Japan

[Heracleum Persicum]

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD-wfCazfMg


VD-wfCazfMg

[Doc]

Why Japan's Military is Gladly Getting Ready for War

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx5CckLSjLM

mx5CckLSjLM

Japan’s new defense strategy and their already existing massive economic influence in Southeast Asia will make them the west's secret weapon against communist authoritarian China. Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida recently unveiled on December 16th 2022 his country's new 5 year $320 billion dollar defense plan that will acquire 500 US made tomahawk cruise missiles that can strike Chinese territory for the first time. It will effectively double the size of Japan's military budget and make them the world’s third-largest military spender right after the United States and China. It’s not just an increase in weapons, their publicly released historic 2022 National Defense outlines sound justifications and legal arguments for this rearmanet as well as a change in their defense posture to deter aggression.

Oh no! Sound the alarms! The Japanese empire has woken up from its slumber and they’re getting ready to take over the world again! ” Obviously that’s absolutely ridiculous but tell that to North Korea, Russia and China who all took turns coming out to publicly denounce Japan’s new military plan as “dangerous” and alluding to Japan's history as an expansionist empire. Chinese Communist Party tabloid Global Times said “Japan has a history of straying into militarism and committing aggression and crimes against humanity, which has brought disaster to the region and the world and is now deviating from the track of post-war peaceful development. Apparently it’s only okay for China to increase defense spending and no one else. Yes Even 80 years after the last world war it’s hard for some people to forget. people don’t forget meme

In most modern discussions about great power politics we completely overlook Japan but I think a closer analysis will show you that this great nation holds the keys to keeping China in check. Many people do not understand just how much economic influence and soft power Japan projects despite having a somewhat self imposed limited military. Even though China’s GDP surpassed Japan’s in 2010. Japan is still the largest sponsor of infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia. Yes, that's even bigger than China’s massive efforts to expand with their Belt and Road Initiative throughout the region. As of 2021 Japan's investments in projects in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam is $259 billion compared to China’s $157 billion. This means Japanese banks lend more to Southeast Asia's five largest economies than the United States, UK and France combined. Doesn’t explain why my loan requests to Japanese banks are always denied but fair enough. Japan's massive construction projects across Asia give them tremendous credibility, respect, and influence in foreign policy decisions in the region. This makes Japan a closer rival to China than the US in this regard. Tokyo is the undisputed heavyweight champ of infrastructure investments in South East Asia even though China gets all the news reports about their belt and road initiative.

These projects include a subway system for Manila and a new East-west southern economic corridor that will link up Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar to promote free trade. These are some of the projects Japan is changing the world with. So how does Japan compete against China in this field? They offer low interest rates of around .25% for 30 year loans which is way better than the 4% interest rates on China’s projects which have been criticized for debt trapping developing countries.

Task & Purpose is a military news and culture oriented channel. We want to foster discussion about the defense industry.

[Heracleum Persicum]

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The Asahi Shimbun
Scientists leave Japan for China,
wooed by better teamwork, jobs


Hmmmm

Interesting


https://techhq.com/2023/02/japanese-sci ... prospects/

[Heracleum Persicum]

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young people aren’t good lovers

Narise Ishida says the reason young people aren’t having babies is due to their lack of ‘romantic ability’. .

..

Narise Ishida, a member of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the Mie Prefectural Assembly, said at a local government meeting on February 24 that it should carry out a survey to determine residents’ “romantic ability”, the Mainichi newspaper reported.

There some truth in this

[Miss_Faucie_Fishtits]

Sounds like a cope argument to me.......

I think it's rather that people like their pre-adolescent state of being and are adverse to bringing people into their lives that for a while, are really good at it. In short, young people aren't having babies because they aren't 'good lovers', it's that they hate and resent babies....'>......

[Typhoon]

.

young people aren’t good lovers

Narise Ishida says the reason young people aren’t having babies is due to their lack of ‘romantic ability’. .

..

Narise Ishida, a member of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the Mie Prefectural Assembly, said at a local government meeting on February 24 that it should carry out a survey to determine residents’ “romantic ability”, the Mainichi newspaper reported.

There some truth in this

Not even wrong.

Tōdai [Uni of Tokyo] grads who enter into politics are famously disconnected from reality
[not unlike some 3rd world expats living the in West].

More so if their youth occurred during the Bubble Era.

Japanese Parents Want More Children: Cost the Main Factor Holding Them Back

The same applies for dating and marriage - not enough ¥en.

[Heracleum Persicum]

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Millions of empty homes in Japan are being sold for a song or even given away.
Foreigners are taking notice


Good if there were a website with all those give away houses details .. good as vacation home

[Typhoon]

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Millions of empty homes in Japan are being sold for a song or even given away.
Foreigners are taking notice


Good if there were a website with all those give away houses details .. good as vacation home

The article mentions

https://www.akiyainaka.com/

Japan is on the leading edge of the declining population + youth moving to major cities = rural depopulation trend.

Will be interesting to see if the COVID-19 remote work option will have any long impact on rural depopulation.

[Heracleum Persicum]

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https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asi ... e=homepage



Looks like things really bad

[Nonc Hilaire]

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https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asi ... e=homepage



Looks like things really bad

It only takes 9 months to turn that trend around. Malthusian extrapolations are always wrong.

[noddy]

the ponzi scheme folks always froth at the mouth when endless growth threatens their hot potato approach to life.

WONT SOMEONE THINK OF THE FIRE ECONOMY!



japan could collapse, then collapse again, then collapse again.

and still be ahead of the historical 30 million it survived with quite well.

[Typhoon]

FT | Japan must lose its Showa mentality

The attitude of my postwar cohort has gripped the country for too long

Quite.

[noddy]

its just another complaint that the boomers running the country arent really paying attention to the modern conditions.

im not sure it means much, the problems run deeper than that.

all the rich countries know they will be relatively poorer in the future, its not a condition which creates happy families and women settling down to raise kids.

doesnt matter which local culture you have, all of us are experiencing the same outcome.

[Heracleum Persicum]

its just another complaint that the boomers running the country arent really paying attention to the modern conditions.

im not sure it means much, the problems run deeper than that.

all the rich countries know they will be relatively poorer in the future, its not a condition which creates happy families and women settling down to raise kids.

doesnt matter which local culture you have, all of us are experiencing the same outcome.

True , if , smarter heads not prevail


West looking for a fight with new rising old civilizations

Why not cooperate and work towards a win-win

There are many unstable issues in the world that West wants to hold to them by forcing things, those days gone.

What west is lacking now is wise experienced politicians .. things just drifting now

Why all these animosity with China, Russia, Iran and many others ?

[Typhoon]

its just another complaint that the boomers running the country arent really paying attention to the modern conditions.

im not sure it means much, the problems run deeper than that.

all the rich countries know they will be relatively poorer in the future, its not a condition which creates happy families and women settling down to raise kids.

doesnt matter which local culture you have, all of us are experiencing the same outcome.

True , if , smarter heads not prevail


West looking for a fight with new rising old civilizations

Why not cooperate and work towards a win-win

There are many unstable issues in the world that West wants to hold to them by forcing things, those days gone.

What west is lacking now is wise experienced politicians .. things just drifting now

Why all these animosity with China, Russia, Iran and many others ?

These are rogue states that are inamicable with civilized society and values.

[Typhoon]

Cultural differences.

In the US, it has been very difficult to persuade the population to done masks.

In Japan, it is proving very difficult to persuade the population to stop wearing masks.

[Doc]

Cultural differences.

In the US, it has been very difficult to persuade the population to done masks.

In Japan, it is proving very difficult to persuade the population to stop wearing masks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3vY2LyQn1A

Masks, no evidence they work

It would seem to matter to what purpose are they meant to work?

[Heracleum Persicum]

Cultural differences.

In the US, it has been very difficult to persuade the population to done masks.

In Japan, it is proving very difficult to persuade the population to stop wearing masks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3vY2LyQn1A

Masks, no evidence they work

It would seem to matter to what purpose are they meant to work ?

Wearing mask is new in North America, or in Europe (never saw any before Covid-19)

But in Japan, wearing mask is normal since long time, I saw many with mask in 70's when in Japan .. Japan is an "extreme clean conscience society"

Question is whether all that helped in Covid-19 episode .. not sure .. being ""extreme clean conscience" could lead to not getting "immunity" from everyday's germs.

But statistic in that regards would be interesting , level of flue or infection in population.

[Doc]

Cultural differences.

In the US, it has been very difficult to persuade the population to done masks.

In Japan, it is proving very difficult to persuade the population to stop wearing masks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3vY2LyQn1A

Masks, no evidence they work

It would seem to matter to what purpose are they meant to work ?

Wearing mask is new in North America, or in Europe (never saw any before Covid-19)

But in Japan, wearing mask is normal since long time, I saw many with mask in 70's when in Japan .. Japan is an "extreme clean conscience society"

Question is whether all that helped in Covid-19 episode .. not sure .. being ""extreme clean conscience" could lead to not getting "immunity" from everyday's germs.

But statistic in that regards would be interesting , level of flue or infection in population.

The scientific evidence is in. Masks do nothing to prevent COVID. They can prevent spread of the FLU. But initially at the start of the pandemic the public was told not to use masks because they did nothing as the COVID was smaller than what the masks were design the filter out. Later these very same health authorities told the public to wear masks to prevent COVID. They lied people died.

[Typhoon]

Cultural differences.

In the US, it has been very difficult to persuade the population to done masks.

In Japan, it is proving very difficult to persuade the population to stop wearing masks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3vY2LyQn1A

Masks, no evidence they work

It would seem to matter to what purpose are they meant to work ?

Wearing mask is new in North America, or in Europe (never saw any before Covid-19)

But in Japan, wearing mask is normal since long time, I saw many with mask in 70's when in Japan .. Japan is an "extreme clean conscience society"

Question is whether all that helped in Covid-19 episode .. not sure .. being ""extreme clean conscience" could lead to not getting "immunity" from everyday's germs.

But statistic in that regards would be interesting , level of flue or infection in population.

Spot on about the culture of wearing a mask if one is ill.

coronavirus-data-explorer.png (430.25 KiB) Viewed 5036 times

Even after taking the disclaimers into account, it's hard to ignore an order-of-magnitude difference in outcomes.

[Typhoon]

Cultural differences.

In the US, it has been very difficult to persuade the population to done masks.

In Japan, it is proving very difficult to persuade the population to stop wearing masks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3vY2LyQn1A

Masks, no evidence they work

It would seem to matter to what purpose are they meant to work ?

Wearing mask is new in North America, or in Europe (never saw any before Covid-19)

But in Japan, wearing mask is normal since long time, I saw many with mask in 70's when in Japan .. Japan is an "extreme clean conscience society"

Question is whether all that helped in Covid-19 episode .. not sure .. being ""extreme clean conscience" could lead to not getting "immunity" from everyday's germs.

But statistic in that regards would be interesting , level of flue or infection in population.

The scientific evidence is in. Masks do nothing to prevent COVID. They can prevent spread of the FLU. But initially at the start of the pandemic the public was told not to use masks because they did nothing as the COVID was smaller than what the masks were design the filter out. Later these very same health authorities told the public to wear masks to prevent COVID. They lied people died.

Basic surgical masks, such as worn in Japan, do not prevent one from catching a viral infection [flu or COVID-19].

Rather, they prevent the spread of airborne infection if one is ill.

In the operating theatre, they are used to prevent the spread of airborne infection from the medical team to the open patient.

Unfortunately, this basic health issue has become highly politicized in the West, especially in the US*.

To make matters worse, a supposed medical standard, the Cochrane Reviews, have also become subject to bias and agenda hijacking.

SBM | The Cochrane mask fiasco: How the evidence-based medicine paradigm can produce misleading results

Last week, the Cochrane Collaborative was forced to walk back the conclusions of a review by Tom Jefferson et al that had been spun in the media as proving that “masks don’t work.” Tom Jefferson himself has been problematic about vaccines for a long time, but the rot goes deeper. What is it about the evidence-based medicine paradigm that results in misleading conclusions?

*FTR: not interested in the details of the political debate.

[Nonc Hilaire]

Masks do not impede virus but they do impede dust, saliva and mucus.

[Heracleum Persicum]

Basic surgical masks, such as worn in Japan, do not prevent one from catching a viral infection [flu or COVID-19].

Rather, they prevent the spread of airborne infection if one is ill.

True

I Japan , in 70's , I asked those wearing mask, Taxi drivers and office girls (Japanese term ), why they wearing mask.

They said they had sort of flue, cold, and don't want to infect others. I think this is expected, is in the culture

Idea was to prevent others to get sick .. they were not wearing mask to prevent getting sick but to prevent others getting sick.


This not the case in Chinese Culture

In Vancouver (20% population Chinese) since 10+ yrs, one could see many Chinese wearing mask, they thought this protects them from getting infected.

IMHO, how effective the mask is in not getting infected, the jury still out

[Typhoon]

Basic surgical masks, such as worn in Japan, do not prevent one from catching a viral infection [flu or COVID-19].

Rather, they prevent the spread of airborne infection if one is ill.

True

I Japan , in 70's , I asked those wearing mask, Taxi drivers and office girls (Japanese term ), why they wearing mask.

That's "Office Ladies" to you, pal, abbreviated "OLs".

They said they had sort of flue, cold, and don't want to infect others. I think this is expected, is in the culture

Idea was to prevent others to get sick .. they were not wearing mask to prevent getting sick but to prevent others getting sick.

Quite.

This not the case in Chinese Culture

In Vancouver (20% population Chinese) since 10+ yrs, one could see many Chinese wearing mask, they thought this protects them from getting infected.

. . .

Apparently, a common misunderstanding in the West.

[Doc]

TO BE CLEAR:

Masks make little or no difference in preventing the transmission of COVID This includes N95 masks.

RCTs did not show a clear reduction in respiratory viral infection with the use of medical/surgical masks.

There were no clear differences between the use of medical/surgical masks compared with N95/P2 respirators in healthcare workers,

when used in routine care to reduce respiratory viral infection.

Do physical measures such as hand-washing or wearing masks stop or slow down the spread of respiratory viruses?

https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/...

Evidence published up to October 2022.

Background

Influenza (H1N1) caused by the H1N1pdm09 virus in 2009

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Update of a Cochrane Review last published in 2020.

We include results from studies from the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Main results

11 new RCTs and cluster-RCTs n = 610,872

Bringing the total number of RCTs to 78



Medical/surgical masks compared to no masks

Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza‐like illness

wearing a mask may make little to no difference in how many people caught a flu-like illness/COVID-like illness

Risk ratio (RR) 0.95, (0.84 to 1.09)

9 trials, n = 276,917 participants

Moderate-certainty evidence.

Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of laboratory-confirmed influenza/SARS-CoV-2

RR 1.01, (CI 0.72 to 1.42)

6 trials, n = 13,919

Moderate-certainty evidence

Harms were rarely measured and poorly reported

(very low-certainty evidence).

N95/P2 respirators compared to medical/surgical masks

We pooled trials comparing N95/P2 respirators with medical/surgical masks

We are very uncertain on the effects of N95/P2 respirators compared with medical/surgical masks on the outcome of clinical respiratory illness

Compared with wearing medical or surgical masks, wearing N95/P2 respirators probably makes little to no difference in how many people have confirmed flu and may make little to no difference in how many people catch a flu-like illness, or respiratory illness.

Confirmed influenza

RR 0.70, (0.45 to 1.10)

N = 7,779

Very low-certainty evidence

Influenza like illness

N95/P2 respirators compared with medical/surgical masks may be effective for ILI

RR 0.82

N= 8,407

Low-certainty evidence

The use of a N95/P2 respirators compared to medical/surgical masks

Probably makes little or no difference for laboratory-confirmed influenza infection

RR 1.10

N = 8,407

Moderate-certainty evidence

Restricting pooling to healthcare workers made no difference to the overall findings.

Harms were poorly measured and reported

Discomfort wearing medical/surgical masks or N95/P2 respirators was mentioned in several studies

Very low-certainty evidence

One new RCT

Medical/surgical masks were non-inferior to N95 respirators

N = 1,009 healthcare workers in four countries,

providing direct care to COVID-19 patients.