USA backing rebirth of Japanese militarism?

[Lacrimi de Chiciură]

Anyone else feeling concerned about some of the developments coming out of Japan recently? I'm talking about the formal re-institution of militarism and the government's announcement that it was going to militarize university research labs followed by a call for all universities to abolish social sciences & humanities departments (an effort to disarm critical theorists?). I suppose these developments are very much connected--a concerted effort militarize society and suppress dissent. Here're some links (with my emphasis):

Japan Military Bills Provoke Scuffling in Parliament (Sept. 17, 2015) (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/18/world/asia/japan-military-bills-provoke-scuffling-in-parliament.html?referrer&_r=0)

Opposition politicians tried to prevent voting by piling on top of the committee chairman and wresting away his microphone. Lawmakers from the governing party pulled them away and formed a protective scrum around the chairman to allow him to call the vote. The scenes were shown live on television by the national broadcaster, NHK.



Japan's Education Ministry vs. Humanities and Social Sciences (Sept. 15, 2015) (http://dailynous.com/2015/09/15/japans-education-ministry-vs-humanities-and-social-sciences/)

Many social sciences and humanities faculties in Japan are to close after universities were ordered to “serve areas that better meet society’s needs”. Of the 60 national universities that offer courses in these disciplines, 26 have confirmed that they will either close or scale back their relevant faculties at the behest of Japan’s government. It follows a letter from education minister Hakuban Shimomura sent to all of Japan’s 86 national universities, which called on them to take “active steps to abolish [social science and humanities] organisations or to convert them to serve areas that better meet society’s needs”.

[...]17 national universities in Japan will stop admitting students to study humanities and social sciences. Two universities so far, Tokyo and Kyoto, have said they will not comply with the order.



Government looks to end taboo on military research (March 27, 2015) (http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=2015032721450231)

Japan's military is prying open long-closed doors at university research labs, boosting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's US-backed effort to cast off some of the country’s pacifist constraints [...]

Abe’s government says Japan needs to tap its best scientists to bolster its defences. US military officials, eager to make use of Japanese expertise in areas such as robotics and electronics, have encouraged the shift.



Ministry plans fund to aid schools engaged in military research (Aug. 17, 2014) (http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/08/17/national/japan-plans-fund-develop-military-technology-universities/#.Vf2U79-qqkp)

The fund, which will be modeled after the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s drive to expand the nation’s military capabilities. It will finance promising projects in such fields as surveillance radar technology and aviation materials.

[...]

Behind the ministry’s plan lurks the administration’s desire to expand ties with universities and other research institutions engaged in defense research, while resistance remains strong on the part of the civilian institutions to aid the development technology that can be diverted for military use. Up until now, the Defense Ministry has developed any defense technology by itself.

A group of university researchers has recently organized a petition opposed to civil-military cooperation, citing the bitter history of academia contributing to the nation’s militarization during World War II.

On the other hand, many researchers are struggling with a shortage of research funds. The ministry’s fund is likely to spur controversy, as it could be seen as offering financial incentives to cash-strapped researchers to get them to focus on defense technologies.

In May, the University of Tokyo turned down a request from the ministry to help find the cause of defects in the next-generation C-2 transport aircraft that were detected during stress tests.

Thoughts?

[Armchair Partisan]

I was about to make a post along the lines of "oh come on, removing some restrictions on the Japanese military does not mean that the feared boogeyman of 'Japanese militarism' is about to return", but the part about universities being turned into military research centers is troubling. It's not really exclusive to Japan, though. Many countries are on a trend towards enhancing their suppression capabilities, incorporating modern technology, and clamping down on social sciences is a method of trying to stifle political thought that is happening here in Hungary as well. Makes me wonder if we are getting to the point where the capitalists will develop sufficiently advanced technology to suppress any rebellion, no matter how popular, that isn't co-opted by a significant part of the ruling class.

[Lacrimi de Chiciură]

Is it possible that the 'battlebots' phenomenon & surrounding media hype (as the nationalist sport of the future where the objective is to virtually kill) is a pretext to militarize robotics research and development in the guise of entertainment? (presuming the bourgeois society sees its needs being met by combat robots in ways other than boosting the ratings of ABC (http://www.businessinsider.com/how-battlebots-ended-up-at-abc-2015-7))

One could certainly imagine a dystopian future dominated by robo-cops/essentially invincible assholes in powered exoskeletons, where the masses are captivated by robotic gladiator matches... in fact I'm fairly certain some things along those lines have already been imagined.

Japanese battlebots invade science center (March 16, 2009) (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-03-16/japanese-battlebots-invade-science-centre/1620690)

The Japanese Government has delivered a collection of warrior robots as a birthday present to Canberra's Questacon Science and Technology Centre - which it co-founded 20 years ago.

The robots were built by Japanese university students and were the winners of a national competition.

[...]

Professor Durant says he hopes to see robotics in Australia develop towards a level where they can match against Japan in a joint competition.

AMERICANS BUILD GIANT ROBOT, CHALLENGE JAPAN TO A DUEL (July 2, 2015) (http://www.popsci.com/americans-build-giant-robot-challenge-japan-duel)

They want to create a league for robot duels, but ones with a real sense of danger: humans control the machines from cockpits inside, rather than remotely piloting them from safety elsewhere.

In June 2016 two giant warrior robots will fight it out for the honour of their countries. It's Japan Vs America, in what could be the start of a whole new spectator sport. Now America needs YOUR help. (Aug. 20, 2015) (http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/social-networks/america-vs-japan-in-giant-warrior-robot-battle-help-3619707/)

These aren’t military bodies posturing for world dominance, but instead robotics enthusiasts with means and a sense of showmanship. One of the driving forces behind the challenge is that Megabots sees this type of battle as a potential sport of the future, and one that could easily capture the imagination of a worldwide audience.

Why is this fun?

[John Nada]

Lenin's Imperialism: 3, Kautsky's Ultra-Imperialism: 0

This is likely preparation for a possible war with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Cooperation_Organization), an alliance consisting of Russia, China and much of the former USSR, with India and Pakistan recently approved for membership and which Iran applied but can't join due to sanctions. Due to "advisers" from both the US and Russia on opposing sides in Ukraine and Syria, the ongoing game of chicken in Korea, as well as China's territorial disputes at sea with a lot of countries, including Japan, war is not out of the realm of possibility in the long run.

The US military calculated that in a conventional war with Russia alone, there's not enough combat ready troops and they'd likely run out of bombs, because it's already pretty overstretched by Iraq and Afghanistan. Also both NATO aligned countries and SCO-aligned countries have missile defense capabilities, which the US wants to line up all around countries around Russia and China. If it works as advertised, this means MAD isn't so mutually assured. To counter that, many are also building hypersonic weapons, which makes a first strike easier.

Japan's technology and productive capacities would be useful in a potential war with SCO. Currently, the US's industry supposedly can't keep up with guided bombs in case of a major war. The electronics are much needed for guided munitions, anti-missile systems and drones. And Japan is a great place for anti-ballistic missiles, especially now that China's developed hypersonic missiles.

There's a possibility that the US and their allies attempt to contain SCO could eventually lead to a third imperialist war. Imperialism leads to the division of the world between powers out to secure "their" markets and starve off economic crises by superexploiting neo-colonies. The bourgeoisie in Russia and China want to grow their wealth by plundering neo-colonies just like their counterparts in US, UK, France or Germany. There's a petit-bourgeoisie and labor aristocracy who have a higher standard of living from imperialism, and expect the state and bourgeoisie to maintain it. Semi-colonial and sub-imperialist bourgeoisie like in India, Brazil, Turkey Saudi Arabia or Iran aspire to be imperialist-bourgeoisie. If there's another economic depression like the Great Depression, there's going to be a lot of squeezing of both the proletariat and the subjugated nations. A lot of toes are going to get stepped on. And if one day it goes too far, it'll be a war on every continent, ocean and even in space, with a death toll that is beyond comprehension.
It's not really exclusive to Japan, though. Many countries are on a trend towards enhancing their suppression capabilities, incorporating modern technology, and clamping down on social sciences is a method of trying to stifle political thought that is happening here in Hungary as well. Makes me wonder if we are getting to the point where the capitalists will develop sufficiently advanced technology to suppress any rebellion, no matter how popular, that isn't co-opted by a significant part of the ruling class.There's a trend towards moving away from liberal arts and towards STEM. Businesses and militaries claim that learning about literature or philosophy is a waste of money, so they're pushing for engineering and science. Things that can be directly used for industrial applications to make money, only thing that matters under capitalism. Hell, a lot of college textbooks even have ads, if a brand-name appears inside it's likely that company paid the publisher for that privilege. Strange how capitalism is seemingly creating an intelligentsia in their own image, either consciously or by its nature.

[Hatshepsut]

General Douglas MacArthur's occupation staff wrote the prohibition of offensive warfare into Japan's new constitution in 1946-1947. They're the only major country with such a provision. It couldn't last forever, and it won't. I'm surprised it's had 70 years.


There's a possibility that the US and their allies attempt to contain SCO could eventually lead to a third imperialist war. Imperialism leads to the division of the world between powers out to secure "their" markets and starve off economic crises by superexploiting neo-colonies.

Azimjon Askarov, the Uzbek fella jailed for life in 2010 after investigating police brutality and ethnic cleansing in Kyrgystan and given the U.S. State Dept.’s human rights award this year becomes centerpiece in this country’s suspension of its tax treaty with the U.S., which affects only a few people, namely U.S. employees in Kygystan.

A bigger friction source will be having archenemies India and Pakistan as full members in 2016.

There is military and intelligence cooperation and joint military exercises, but no unified command structure comparable to NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander who, if NATO is mobilized, has control over all the forces. (Except some special deal with France applied until 2009, where the French kept command of their own troops.)

I have some doubts about SCO being a workable vehicle for a war against a U.S.-led bloc, although China and Russia have strong reasons to align militarily against America. The SCO countries, or a subset of them, would have to draw up an actual forces and command agreement to prepare for a war. They certainly have the potential to do so. Economically, China alone could lose more than $1 trillion in annual trade with the U.S., Japan, Korea, Germany, and Australia if a total suspension of normalcy by blocs came into play. This is about 10% of China’s total economy.

Maybe WWIII will destroy capitalism and imperialism for good; it will be devastating enough for the survivors to see how insane it all was.

[Synergy]

Maybe WWIII will destroy capitalism and imperialism for good; it will be devastating enough for the survivors to see how insane it all was.

Third time's the charm, right?

George Bush IV from the underground bunker will tell the selected survivors (rich people) about what happened. Communism will get blamed again and the cycle will start anew. Cheers!

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

I'm not so sure if this is so much the US getting involved so much as one of the signs of the long dormant militarist ideology trying to become relevant again. Anyone who has been to Japan has seen one of those noise trucks driving through the streets and spouting their propaganda through loud speakers (usually with slogans or pictures of Yukio Mishima on the side). Ultra-Nationalism is still very small minority in Japanese politics, but it is quite loud and has some of its loudest supporters in Diet and local politics...usually with a great deal of help from the Yakuza. Right-wing politics and organized crime are extremely tight knit in Japan.

Also....


Why is this fun?

.....Well, robots are cool. And competitive sports are fun. Combine the two, and you have one of the ultimate spectacles.