official website

625
00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:35,200
Speaker 2: of the Prime Minister of Japan, and the way it's

626
00:35:35,239 --> 00:35:38,440
Speaker 2: described here, I'm just going to say this out loud

627
00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:40,440
Speaker 2: just so we hear it and then maybe we can

628
00:35:40,520 --> 00:35:42,880
Speaker 2: break it down. Sure, so there are foreign eighty members

629
00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:46,080
Speaker 2: of the House of Representatives. Three hundred are elected from

630
00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:49,480
Speaker 2: the single seat constituencies, and one hundred and eighty by

631
00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:54,000
Speaker 2: their proportional representation system, in which the nation is divided

632
00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:57,080
Speaker 2: into eleven electoral blocks, which.

633
00:35:56,920 --> 00:35:59,879
Speaker 4: According to Sary, dissimilar to the way we do things, right,

634
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:00,200
Speaker 4: is it?

635
00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:03,799
Speaker 2: Is it kind of that way? I don't Maybe I

636
00:36:03,840 --> 00:36:05,320
Speaker 2: just don't understand voting blocks.

637
00:36:05,320 --> 00:36:08,760
Speaker 4: And there's districts and redistricting and you know, all that stuff,

638
00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:11,719
Speaker 4: and proportional representation over here. I mean, it seems like

639
00:36:12,080 --> 00:36:15,239
Speaker 4: it has some things in common, but I might be oversimplifying.

640
00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:17,560
Speaker 2: So yeah, that would go into some of the redistricting

641
00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:20,600
Speaker 2: stuff that we're seeing in the news, where a certain representative,

642
00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:24,359
Speaker 2: you know, represents X people within these lines.

643
00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:24,680
Speaker 3: That kind of thing.

644
00:36:24,719 --> 00:36:27,640
Speaker 2: Okay, that makes sense. So then the House of Councilors,

645
00:36:27,920 --> 00:36:30,080
Speaker 2: the total membership, at least according to this website of

646
00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:33,439
Speaker 2: the House of Councilors says two hundred and forty two, says,

647
00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:36,640
Speaker 2: ninety six of those are elected the proportional representation system,

648
00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:39,120
Speaker 2: and then one hundred and forty six from forty seven

649
00:36:39,280 --> 00:36:43,400
Speaker 2: different prefectural constituencies. And again, like I don't understand all

650
00:36:43,440 --> 00:36:46,239
Speaker 2: of that stuff. But it is important to know that

651
00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:48,719
Speaker 2: term office for someone in the House of Councilors is

652
00:36:48,800 --> 00:36:49,440
Speaker 2: six years.

653
00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:55,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, and again, proportional representation is going to be familiar

654
00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:58,319
Speaker 3: to anybody thinking of the House of Reps here in

655
00:36:58,360 --> 00:37:01,560
Speaker 3: the United States, where in the number of Congress folks

656
00:37:01,600 --> 00:37:03,800
Speaker 3: you get is based on the population.

657
00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:05,320
Speaker 4: Yeah, people alway talking about, oh, we picked up a

658
00:37:05,320 --> 00:37:07,840
Speaker 4: new seats, you know, because the population changed or whatever.

659
00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:12,359
Speaker 4: And then there's of course even obviously not super hard

660
00:37:12,360 --> 00:37:14,960
Speaker 4: to detect ways of trying to manipulate that, you know.

661
00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:20,160
Speaker 3: And yeah, mister mander Jerry has entered the chat. So

662
00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:25,080
Speaker 3: how do we explain this meteoric rise from one seat

663
00:37:25,440 --> 00:37:28,440
Speaker 3: for three years to all of a sudden in a

664
00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:30,759
Speaker 3: recent just an election a few months ago, now we

665
00:37:30,840 --> 00:37:34,000
Speaker 3: got fourteen seats, and this can make a big difference,

666
00:37:34,320 --> 00:37:38,640
Speaker 3: especially when you have coalition systems. We can't ignore the

667
00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:40,239
Speaker 3: COVID nineteen pandemic.

668
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:41,880
Speaker 4: It shook up a lot of stuff in a lot

669
00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:43,000
Speaker 4: of places.

670
00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:47,160
Speaker 3: And it put a lot of people in a situation

671
00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:50,880
Speaker 3: where they were much more vulnerable to the mechanisms of

672
00:37:51,080 --> 00:37:56,680
Speaker 3: online disinformation. And this is where we see Sanseto really

673
00:37:57,239 --> 00:37:57,960
Speaker 3: rolling up with.

674
00:37:57,920 --> 00:38:00,359
Speaker 4: Some big dice and again how familiar.

675
00:38:01,520 --> 00:38:05,319
Speaker 3: Parallels. Everything is precedent and a lot of these things

676
00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:08,960
Speaker 3: are sadly similar. The Japanese public, like the rest of

677
00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:12,480
Speaker 3: the world, is locked away, and this political movement blows

678
00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:15,360
Speaker 3: up on the Internet partially as a result, they're just

679
00:38:15,440 --> 00:38:18,960
Speaker 3: more eyes on more screens. Their members get known for

680
00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:25,680
Speaker 3: trumpeting conspiracy theories about vaccinations, anti Semitism, revisionist history, and more,

681
00:38:26,440 --> 00:38:29,880
Speaker 3: and they find an audience. Huge percentage of their voting

682
00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:33,399
Speaker 3: demographic is going to be young eighteen to thirty year

683
00:38:33,400 --> 00:38:38,440
Speaker 3: old male searching for alternatives to the status quo because

684
00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:42,359
Speaker 3: the economy is rough right. Earlier generations, you could get

685
00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:45,400
Speaker 3: a job for life at a large corporation, but younger

686
00:38:45,440 --> 00:38:48,360
Speaker 3: folks are having a much more difficult time finding long

687
00:38:48,440 --> 00:38:50,400
Speaker 3: term substantive employment.

688
00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:53,440
Speaker 2: Well, we talked about how serious school is taken in

689
00:38:53,560 --> 00:38:58,520
Speaker 2: Japan culturally, and just how much pressure is on each

690
00:38:58,560 --> 00:39:03,839
Speaker 2: individual student to like truly fully succeed to get to

691
00:39:03,840 --> 00:39:06,680
Speaker 2: go to secondary school or higher degree, to continue on

692
00:39:06,960 --> 00:39:08,160
Speaker 2: to get that good job.

693
00:39:08,280 --> 00:39:11,200
Speaker 4: Right well, and with that almost a guarantee within that

694
00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:14,440
Speaker 4: system of getting that career that you were promised of

695
00:39:14,560 --> 00:39:16,280
Speaker 4: carrying forth that legacy.

696
00:39:16,120 --> 00:39:20,160
Speaker 3: Which is why suicide rates tend to spike after people

697
00:39:20,200 --> 00:39:24,440
Speaker 3: receive their final exam grades and their college acceptance letters.

698
00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:27,800
Speaker 2: Yes, but you also see this thing happening in Japan

699
00:39:27,840 --> 00:39:29,759
Speaker 2: and the United States and across the world where the

700
00:39:29,920 --> 00:39:34,359
Speaker 2: older generation of folks is staying around for much longer now,

701
00:39:35,040 --> 00:39:38,080
Speaker 2: right to run corporations, to you know, be in that

702
00:39:38,200 --> 00:39:40,200
Speaker 2: job that would be the next jump up, so that

703
00:39:40,239 --> 00:39:43,920
Speaker 2: you could get new people in to hire. Within government,

704
00:39:44,320 --> 00:39:46,200
Speaker 2: the old guard is sticking around.

705
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:49,040
Speaker 3: Right, well, yeah, yeah, what by saying stick around, we

706
00:39:49,160 --> 00:39:52,960
Speaker 3: mean that they're retiring later, Yes.

707
00:39:52,760 --> 00:39:55,080
Speaker 2: But people are retired later. But you've also got folks,

708
00:39:55,120 --> 00:39:57,680
Speaker 2: you know, we're talking about how often you have to

709
00:39:57,719 --> 00:40:00,960
Speaker 2: get re elected to a term, right, either six years

710
00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:03,160
Speaker 2: if you're in the upper House, four years if you're

711
00:40:03,200 --> 00:40:05,439
Speaker 2: in the lower House. And they're seeing people stick around

712
00:40:05,480 --> 00:40:07,720
Speaker 2: there and get re elected over and over and over again,

713
00:40:08,239 --> 00:40:10,920
Speaker 2: and you can imagine the view of it's time to

714
00:40:10,960 --> 00:40:13,920
Speaker 2: switch these people out. Yeah, no, you know, And that's

715
00:40:13,960 --> 00:40:16,160
Speaker 2: a base belief without any of the other stuff on

716
00:40:16,239 --> 00:40:17,960
Speaker 2: top of it, just that feeling.

717
00:40:17,920 --> 00:40:21,680
Speaker 3: Right, and it's a universal feeling too. Right. Your time's up,

718
00:40:21,719 --> 00:40:24,200
Speaker 3: old man, Let me take the stick. That kind of

719
00:40:24,200 --> 00:40:28,799
Speaker 3: thing again, they'll say no, very few of them saying yes,

720
00:40:29,640 --> 00:40:32,239
Speaker 3: even if they're talking directly to their own scion. But

721
00:40:33,360 --> 00:40:36,160
Speaker 3: in addition, because of these economic factors, we see that

722
00:40:36,400 --> 00:40:42,680
Speaker 3: marriage is difficult, right, Raising children is a hefty financial proposition,

723
00:40:42,800 --> 00:40:46,320
Speaker 3: buying a home, these are all much more difficult to accomplish.

724
00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:50,200
Speaker 3: And there's still, of course, this conservative milieu that says, hey,

725
00:40:50,360 --> 00:40:54,280
Speaker 3: you as a woman can't You can't have a kid

726
00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:58,320
Speaker 3: and have a job, right, Or you as a dude,

727
00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:01,960
Speaker 3: right when you get your forever job, when you become

728
00:41:02,320 --> 00:41:06,919
Speaker 3: one of those vaunted aspirational salarymen. Well, your family kind

729
00:41:06,920 --> 00:41:10,200
Speaker 3: of exist on the weekends, okay, and everybody be cool.

730
00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:12,400
Speaker 3: And a lot of people are saying, oh wait, hang on,

731
00:41:12,520 --> 00:41:16,640
Speaker 3: I'm a human being that's actually not super cool. And

732
00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:18,960
Speaker 3: these are understandable problems.

733
00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:20,040
Speaker 2: That's the response.

734
00:41:20,480 --> 00:41:20,600
Speaker 3: Right.

735
00:41:20,640 --> 00:41:23,680
Speaker 4: Well, we even talked about, like within that culture, how

736
00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:28,319
Speaker 4: some very interesting entrepreneurial situations pop up, like companies that

737
00:41:28,360 --> 00:41:30,960
Speaker 4: will quit your job for you so that you don't

738
00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:32,960
Speaker 4: have to face your boss or even Ben, I think

739
00:41:32,960 --> 00:41:35,080
Speaker 4: you and I were talking offline about this, companies that

740
00:41:35,120 --> 00:41:38,920
Speaker 4: will like disappear you if you've shamed your family or whatever,

741
00:41:39,160 --> 00:41:41,440
Speaker 4: like so you can live off the grid and not

742
00:41:41,520 --> 00:41:44,399
Speaker 4: have to you know, be ridiculed and may be seen

743
00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:45,240
Speaker 4: as a failure.

744
00:41:45,719 --> 00:41:50,120
Speaker 3: Yeah, they'll obscure your trail. And it's it's not illegal

745
00:41:50,239 --> 00:41:54,480
Speaker 3: to disappear folks. As we talked in the past, the

746
00:41:54,600 --> 00:42:01,239
Speaker 3: concept of pseudo side is dicey, but just leaving, just

747
00:42:01,280 --> 00:42:04,680
Speaker 3: sort of laying down away from society. There's nothing illegal

748
00:42:04,719 --> 00:42:07,799
Speaker 3: about that, as long as you aren't ditching out on

749
00:42:07,880 --> 00:42:10,000
Speaker 3: debts and as long as you're not trying to get

750
00:42:10,080 --> 00:42:13,480
Speaker 3: money by faking your death. So we can't blame a

751
00:42:13,480 --> 00:42:16,920
Speaker 3: lot of people in very competitive environments for just getting

752
00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:20,000
Speaker 3: tired and burned out. And you vote with your actions,

753
00:42:20,440 --> 00:42:23,359
Speaker 3: ever since the beginning of tribes, that's the number one

754
00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:27,400
Speaker 3: way people vote. And when we see that perspective, we

755
00:42:27,480 --> 00:42:31,640
Speaker 3: see that a lot of Japanese nationals are voting with

756
00:42:31,680 --> 00:42:35,520
Speaker 3: their actions by saying, well, why would I bother get married?

757
00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:40,200
Speaker 3: Why would I sign up for this hellish Sisyphian life

758
00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:45,720
Speaker 3: of working till I die, right and then barely seeing

759
00:42:45,719 --> 00:42:48,960
Speaker 3: a kid and then yelling at the kid when I

760
00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:51,440
Speaker 3: do see them. So as a result, birth rates are plummeting.

761
00:42:51,719 --> 00:42:55,239
Speaker 3: Even the popular media accuses other countries of trying to

762
00:42:55,360 --> 00:42:59,920
Speaker 3: besmirch Japan's culture and reputation. You click on you know,

763
00:43:00,080 --> 00:43:03,760
Speaker 3: you're hanging out somewhere, right and isekaya or a hotel

764
00:43:03,800 --> 00:43:07,040
Speaker 3: room or something. You see the news, the local news,

765
00:43:07,480 --> 00:43:11,120
Speaker 3: and there's this heavy implication that the world is telling

766
00:43:11,160 --> 00:43:14,640
Speaker 3: you it is wrong for you to be Japanese. Yeah.

767
00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:18,719
Speaker 2: We also see in parallel to that a massive rise

768
00:43:18,760 --> 00:43:25,160
Speaker 2: and popularity of Japanese cultural things. Yes, yes, in other places,

769
00:43:25,719 --> 00:43:29,200
Speaker 2: which is just a very interesting notion to have those

770
00:43:29,400 --> 00:43:31,040
Speaker 2: two movements occurring together.

771
00:43:31,760 --> 00:43:35,439
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Every country is a land of contradictions, right,

772
00:43:35,680 --> 00:43:39,320
Speaker 3: and this is I love this point because it brings

773
00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:45,160
Speaker 3: us to more parallels. Here Amid COVID nineteen right, Sanseto

774
00:43:45,280 --> 00:43:50,640
Speaker 3: hits the zeitgeist. They urge potential voters to be proud

775
00:43:50,680 --> 00:43:54,120
Speaker 3: of your ethnicity and culture. There's nothing inherently wrong with that,

776
00:43:54,719 --> 00:43:58,000
Speaker 3: except when it leads to racism and things like white

777
00:43:58,040 --> 00:44:02,600
Speaker 3: supremacy and so on. They also pivot and they say,

778
00:44:02,680 --> 00:44:04,279
Speaker 3: you know how your life is tough and you're kind

779
00:44:04,280 --> 00:44:08,880
Speaker 3: of unhappy and unsatisfied. Well, it's not due to the

780
00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:13,839
Speaker 3: economics of Japan itself. Really, Instead, it's due to these foreigners,

781
00:44:14,360 --> 00:44:17,279
Speaker 3: these immigrant hordes. The phrase they use over and over

782
00:44:17,320 --> 00:44:21,440
Speaker 3: again is silent invasion. It's due to these globalists who

783
00:44:21,520 --> 00:44:25,399
Speaker 3: are messing with something that would have been fine if

784
00:44:25,440 --> 00:44:28,880
Speaker 3: we never said yes to the Portuguese in the first place. Basically,

785
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:34,320
Speaker 3: so they say, is the motto Japan First.

786
00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:41,239
Speaker 4: Huh Sorry, It's almost like they got the idea from

787
00:44:41,239 --> 00:44:43,640
Speaker 4: somebody who also got the idea from somebody. This is

788
00:44:43,680 --> 00:44:47,319
Speaker 4: just a pattern, I mean, this rise of nationalism and

789
00:44:47,360 --> 00:44:51,759
Speaker 4: then words like patriot or nationalists almost beginning to have

790
00:44:51,840 --> 00:44:55,160
Speaker 4: a dog whistle feel to them, you know, for xenophobic

791
00:44:55,280 --> 00:44:55,880
Speaker 4: or a racist.

792
00:44:56,640 --> 00:45:00,880
Speaker 3: Yeah. And to your point there, the reason sounds familiar

793
00:45:01,040 --> 00:45:05,640
Speaker 3: is because this party, the DIY Party, explicitly notes the

794
00:45:05,680 --> 00:45:09,120
Speaker 3: phrase Japan First was inspired by the current US President

795
00:45:09,160 --> 00:45:14,240
Speaker 3: Donald Trump. Okay, so they're there a secret. They're saying,

796
00:45:14,480 --> 00:45:18,680
Speaker 3: we think this is a pretty cool idea. Yeah wow.

797
00:45:20,960 --> 00:45:25,120
Speaker 3: And then they continue with international racism, not really targeting,

798
00:45:26,480 --> 00:45:31,040
Speaker 3: not really targeting like Canadians and US folks and other

799
00:45:31,040 --> 00:45:35,920
Speaker 3: folks from the anglosphere. Although they hate Australian tourists. Sorry, guys,

800
00:45:36,920 --> 00:45:38,720
Speaker 3: there's a reputation that was someone earned.

801
00:45:39,200 --> 00:45:41,759
Speaker 2: But they how do they feel about American tours seriously, like,

802
00:45:41,800 --> 00:45:43,640
Speaker 2: what what have you experienced?

803
00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:44,200
Speaker 4: Ben?

804
00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:47,880
Speaker 2: I mean, just what have you experienced traveling through Japan?

805
00:45:48,160 --> 00:45:51,560
Speaker 2: It does has it been? Doesn't seem like he's been

806
00:45:51,560 --> 00:45:52,200
Speaker 2: negative at all?

807
00:45:53,840 --> 00:45:58,920
Speaker 3: Uh No, No, usually there for specific reasons. Always it

808
00:45:58,920 --> 00:46:01,920
Speaker 3: depends on where you go, right, So you go to Tokyo,

809
00:46:02,040 --> 00:46:05,000
Speaker 3: it's like you're going to New York or London. People

810
00:46:05,080 --> 00:46:09,520
Speaker 3: are too busy, right in general, I will say in

811
00:46:09,560 --> 00:46:12,560
Speaker 3: Tokyo there's a little bit more of an emphasis on

812
00:46:13,400 --> 00:46:16,200
Speaker 3: helping folks who may clearly seem out of their depth.

813
00:46:16,600 --> 00:46:20,359
Speaker 3: So the public transit is awesome, right, It's worlds away,

814
00:46:20,440 --> 00:46:23,279
Speaker 3: streets ahead, as community would say, but it can be

815
00:46:23,400 --> 00:46:26,520
Speaker 3: very confusing if you don't know where you're going, right,

816
00:46:26,520 --> 00:46:29,480
Speaker 3: because it's essentially a circulatory system for a country. So

817
00:46:29,960 --> 00:46:34,880
Speaker 3: there's this whole cottage industry of volunteers, often older people,

818
00:46:34,960 --> 00:46:39,280
Speaker 3: often older dudes. They don't necessarily work for the transit system,

819
00:46:39,760 --> 00:46:42,759
Speaker 3: but they pick a day out of the week and

820
00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:45,920
Speaker 3: then just hang out at the station and they help

821
00:46:46,000 --> 00:46:48,879
Speaker 3: people figure out where to go. It's a pretty beautiful thing.

822
00:46:48,960 --> 00:46:50,879
Speaker 3: And you know, I'll tell you it probably wouldn't happen

823
00:46:50,920 --> 00:46:51,400
Speaker 3: in Boston.

824
00:46:51,480 --> 00:46:54,960
Speaker 4: Well, and my understanding too is that in general, people

825
00:46:55,160 --> 00:46:58,160
Speaker 4: there are pretty and to your pointment in the bigger cities,

826
00:46:58,360 --> 00:47:02,440
Speaker 4: pretty helpful to tourists and not always doing it for money.

827
00:47:02,600 --> 00:47:04,719
Speaker 4: You know, they're proud of their city, and I think

828
00:47:04,920 --> 00:47:07,040
Speaker 4: tourism is obviously big money there, and it does not

829
00:47:07,239 --> 00:47:10,799
Speaker 4: seem to my eyes anyway that there's a resentment like

830
00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:12,560
Speaker 4: you might see in places like Barcelona.

831
00:47:13,000 --> 00:47:16,640
Speaker 3: And yeah, it's also very much a well, it's not

832
00:47:16,760 --> 00:47:21,560
Speaker 3: an overt yelling society unless someone's having a bad day

833
00:47:21,600 --> 00:47:25,080
Speaker 3: and they assume that you don't know any Japanese. But

834
00:47:25,120 --> 00:47:32,040
Speaker 3: there's also an intense, relatively skin based hierarchy. So if

835
00:47:32,080 --> 00:47:35,920
Speaker 3: you are a lighter skinned person from the US, you

836
00:47:36,120 --> 00:47:39,480
Speaker 3: are going to be treated differently, and you're probably going

837
00:47:39,560 --> 00:47:42,160
Speaker 3: to be there's going to be a slightly more friendly

838
00:47:42,200 --> 00:47:45,560
Speaker 3: attitude towards you than if you were a darker skinned person.

839
00:47:46,719 --> 00:47:50,640
Speaker 3: And you know, like in rural areas, I've never had

840
00:47:50,680 --> 00:47:53,800
Speaker 3: an issue in cities, I've never had an issue because

841
00:47:54,400 --> 00:47:57,000
Speaker 3: I'm a huge believer in the idea that energy is

842
00:47:57,000 --> 00:47:59,120
Speaker 3: a two way street. You know, so if you are

843
00:47:59,160 --> 00:48:04,319
Speaker 3: respectful with some one right and you are understanding the

844
00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:07,839
Speaker 3: boundaries that they may have, and you put just a

845
00:48:08,000 --> 00:48:10,600
Speaker 3: little bit of time in to figuring out how to

846
00:48:10,640 --> 00:48:12,919
Speaker 3: not look like it. It's going to go a long,

847
00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:13,839
Speaker 3: long way, dude.

848
00:48:13,840 --> 00:48:16,000
Speaker 4: That's the key to life right there, My friends, don't

849
00:48:16,040 --> 00:48:20,040
Speaker 4: be in like read the room. Don't make you know

850
00:48:20,080 --> 00:48:20,440
Speaker 4: it's good.

851
00:48:20,520 --> 00:48:22,880
Speaker 3: But I have seen to your to your question direct,

852
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:26,319
Speaker 3: I have seen. I have seen people who are just

853
00:48:26,400 --> 00:48:29,240
Speaker 3: tired of all these tourists, especially in very tourists heavy

854
00:48:29,360 --> 00:48:34,040
Speaker 3: cities like Kyoto at certain times of year. There's more

855
00:48:34,080 --> 00:48:38,439
Speaker 3: of an exasperation than like hostility, right, yes, But exasperation

856
00:48:38,920 --> 00:48:41,640
Speaker 3: is a cousin of hostility, It's true, you know. And

857
00:48:41,880 --> 00:48:44,360
Speaker 3: the one of the big complaints, for instance, that you

858
00:48:44,400 --> 00:48:48,399
Speaker 3: will see in this galvanized Sanseeto as well, is the

859
00:48:48,560 --> 00:48:53,880
Speaker 3: idea of, hey, these tourists are crowding all of the

860
00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:58,120
Speaker 3: trains and the buses. I'm not here for, you know,

861
00:48:58,880 --> 00:49:02,239
Speaker 3: insert festival. I live here and I have to get

862
00:49:02,239 --> 00:49:04,480
Speaker 3: to work on time, and I can't get on the

863
00:49:04,520 --> 00:49:08,359
Speaker 3: bus because of all these gosh dart And then they'll

864
00:49:08,400 --> 00:49:13,560
Speaker 3: insert a phrase, and that phrase I mean often often

865
00:49:13,640 --> 00:49:16,359
Speaker 3: the discrimination the complaints are going to be centered on

866
00:49:17,480 --> 00:49:22,919
Speaker 3: Singaporean and Chinese nationals. More America make sauces. Yeah, it's deep,

867
00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:23,560
Speaker 3: it goes deep.

868
00:49:23,800 --> 00:49:26,520
Speaker 2: But we also see something parallel here with like what's

869
00:49:26,520 --> 00:49:28,400
Speaker 2: happening in Spain. I think we've just mentioned that with

870
00:49:28,800 --> 00:49:32,440
Speaker 2: housing prices rental homes, yes, and crowding people out of

871
00:49:32,480 --> 00:49:36,320
Speaker 2: their own city, yeah, and pricing people out mm hmm.

872
00:49:36,600 --> 00:49:40,759
Speaker 3: Yeah exactly. And with this we have to realize there

873
00:49:40,840 --> 00:49:44,319
Speaker 3: is already like this didn't come from a vacuum. There's

874
00:49:44,360 --> 00:49:49,920
Speaker 3: already a lot of emphasis placed on who is Japanese, right,

875
00:49:49,920 --> 00:49:52,120
Speaker 3: And we're speaking as non Japanese people to be clear

876
00:49:52,239 --> 00:49:55,960
Speaker 3: who is Japanese and who is not and the indefinable

877
00:49:56,040 --> 00:50:00,000
Speaker 3: but inescapable differences between the two. I'd like to give

878
00:50:00,080 --> 00:50:02,440
Speaker 3: a shout out for anybody's interested in learning more about

879
00:50:02,440 --> 00:50:05,920
Speaker 3: this stuff. Check out our friend Miles's show on The

880
00:50:06,040 --> 00:50:11,080
Speaker 3: Daily Zeitgeist. Miles has Japanese and African American heritage, Miles

881
00:50:11,120 --> 00:50:14,080
Speaker 3: speaks Japanese. He is well suited to remark on this

882
00:50:14,160 --> 00:50:17,319
Speaker 3: and be fascinating to hear his view on Japan's far right.

883
00:50:18,600 --> 00:50:20,440
Speaker 2: But you think we could ever get him on like

884
00:50:20,520 --> 00:50:22,680
Speaker 2: that'd be interesting to do this episode with him on

885
00:50:23,160 --> 00:50:23,719
Speaker 2: something like this.

886
00:50:24,640 --> 00:50:27,960
Speaker 3: It depends on what we want to talk about with him. Okay, okay, yeah,

887
00:50:28,080 --> 00:50:31,000
Speaker 3: but yeah we should check in. Yeah, we'll see. These

888
00:50:31,040 --> 00:50:34,239
Speaker 3: are busy guys because their show comes out literally every day,

889
00:50:35,080 --> 00:50:38,640
Speaker 3: a couple of times, a couple times every day. Wow. Yeah,

890
00:50:38,680 --> 00:50:41,879
Speaker 3: So there's another there's another fact here that we should mention.

891
00:50:42,360 --> 00:50:45,600
Speaker 3: If you are not considered Japanese, if you're considered a

892
00:50:45,600 --> 00:50:48,960
Speaker 3: foreigner by the Japanese government, you can become a foreign resident.

893
00:50:49,320 --> 00:50:53,200
Speaker 3: You can even with enough time and effort, become a

894
00:50:53,320 --> 00:50:56,959
Speaker 3: Japanese passport holder. But the word for you that people

895
00:50:57,000 --> 00:51:00,640
Speaker 3: will use for you does not translate to Japanese, translates

896
00:51:00,680 --> 00:51:03,360
Speaker 3: to foreigner with a Japanese passport.

897
00:51:03,600 --> 00:51:04,839
Speaker 2: Well, that makes sense, it does.

898
00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:08,759
Speaker 3: It's descriptive. I don't know, it's a bit of a day.

899
00:51:09,000 --> 00:51:11,000
Speaker 4: It's a bit of a day, right, there's no question.

900
00:51:11,200 --> 00:51:14,040
Speaker 3: It's just very like you will never be you will

901
00:51:14,080 --> 00:51:17,640
Speaker 3: never exactly. And so people are, you know, looking around

902
00:51:17,680 --> 00:51:21,160
Speaker 3: at all these terrible economic challenges. You know, I can't

903
00:51:21,160 --> 00:51:23,960
Speaker 3: get on the bus. This is I'm not doing anything special.

904
00:51:24,000 --> 00:51:26,640
Speaker 3: I'm just trying to go to work. Very understandable stuff.

905
00:51:27,320 --> 00:51:30,160
Speaker 3: These tours are rude to me right out in Golden

906
00:51:30,200 --> 00:51:34,759
Speaker 3: Gey or whatever. But then we have to ask, is

907
00:51:34,800 --> 00:51:39,600
Speaker 3: there an immigration crisis? Is there a silent invasion of foreigners?

908
00:51:40,440 --> 00:51:42,040
Speaker 3: And that doesn't seem to be the case.

909
00:51:42,040 --> 00:51:44,080
Speaker 4: We asked that same question over here, and I mean,

910
00:51:44,160 --> 00:51:47,719
Speaker 4: there are a lot of people that have similarly on

911
00:51:47,800 --> 00:51:51,560
Speaker 4: paper reasonable complaints about immigration here in the United States.

912
00:51:51,640 --> 00:51:55,480
Speaker 4: But is it a crisis? Not necessarily, but it's certainly

913
00:51:55,520 --> 00:51:59,640
Speaker 4: a way to rile up a particular base. And they

914
00:51:59,680 --> 00:52:00,839
Speaker 4: seem like talking point.

915
00:52:00,880 --> 00:52:04,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly again parallels.

916
00:52:03,920 --> 00:52:07,239
Speaker 2: But often talking points that will rile people up action

917
00:52:07,440 --> 00:52:11,680
Speaker 2: enough to take. Actually, yes, exactly, but not necessarily based

918
00:52:12,120 --> 00:52:13,160
Speaker 2: in truth.

919
00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:16,319
Speaker 3: Right, don't hit the analytical part of the brain, hit

920
00:52:16,360 --> 00:52:19,880
Speaker 3: the emotive part of the brain, right, get that primal

921
00:52:19,960 --> 00:52:23,160
Speaker 3: stuff cooking, And that's that's what happens. We see if

922
00:52:23,160 --> 00:52:28,320
Speaker 3: you go to the Streets Times, Japan's foreign residency rows

923
00:52:28,719 --> 00:52:31,960
Speaker 3: ten in twenty twenty four. Right, that's a big rise.

924
00:52:32,560 --> 00:52:35,960
Speaker 3: That means the total population of permanent foreign residents is

925
00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:39,960
Speaker 3: three point seven six million. That's a little over three

926
00:52:40,080 --> 00:52:41,440
Speaker 3: percent of the population.

927
00:52:42,040 --> 00:52:43,839
Speaker 2: WHOA, that's not much.

928
00:52:43,920 --> 00:52:48,280
Speaker 3: That's not much at all. No, and keep in mind,

929
00:52:48,320 --> 00:52:50,960
Speaker 3: a lot of those folks who are foreign residents are

930
00:52:51,800 --> 00:52:55,200
Speaker 3: highly skilled workers. For instance, right, a lot of them

931
00:52:55,360 --> 00:53:00,400
Speaker 3: are there because a big to do company specifically wanted

932
00:53:00,440 --> 00:53:03,880
Speaker 3: them there. Right, those kids who are out doing English

933
00:53:03,880 --> 00:53:08,480
Speaker 3: teaching programs are not going to end up being for

934
00:53:08,960 --> 00:53:11,920
Speaker 3: permanent residents, you know, They're not gonna end up getting

935
00:53:11,960 --> 00:53:15,480
Speaker 3: that dubious distinction of foreign or with the Japanese passport.

936
00:53:16,160 --> 00:53:19,640
Speaker 3: They're going to eventually skid outle off or maybe marry somebody.

937
00:53:20,520 --> 00:53:24,640
Speaker 2: I'll tell you, guys, I really did have dreams of that, yeah,

938
00:53:24,960 --> 00:53:28,959
Speaker 2: of living in Japan. Yeah. And I don't know why

939
00:53:28,960 --> 00:53:31,239
Speaker 2: that's instilled. Did you guys ever experience that when you

940
00:53:31,239 --> 00:53:33,880
Speaker 2: were younger, Like the feeling or the concept or the

941
00:53:35,160 --> 00:53:37,680
Speaker 2: I don't know. It felt like a really interesting place.

942
00:53:38,320 --> 00:53:40,680
Speaker 4: For me, but I definitely understand the romanticization of a

943
00:53:40,719 --> 00:53:41,880
Speaker 4: place like that when you're younger.

944
00:53:41,920 --> 00:53:45,799
Speaker 2: For sure, it was specifically Tokyo because and it was

945
00:53:45,800 --> 00:53:48,080
Speaker 2: something about I don't know, pop culture at the time.

946
00:53:49,040 --> 00:53:50,080
Speaker 2: I blame Ninja Turtles.

947
00:53:50,080 --> 00:53:53,120
Speaker 5: I don't know why, because everything looks like the future

948
00:53:54,040 --> 00:53:58,440
Speaker 5: radicalized you bro exactly, And a lot of people share

949
00:53:58,480 --> 00:54:01,040
Speaker 5: that about any other number of places.

950
00:54:01,239 --> 00:54:05,000
Speaker 3: Right. Part of growing up is going somewhere else in

951
00:54:05,080 --> 00:54:09,400
Speaker 3: some shape, form or fashion, and so everybody has. I

952
00:54:09,440 --> 00:54:12,240
Speaker 3: think that that impetus. And as long as you are

953
00:54:12,680 --> 00:54:15,880
Speaker 3: realistic about it, when you're there and you're respectful, then

954
00:54:15,960 --> 00:54:18,719
Speaker 3: people are usually going to be cool with you. To

955
00:54:19,600 --> 00:54:22,319
Speaker 3: show that we're not casting this version on Japan in

956
00:54:22,360 --> 00:54:26,839
Speaker 3: particular or even Americans. This happens in Paris all the time.

957
00:54:26,960 --> 00:54:30,240
Speaker 3: There's actually a word called, or a term called Paris syndrome,

958
00:54:30,440 --> 00:54:35,640
Speaker 3: which is somewhat common among female identified Japanese nationals who

959
00:54:35,760 --> 00:54:38,240
Speaker 3: dream of going to Paris because France is a huge

960
00:54:38,239 --> 00:54:41,759
Speaker 3: deal culturally. And then they get to Paris, right that

961
00:54:41,880 --> 00:54:45,600
Speaker 3: they see the needles and the graffiti they used condoms,

962
00:54:45,800 --> 00:54:49,240
Speaker 3: someone picks their pocket and they break the heck down

963
00:54:49,280 --> 00:54:51,680
Speaker 3: because this was not what AMAI told them.

964
00:54:51,680 --> 00:54:57,839
Speaker 4: What happened, Well, they should call unwanted Parisian tourists parasites.

965
00:54:58,520 --> 00:54:59,160
Speaker 3: I love it.

966
00:54:59,320 --> 00:55:02,520
Speaker 2: You're on fire today, dude, shout out to parasite for

967
00:55:02,640 --> 00:55:07,840
Speaker 2: South Korean film to be amazing. Memen talking about breaking

968
00:55:07,880 --> 00:55:11,520
Speaker 2: the mold there, breaking out of all that money in Stepwell, I.

969
00:55:11,800 --> 00:55:16,520
Speaker 3: Don't know for sure. Well, yeah, well there's also you know,

970
00:55:16,600 --> 00:55:18,760
Speaker 3: I'm glad to bring that up because they're also similar

971
00:55:18,840 --> 00:55:22,680
Speaker 3: socioeconomic dynamics at play in the Republic of Korea and

972
00:55:22,719 --> 00:55:27,400
Speaker 3: South Korea anyway, So a little over three percent of

973
00:55:27,440 --> 00:55:31,880
Speaker 3: the population foreign residents. Inarguably, this is a growth pattern.

974
00:55:32,200 --> 00:55:35,239
Speaker 3: And the leader of Sanseeto again this just started in

975
00:55:35,280 --> 00:55:38,600
Speaker 3: twenty twenty. He's a guy named Sohe Kameya, and he

976
00:55:38,880 --> 00:55:43,160
Speaker 3: uses statistics like this to stoke those public fears of

977
00:55:43,200 --> 00:55:46,920
Speaker 3: foreign hordes evading the nation. And then in the same

978
00:55:47,040 --> 00:55:49,920
Speaker 3: conference he'll say, I mean, obviously we're not going to

979
00:55:50,000 --> 00:55:51,480
Speaker 3: discriminate against folks.

980
00:55:51,960 --> 00:55:54,080
Speaker 2: No, no, no, that's just a problem. But you know,

981
00:55:54,239 --> 00:55:55,840
Speaker 2: it's a problem, it's a common problem.

982
00:55:55,920 --> 00:56:01,319
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're civilized. I'm just saying they're barbarians. Geez, I'm

983
00:56:01,560 --> 00:56:06,319
Speaker 3: just saying they're terrible. Everybody calmed down. Uh yeah, that's

984
00:56:06,360 --> 00:56:09,840
Speaker 3: what's again parallels and but.

985
00:56:10,400 --> 00:56:13,480
Speaker 2: It's it's it's so strange to see that when the

986
00:56:13,560 --> 00:56:15,799
Speaker 2: rhetoric is kind of like that, we saw it similarly

987
00:56:16,200 --> 00:56:19,120
Speaker 2: here in the US, and then to see the actions

988
00:56:19,160 --> 00:56:22,120
Speaker 2: taking place with ice and homeland security and all like

989
00:56:22,200 --> 00:56:25,799
Speaker 2: all the things that are occurring right now that I

990
00:56:25,800 --> 00:56:29,400
Speaker 2: don't know about you guys, but to me, as almost

991
00:56:29,440 --> 00:56:31,799
Speaker 2: an observer, now what's happening, you feel a little bit

992
00:56:31,840 --> 00:56:35,760
Speaker 2: powerless to now watch it happening because it was posed

993
00:56:35,800 --> 00:56:38,520
Speaker 2: as this. It's just that, you know, we're just we're

994
00:56:38,560 --> 00:56:40,279
Speaker 2: just saying these things. We're just talking about these things.

995
00:56:40,320 --> 00:56:43,120
Speaker 2: We think these things. Doesn't mean we're gonna do anything about.

996
00:56:43,320 --> 00:56:48,160
Speaker 3: This is just an issue we need to collectively acknowledge, right, Yeah,

997
00:56:48,160 --> 00:56:50,879
Speaker 3: And you see this a lot in Europe as well,

998
00:56:50,880 --> 00:56:54,320
Speaker 3: in the European theater. It's happening all over the place,

999
00:56:54,480 --> 00:56:58,640
Speaker 3: and the leaders of this political party will say, look,

1000
00:56:59,400 --> 00:57:02,040
Speaker 3: we're just saying we need to be aware some we

1001
00:57:02,120 --> 00:57:05,760
Speaker 3: all need to get together on and as a team,

1002
00:57:05,920 --> 00:57:09,240
Speaker 3: as a nation, we can address this somehow. The reason

1003
00:57:09,320 --> 00:57:12,640
Speaker 3: our platform is actually so popular is because we want

1004
00:57:12,680 --> 00:57:16,040
Speaker 3: to cut taxes, we want to boost public spending, and

1005
00:57:16,360 --> 00:57:20,440
Speaker 3: we want to protect jobs. Foreigners are taking all our jobs.

1006
00:57:21,160 --> 00:57:25,120
Speaker 3: This conference is over. So we see it everywhere. I mean,

1007
00:57:25,240 --> 00:57:27,720
Speaker 3: far right parties are on the rise in Europe, parts

1008
00:57:27,720 --> 00:57:31,320
Speaker 3: of Africa, definitely South America. I was surprised, as I'm

1009
00:57:31,360 --> 00:57:34,680
Speaker 3: sure all of us were, when Bolsonaro actually got sentenced

1010
00:57:34,680 --> 00:57:37,320
Speaker 3: to prison. Yeah, that was wild. I didn't see that happening.

1011
00:57:37,640 --> 00:57:37,840
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1012
00:57:37,840 --> 00:57:42,000
Speaker 2: Well, then France's government collapsed just like a couple of

1013
00:57:42,040 --> 00:57:45,920
Speaker 2: days ago. We're just seeing all kinds of craziness up.

1014
00:57:47,000 --> 00:57:51,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, the heaves are up. And so some people will argue,

1015
00:57:52,160 --> 00:57:56,080
Speaker 3: even and this is observation, some people will argue that

1016
00:57:56,280 --> 00:57:59,960
Speaker 3: the Make America Great Again movement here in the UN

1017
00:58:00,440 --> 00:58:03,520
Speaker 3: is itself a far right movement. Your perception of that

1018
00:58:03,560 --> 00:58:07,240
Speaker 3: may vary. But the big question now is could organic

1019
00:58:07,440 --> 00:58:11,600
Speaker 3: popular support from the Japanese people alone could not explain

1020
00:58:11,680 --> 00:58:14,960
Speaker 3: the massive wins of this thing that, just until July

1021
00:58:15,800 --> 00:58:19,040
Speaker 3: was a wing nut, fringe political party. So why has

1022
00:58:19,240 --> 00:58:23,480
Speaker 3: san Seto succeeded where so many other similar Japanese movements,

1023
00:58:23,760 --> 00:58:27,720
Speaker 3: very similar movements failed. Right time, right place, right, Hey,

1024
00:58:27,920 --> 00:58:35,720
Speaker 3: we'll tackle it after a word from our sponsors, and

1025
00:58:35,760 --> 00:58:39,240
Speaker 3: we've returned. So the big question foreign funding and interference.

1026
00:58:39,280 --> 00:58:42,640
Speaker 3: Around the time of that recent July election, an analyst

1027
00:58:42,800 --> 00:58:46,680
Speaker 3: named Ichiu Yamamoto from a Guy, a smart guy from

1028
00:58:46,680 --> 00:58:49,200
Speaker 3: a think tank called the Japan Institute of Law and

1029
00:58:49,240 --> 00:58:52,919
Speaker 3: Information Systems went viral and he said, I have hard

1030
00:58:52,960 --> 00:58:58,000
Speaker 3: evidence that Russia, a foreign power, is heavily invested in

1031
00:58:58,040 --> 00:59:00,800
Speaker 3: this anti foreign power movement.

1032
00:59:02,400 --> 00:59:06,760
Speaker 2: Wait, wait a say, are we saying Russia is directly

1033
00:59:06,840 --> 00:59:11,080
Speaker 2: putting money into campaigns or are they doing stuff that

1034
00:59:11,120 --> 00:59:15,000
Speaker 2: they were alleged to have done here in the US previously.

1035
00:59:16,000 --> 00:59:18,880
Speaker 3: Right. Yeah, and one blog post he claims to have

1036
00:59:18,960 --> 00:59:22,720
Speaker 3: hard evidence that quote, anti government propaganda by Russian bought

1037
00:59:22,800 --> 00:59:26,280
Speaker 3: accounts was what made this small far right party so

1038
00:59:26,480 --> 00:59:29,800
Speaker 3: popular leading up to the election. And then he outlines

1039
00:59:29,880 --> 00:59:34,760
Speaker 3: the process, which is going to sound very familiar to

1040
00:59:34,840 --> 00:59:35,520
Speaker 3: a lot of us.

1041
00:59:35,880 --> 00:59:38,240
Speaker 4: This is what he had to say. Russian bought accounts,

1042
00:59:38,760 --> 00:59:43,120
Speaker 4: bought accounts on various social media platforms including x TikTok

1043
00:59:43,160 --> 00:59:46,400
Speaker 4: and Instagram, have been spreading false information and criticism about

1044
00:59:46,400 --> 00:59:51,120
Speaker 4: major government officials, including Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Foreign

1045
00:59:51,120 --> 00:59:55,320
Speaker 4: Minister Takashi Iwaya, to manipulate public impressions.

1046
00:59:55,920 --> 00:59:59,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, so spam the online comms, which hacks the alg

1047
01:00:00,120 --> 01:00:03,920
Speaker 3: rhythm and gets that post or that conversation further up,

1048
01:00:04,040 --> 01:00:07,760
Speaker 3: increasing the chances that will meet a sympathetic stranger, gain

1049
01:00:07,840 --> 01:00:10,640
Speaker 3: a large number of likes, spread to more and more users,

1050
01:00:10,960 --> 01:00:16,120
Speaker 3: despite no whatever fact checking it. Beautiful, brilliant evil. He

1051
01:00:16,240 --> 01:00:20,400
Speaker 3: also notes these candidates from this party are appeared on

1052
01:00:20,560 --> 01:00:27,400
Speaker 3: Russian government media, which is true. Really Yeah, yeah, make

1053
01:00:27,480 --> 01:00:30,919
Speaker 3: Japan great again. Yeah. And then there are the allegations

1054
01:00:30,920 --> 01:00:34,680
Speaker 3: to your question mat about dark money from Russia in

1055
01:00:34,720 --> 01:00:36,960
Speaker 3: a way that is very difficult to trace.

1056
01:00:38,840 --> 01:00:42,320
Speaker 2: It always makes me wonder about the local level when

1057
01:00:42,600 --> 01:00:45,200
Speaker 2: money can sneak in there and then find its way

1058
01:00:45,400 --> 01:00:48,680
Speaker 2: up right, rather than in a high profile way come

1059
01:00:48,720 --> 01:00:51,040
Speaker 2: in to the people who are actually running for the

1060
01:00:51,080 --> 01:00:52,800
Speaker 2: House of Counselors something.

1061
01:00:52,680 --> 01:00:57,439
Speaker 3: That's exactly what it is. It has not been conclusively

1062
01:00:57,480 --> 01:01:01,240
Speaker 3: proven any of these allegations for or dark money, but

1063
01:01:01,520 --> 01:01:06,200
Speaker 3: it is much easier to trace national level financial shenanigans

1064
01:01:06,480 --> 01:01:09,760
Speaker 3: than the local stuff. And again, the reason we keep

1065
01:01:09,760 --> 01:01:15,160
Speaker 3: saying they're parallels is because large scale election influencers like

1066
01:01:15,200 --> 01:01:19,040
Speaker 3: the Koch brothers here in the United States and in

1067
01:01:19,080 --> 01:01:21,760
Speaker 3: other parts of the anglosphere, but to a much lesser degree,

1068
01:01:22,280 --> 01:01:26,120
Speaker 3: they met with a lot of success funding local politicians

1069
01:01:26,120 --> 01:01:29,760
Speaker 3: for decades in the United States because they don't have

1070
01:01:29,880 --> 01:01:33,440
Speaker 3: term limits, they just hire the people who have term limits,

1071
01:01:33,480 --> 01:01:35,200
Speaker 3: They buy them and puppeteer them.

1072
01:01:35,640 --> 01:01:39,480
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, and the people who end up making rules

1073
01:01:39,560 --> 01:01:43,200
Speaker 2: and regulations within like a small sector of the US

1074
01:01:43,280 --> 01:01:46,480
Speaker 2: where let's say a factory is or where a business

1075
01:01:46,720 --> 01:01:50,600
Speaker 2: is run, which ends up being a huge deal for

1076
01:01:50,880 --> 01:01:53,640
Speaker 2: somebody you like the Cooch brothers. But then if you're

1077
01:01:53,640 --> 01:01:59,280
Speaker 2: dealing with actual interference from another country, it makes you

1078
01:01:59,360 --> 01:02:01,920
Speaker 2: wonder why would you do that, right.

1079
01:02:01,840 --> 01:02:05,840
Speaker 3: If you are so anti foreign influence. If not in

1080
01:02:05,960 --> 01:02:09,640
Speaker 3: Japanese residents are a silent invasion, then isn't dark money

1081
01:02:09,640 --> 01:02:14,160
Speaker 3: in info war from a foreign power also a silent invasion?

1082
01:02:14,920 --> 01:02:18,919
Speaker 3: Isn't that the influence you were talking about being bad earlier? Yep,

1083
01:02:19,040 --> 01:02:21,400
Speaker 3: you know, maybe we didn't catch the right press briefing,

1084
01:02:21,880 --> 01:02:25,800
Speaker 3: but we want to be fair. The leaders of Sunseto

1085
01:02:26,000 --> 01:02:29,960
Speaker 3: have denied any and all allegations. The leader So High

1086
01:02:30,000 --> 01:02:35,520
Speaker 3: Kama was pressed about this on July fifteenth, and they said, hey, seriously,

1087
01:02:35,520 --> 01:02:40,360
Speaker 3: break it down. In Moscow man, you mess with you

1088
01:02:40,400 --> 01:02:44,120
Speaker 3: mess with Moscow money. He said, you know, do you

1089
01:02:44,160 --> 01:02:45,640
Speaker 3: have ties to him? And he said, we don't, not

1090
01:02:45,760 --> 01:02:48,560
Speaker 3: at all, not with Russia, not with China, not with America.

1091
01:02:48,680 --> 01:02:52,520
Speaker 3: We do not. We keep balanced diplomacy with any country.

1092
01:02:52,640 --> 01:02:55,120
Speaker 3: And just because some of my folks appeared on Russian

1093
01:02:55,160 --> 01:02:59,080
Speaker 3: media doesn't mean we're suddenly pro Russia. And they said, okay, yeah,

1094
01:02:59,120 --> 01:03:02,200
Speaker 3: we'd like to read some your earlier statements about your

1095
01:03:02,240 --> 01:03:06,000
Speaker 3: support for Russia. Just like while we're on this topic.

1096
01:03:06,040 --> 01:03:09,000
Speaker 3: So he got caught in the interview because he was

1097
01:03:09,040 --> 01:03:14,120
Speaker 3: on record supporting Russia's role in the Ukraine invasion or

1098
01:03:14,200 --> 01:03:17,560
Speaker 3: supporting the Russian argument for that. And we'll give you

1099
01:03:17,640 --> 01:03:19,760
Speaker 3: a quote so you can see how he responded.

1100
01:03:20,080 --> 01:03:22,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, upon seeing all of that, right being presented with

1101
01:03:22,560 --> 01:03:27,080
Speaker 2: it in the moment, he replied, quote, Russia's military invasion was,

1102
01:03:27,120 --> 01:03:30,160
Speaker 2: of course bad, but there are forces in the US

1103
01:03:30,200 --> 01:03:33,960
Speaker 2: that drove Russia into doing that. So I said once

1104
01:03:34,160 --> 01:03:36,479
Speaker 2: that it's not fair to say Russia is the only

1105
01:03:36,520 --> 01:03:42,240
Speaker 2: bad guy here. And then people began saying I'm pro Russia, right.

1106
01:03:42,680 --> 01:03:46,560
Speaker 3: Just for being so pro Russia. Yeah, I mean from

1107
01:03:46,880 --> 01:03:47,680
Speaker 3: but yeah.

1108
01:03:47,920 --> 01:03:52,840
Speaker 2: On the surface, we know from our previous explorations of

1109
01:03:52,880 --> 01:03:56,400
Speaker 2: the situation happening in Ukraine right now between Russia, about

1110
01:03:56,440 --> 01:03:59,760
Speaker 2: the complicated nature and the history right of ownership over

1111
01:03:59,800 --> 01:04:02,760
Speaker 2: that land, of all of that stuff, Like, we know

1112
01:04:02,800 --> 01:04:05,000
Speaker 2: it's more complicated than there's a good guy, there's a

1113
01:04:05,040 --> 01:04:05,760
Speaker 2: bad guy.

1114
01:04:06,200 --> 01:04:09,680
Speaker 3: But but it is.

1115
01:04:10,320 --> 01:04:13,320
Speaker 2: It's one of those things when you get involved in

1116
01:04:13,400 --> 01:04:16,200
Speaker 2: that kind of thing, even to make a public statement

1117
01:04:16,240 --> 01:04:20,600
Speaker 2: about it, especially on one of the country's medias, it

1118
01:04:20,680 --> 01:04:22,360
Speaker 2: does seem to show some bias.

1119
01:04:23,160 --> 01:04:26,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, from his perspective, he's being fair and balanced, right,

1120
01:04:27,200 --> 01:04:31,080
Speaker 3: he said, I am a statesman from Japan, so I

1121
01:04:31,160 --> 01:04:33,959
Speaker 3: don't have necessarily a horse in the race, which makes

1122
01:04:33,960 --> 01:04:37,480
Speaker 3: me more objective. Right. It's you guys who are brainwashed

1123
01:04:37,480 --> 01:04:42,120
Speaker 3: and influenced. I'm not being paid or influenced by some conspiracy.

1124
01:04:42,440 --> 01:04:45,240
Speaker 3: So what does the official Japanese government make of this?

1125
01:04:45,760 --> 01:04:49,000
Speaker 3: They'll buy it, spoiler, They don't buy what he say.

1126
01:04:49,120 --> 01:04:52,479
Speaker 3: They think Russia's up to something. They recently said through

1127
01:04:52,520 --> 01:04:56,480
Speaker 3: the deputy Chief Cabinet secretary. They said Japan is working

1128
01:04:56,680 --> 01:05:01,240
Speaker 3: on the premise that they're being targeted by foreign luin's operations.

1129
01:05:01,360 --> 01:05:04,840
Speaker 3: They think something is screwy and the aw yeah and

1130
01:05:04,960 --> 01:05:05,440
Speaker 3: just and in.

1131
01:05:05,440 --> 01:05:08,440
Speaker 2: The cabinet, by the way, is like the executive branch

1132
01:05:08,800 --> 01:05:10,000
Speaker 2: within the Japanese government.

1133
01:05:10,040 --> 01:05:12,600
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, they're the c suite. And on

1134
01:05:13,120 --> 01:05:18,360
Speaker 3: July sixteenth, just four days before the election, he also

1135
01:05:18,440 --> 01:05:23,320
Speaker 3: said the same cabinet secretary said Japan is a target

1136
01:05:23,360 --> 01:05:29,600
Speaker 3: of foreign election interference. Low and behold, this once cartoonishly

1137
01:05:29,640 --> 01:05:33,360
Speaker 3: obscure political party walks away with the biggest growth of

1138
01:05:33,440 --> 01:05:37,520
Speaker 3: any Japanese political party in recent history. It makes you wonder,

1139
01:05:38,680 --> 01:05:39,280
Speaker 3: makes you wonder.

1140
01:05:40,360 --> 01:05:44,240
Speaker 2: Yeah, but surely it's just the grassroots movement of do

1141
01:05:44,320 --> 01:05:48,120
Speaker 2: it yourself attitude, rightey Man booststraps.

1142
01:05:48,640 --> 01:05:50,760
Speaker 3: Yeah, power to the people, that's what you say in

1143
01:05:50,800 --> 01:05:55,080
Speaker 3: Saint Petersburg. We also know we're talking about this a

1144
01:05:55,120 --> 01:05:58,840
Speaker 3: little bit off air. You can go to Japan in

1145
01:05:58,920 --> 01:06:03,040
Speaker 3: many cities, rural areas, you'll see something called the Yoko Dantai. Uh.

1146
01:06:03,160 --> 01:06:08,560
Speaker 3: These are far right activists, internaturals, dudes with honestly sick fans.

1147
01:06:08,920 --> 01:06:11,960
Speaker 3: They converted their vans and they have flames on them.

1148
01:06:12,200 --> 01:06:16,160
Speaker 3: They got skulls, they got old carbon propaganda. They've got

1149
01:06:16,160 --> 01:06:20,720
Speaker 3: these amazing loud speaker systems they roll through towns and

1150
01:06:21,040 --> 01:06:25,440
Speaker 3: protests and uses. They got charter buses. They've got all

1151
01:06:25,480 --> 01:06:28,840
Speaker 3: these propaganda slogans. They'll sing patriotic songs.

1152
01:06:28,880 --> 01:06:29,840
Speaker 4: So they're well funded.

1153
01:06:31,080 --> 01:06:32,200
Speaker 3: Someone's funded by whom.

1154
01:06:32,800 --> 01:06:36,320
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's okay, we're on the same page. It was

1155
01:06:36,560 --> 01:06:38,680
Speaker 4: because things ain't cheap. But it sounds like they're new.

1156
01:06:38,800 --> 01:06:42,480
Speaker 4: It's not like a ragtag you know, right, They've.

1157
01:06:42,240 --> 01:06:46,000
Speaker 3: Been around for decades, but they now appear to have

1158
01:06:47,200 --> 01:06:48,520
Speaker 3: garnered much more funding.

1159
01:06:48,560 --> 01:06:49,439
Speaker 4: That would make sense.

1160
01:06:49,720 --> 01:06:52,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, So they implore the public to stand up for Japan.

1161
01:06:53,800 --> 01:06:56,760
Speaker 3: I actually got a high five from one of these

1162
01:06:56,760 --> 01:06:59,439
Speaker 3: guys because I was just standing around in Hokkaido and

1163
01:06:59,600 --> 01:07:00,880
Speaker 3: I didn't know what they were saying. I was like,

1164
01:07:00,920 --> 01:07:04,920
Speaker 3: these guys know how to throw a party. Five me back.

1165
01:07:06,360 --> 01:07:08,680
Speaker 4: It's not that kind of party, ben, is it.

1166
01:07:09,800 --> 01:07:10,040
Speaker 2: Yeah?

1167
01:07:10,080 --> 01:07:12,160
Speaker 3: I hope that doesn't come back to haunt me. But

1168
01:07:13,960 --> 01:07:17,840
Speaker 3: they're they're talking about ridding the Great Nation of forid invaders, leeches,

1169
01:07:17,840 --> 01:07:21,280
Speaker 3: and parasites. And they're usually when they're saying that, to

1170
01:07:21,280 --> 01:07:24,960
Speaker 3: be explicit, they're usually talking about people from other Asian

1171
01:07:25,000 --> 01:07:28,560
Speaker 3: countries that they don't like, you know, like Korean descended

1172
01:07:28,640 --> 01:07:32,880
Speaker 3: populations who have lived in Japan for generations, generations, right,

1173
01:07:32,920 --> 01:07:36,600
Speaker 3: and they're talking about often darker skinned people especially. They're

1174
01:07:36,600 --> 01:07:39,440
Speaker 3: talking about how they don't like Chinese people. Their cause

1175
01:07:39,520 --> 01:07:43,000
Speaker 3: is galvanized. They're gaining new followers, more influence, bigger say

1176
01:07:43,000 --> 01:07:47,240
Speaker 3: in government, and they're aligning with one of our favorite

1177
01:07:47,240 --> 01:07:53,360
Speaker 3: secret textbooks, Alexander Dugan's Foundation of Geopolitics Dun Dun Dum.

1178
01:07:54,360 --> 01:07:56,760
Speaker 2: We did a whole episode on Alexander Dugan.

1179
01:07:56,880 --> 01:07:59,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, the alex Jones of his time.

1180
01:08:00,320 --> 01:08:04,840
Speaker 4: Dugan. That's different, that's do check that out if you

1181
01:08:04,880 --> 01:08:08,600
Speaker 4: all aren't familiar Longmont potion Castle, it's these absurdist like

1182
01:08:09,280 --> 01:08:12,280
Speaker 4: proto jerky Boy but way more psychedelic prank kind of

1183
01:08:12,280 --> 01:08:14,400
Speaker 4: phone calls. And there's one where there's a character he's

1184
01:08:14,440 --> 01:08:16,600
Speaker 4: talking about named Dugan Nash.

1185
01:08:16,800 --> 01:08:20,760
Speaker 2: Sorry, well totally, that's amazing. The episode we did was

1186
01:08:20,800 --> 01:08:24,280
Speaker 2: called does Russia Have a New Resputant? And I believe

1187
01:08:24,479 --> 01:08:26,000
Speaker 2: you could find it from twenty nineteen.

1188
01:08:26,840 --> 01:08:33,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, well it's still up. We hope it is. This book,

1189
01:08:33,560 --> 01:08:37,040
Speaker 3: do check out our episode on it, which if you

1190
01:08:37,080 --> 01:08:40,280
Speaker 3: really listen to it, it's kind of frightening. But this

1191
01:08:40,360 --> 01:08:45,360
Speaker 3: book is made by guy who's kind of often called

1192
01:08:45,360 --> 01:08:50,280
Speaker 3: in a cult wing nut right, who just sat down

1193
01:08:50,360 --> 01:08:55,640
Speaker 3: and made a bunch of opinions and directions for Russia

1194
01:08:55,680 --> 01:08:59,920
Speaker 3: to re emerge as the world's primary superpower and so

1195
01:09:00,080 --> 01:09:03,320
Speaker 3: as a laundry list of stuff that the Russian government

1196
01:09:03,360 --> 01:09:09,479
Speaker 3: should do across the planet, largely to weaken and attack

1197
01:09:09,560 --> 01:09:14,200
Speaker 3: the United States asymmetrically. And he breaks it up into

1198
01:09:14,200 --> 01:09:18,479
Speaker 3: different spheres what we call regions, right, the East African sphere,

1199
01:09:18,680 --> 01:09:21,400
Speaker 3: you know, the East Asian theater, stuff like that, And

1200
01:09:22,520 --> 01:09:26,280
Speaker 3: his idea for Japan was not that you attack Japan

1201
01:09:26,520 --> 01:09:31,360
Speaker 3: directly you try to sanction them or something which Russia

1202
01:09:31,360 --> 01:09:33,800
Speaker 3: would have a hard time doing, but instead that you

1203
01:09:33,920 --> 01:09:39,160
Speaker 3: manipulate their internal domestic politics and culture. You maybe give

1204
01:09:39,200 --> 01:09:42,559
Speaker 3: them a deal, You give them the Kurral Islands, which

1205
01:09:42,560 --> 01:09:48,680
Speaker 3: are very north in Japan, and then you use that

1206
01:09:48,840 --> 01:09:52,000
Speaker 3: leverage and that descent you have created to remove Japan

1207
01:09:52,080 --> 01:09:56,880
Speaker 3: from the International Board, other than supporting your causes and

1208
01:09:56,920 --> 01:09:58,920
Speaker 3: saying like, hey, there's not really a good guy or

1209
01:09:58,920 --> 01:10:02,879
Speaker 3: a bad guy in Ukraine. Oh yeah, it's working.

1210
01:10:03,520 --> 01:10:07,680
Speaker 2: You know all of this when thinking about the context

1211
01:10:07,760 --> 01:10:10,840
Speaker 2: of what just happened during Victory Day in China and

1212
01:10:10,920 --> 01:10:14,960
Speaker 2: the coalition of forces that are building there and the

1213
01:10:15,000 --> 01:10:19,040
Speaker 2: movements and some of the public statements specifically by Jijinping

1214
01:10:19,360 --> 01:10:25,559
Speaker 2: and some of the leaders there, you can see you

1215
01:10:25,600 --> 01:10:29,559
Speaker 2: can see movements occurring, and it feels like this could

1216
01:10:29,640 --> 01:10:31,680
Speaker 2: be a big part of that.

1217
01:10:32,200 --> 01:10:36,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely right. You can see. The question is are

1218
01:10:36,960 --> 01:10:41,280
Speaker 3: we recognizing a pattern or are we manufacturing one to

1219
01:10:41,479 --> 01:10:44,920
Speaker 3: fit our own assumptions, And that's always a very difficult

1220
01:10:45,280 --> 01:10:48,280
Speaker 3: question to answer at this point in the game. But however,

1221
01:10:48,320 --> 01:10:51,800
Speaker 3: they came to prominence, this political party, Japan's far right,

1222
01:10:52,040 --> 01:10:55,680
Speaker 3: and their allies. They're having a field day, and no

1223
01:10:55,720 --> 01:10:59,360
Speaker 3: one is sure what is going to happen next. We know,

1224
01:10:59,479 --> 01:11:03,280
Speaker 3: politics always a sensitive issue, especially now here in the States,

1225
01:11:04,000 --> 01:11:09,080
Speaker 3: and that's because voting and civic action and activism it's

1226
01:11:09,200 --> 01:11:13,639
Speaker 3: largely been replaced by the dopamine casino cycle of social media.

1227
01:11:14,160 --> 01:11:19,679
Speaker 3: You know, it's difficult, it's pickle because we have to ask,

1228
01:11:19,840 --> 01:11:22,479
Speaker 3: is this a case of a nation truly speaking its

1229
01:11:22,520 --> 01:11:25,519
Speaker 3: own voice, not just in Japan but in every country

1230
01:11:26,200 --> 01:11:32,360
Speaker 3: especially now. If it is true, if this is organic democracy,

1231
01:11:32,720 --> 01:11:34,880
Speaker 3: then we don't have to love it. We only have

1232
01:11:34,920 --> 01:11:37,679
Speaker 3: to acknowledge it is democracy, and that's how it's supposed

1233
01:11:37,720 --> 01:11:40,240
Speaker 3: to work, for better or worse. But there are serious,

1234
01:11:40,360 --> 01:11:44,479
Speaker 3: dangerous questions about how much of this is actually organic

1235
01:11:44,520 --> 01:11:47,840
Speaker 3: and how much instead is the stuff they don't want

1236
01:11:47,880 --> 01:11:48,320
Speaker 3: you to know.

1237
01:11:48,800 --> 01:11:52,360
Speaker 2: I certainly think it is well in our previous episodes

1238
01:11:52,360 --> 01:11:55,559
Speaker 2: and explorations of specifically what the United States would do

1239
01:11:55,680 --> 01:11:58,559
Speaker 2: to weaken another country when they would go into Latin America,

1240
01:11:58,680 --> 01:12:02,360
Speaker 2: South America, in certain countries in Africa, it is the

1241
01:12:02,680 --> 01:12:05,640
Speaker 2: exact thing that we're looking at here and in parallel

1242
01:12:05,720 --> 01:12:09,000
Speaker 2: in the United States, where you weaken the internal systems

1243
01:12:09,120 --> 01:12:11,839
Speaker 2: and the human beings that are supposed to govern those systems,

1244
01:12:11,880 --> 01:12:15,439
Speaker 2: and the culture and politics and all of that stuff.

1245
01:12:15,840 --> 01:12:18,719
Speaker 2: As you're weakening all of that, it means the governing bodies,

1246
01:12:19,240 --> 01:12:23,000
Speaker 2: the decision makers at the top, are not going to

1247
01:12:23,000 --> 01:12:24,280
Speaker 2: be as strong, and they're not going to have the

1248
01:12:24,320 --> 01:12:26,920
Speaker 2: will of the people behind them to do certain things.

1249
01:12:28,360 --> 01:12:32,200
Speaker 2: Doesn't it feel exactly like that's what's happening, Whether it's

1250
01:12:32,240 --> 01:12:35,400
Speaker 2: whether it's occurring from within or from some exterior force,

1251
01:12:35,680 --> 01:12:37,960
Speaker 2: it feels like that's the very thing that's happening across

1252
01:12:38,000 --> 01:12:39,559
Speaker 2: the world in places like Japan and the.

1253
01:12:39,680 --> 01:12:42,080
Speaker 4: And it's happened before, and it's happening again.

1254
01:12:42,439 --> 01:12:47,679
Speaker 3: It's cyclical. M M. Yeah. We cannot. We cannot further

1255
01:12:47,760 --> 01:12:51,640
Speaker 3: emphasize that you should check out Foundations of Geopolitics or

1256
01:12:51,680 --> 01:12:55,240
Speaker 3: at least our episode audit. And it's important to ask

1257
01:12:55,320 --> 01:13:00,920
Speaker 3: these questions because eroding trust in institutions, whether or not

1258
01:13:00,960 --> 01:13:04,320
Speaker 3: those institutions deserve to lose that trust, is the first

1259
01:13:04,320 --> 01:13:08,400
Speaker 3: step too massive upheaval. And that is not just the

1260
01:13:08,520 --> 01:13:10,640
Speaker 3: stuff they don't want you to know. It is the

1261
01:13:10,800 --> 01:13:16,680
Speaker 3: stuff that happens continually over centuries, over millennia, and this

1262
01:13:16,800 --> 01:13:21,400
Speaker 3: modern Millennia is indeed no different except for one thing.

1263
01:13:22,040 --> 01:13:24,200
Speaker 3: We've got a podcast now and we want you to

1264
01:13:24,240 --> 01:13:26,840
Speaker 3: be part of it. So let us know, help us,

1265
01:13:27,160 --> 01:13:30,719
Speaker 3: help us understand the course of history, the past president

1266
01:13:30,760 --> 01:13:33,680
Speaker 3: in the future by giving us a call on a telephone.

1267
01:13:34,080 --> 01:13:36,720
Speaker 3: You could, of course always get a random fact from

1268
01:13:36,800 --> 01:13:39,680
Speaker 3: us if you email us any time, and you can

1269
01:13:39,680 --> 01:13:41,000
Speaker 3: find us on the lines.

1270
01:13:41,080 --> 01:13:42,840
Speaker 4: That's right, you can find us on the lines. The

1271
01:13:42,840 --> 01:13:45,080
Speaker 4: handle Conspiracy Stuff where we exist on Facebook with our

1272
01:13:45,120 --> 01:13:49,080
Speaker 4: Facebook group Here's where it gets crazy. On x FKA, Twitter,

1273
01:13:49,120 --> 01:13:51,720
Speaker 4: and on YouTube video content for your bruising enjoyment on

1274
01:13:51,760 --> 01:13:55,200
Speaker 4: Instagram and TikTok. However, we're conspiracy Stuff. Show Matt what

1275
01:13:55,280 --> 01:13:55,920
Speaker 4: you got for them.

1276
01:13:56,680 --> 01:13:59,280
Speaker 2: We've got a phone number for you. It's one eight

1277
01:13:59,520 --> 01:14:04,439
Speaker 2: three three e STDWYTK. Turn the letters into numbers.

1278
01:14:04,520 --> 01:14:05,200
Speaker 4: Call the number.

1279
01:14:05,280 --> 01:14:08,040
Speaker 2: You'll hear Ben's voice and then you've got three minutes

1280
01:14:08,080 --> 01:14:10,920
Speaker 2: to leave a voicemail. Please give yourself a cool nickname

1281
01:14:10,960 --> 01:14:12,519
Speaker 2: and let us know if we can use your name

1282
01:14:12,560 --> 01:14:15,120
Speaker 2: and message on the air. Within the message, if you

1283
01:14:15,200 --> 01:14:16,920
Speaker 2: got more to say, if you've got links, if you've

1284
01:14:16,920 --> 01:14:19,840
Speaker 2: got attachments, anything in the world, just have a thought,

1285
01:14:20,280 --> 01:14:22,479
Speaker 2: then write it down and send it to us. We

1286
01:14:22,560 --> 01:14:23,160
Speaker 2: have an email.

1287
01:14:23,360 --> 01:14:26,120
Speaker 3: We are the entities that read each piece of correspondence

1288
01:14:26,160 --> 01:14:29,240
Speaker 3: we receive. Be well aware, yet unafraid. Sometimes the void

1289
01:14:29,320 --> 01:14:51,080
Speaker 3: writes back conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.

1290
01:14:51,280 --> 01:14:53,360
Speaker 2: Stuff they don't want you to know. Is a production

1291
01:14:53,439 --> 01:14:58,000
Speaker 2: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

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Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen of your favorite shows.