Justin Aukema
@aukemajk
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Christian // Mammon disrespecter // History lover // Truth seeker 求道者 // Reluctant academic // Aspiring man of virtue (君子)
Joined December 2014
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The image of a giant Aeon Mall in the middle of impoverished Japanese countryside fittingly describes the country’s whole economy and capitalist existence. Giant corporations literally sucking the country dry, leaching off the work of an underpaid populace. 1/
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People joke that there’s no where to play or nothing to do in the countryside except go to Aeon. That’s because these behemoth parasites steal all of the social wealth and capital that should be enriching everyone’s lives. 2/
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This article on Japanese doctors speaking out about the negative side effects of va****es is so important! Kudos to
@MakingC19Waves
for translating sections! His site is fantastic, too.
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The few pitiful parks & public amenities that do exist stand in stark contrast to clean & modern corporate enterprises. The irony is that even these corporate ‘public’ spaces are a pale reflection of what could have been if they hadn’t siphoned social wealth in the first place
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@Marxist777
A victory for the working class? Lol bro most the working class not permanently online like u and never even heard of this submarine. Capitalism is a social relationship not a person mate.
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Friend sends me this from elementary school in northern Japan. Kids are monitored to make sure they aren't talking during lunch. If they're quiet they get "quiet points" for each day of the wk. It's all about making kids easier to control he says, & likely to continue indefntly..
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Big thanks to Compact for publishing my piece on degrowth! I was once keen on the notion, but the more I studied it, the harder the flaws became to ignore. I approach via my field-topic of study, Japanese history, & Kawakami Hajime.
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My new essay on the disastrous effects of Japan's Covid policies for the working class. Submitted to various mags but reviewers hated it! It's still unfathomable for some to imagine that Covid policies caused so much damage. But I hope you will enjoy it!
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@kiyotoshi_y
Wow I live in the Japanese countryside now and was raised in rural US. Have you ever seen a public elementary school or been to a park here? They’re dilapidated. Re “big” houses this has nothing to do w income/wealth. Same re cars which are mostly out of necessity.
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The ancient Japanese tradition of “mask wearing” (masuku o suru) dates back to the time of the gods when the sun goddess Amaterasu hid her face behind a large cave stone to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
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Kyoto Pref planning to privatize & develop large areas of Kyoto’s quiet Kitayama area including parts of Pref Uni & botanical gardens to build theater, hotels, and/or 10,000 capacity stadium. This would be huge blow to natural environ. & public sphere & a big win for giant corps
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@Mulboyne
@ortospace
This might actually be one of the best use of public tax dollars that I have ever seen.
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2020 will b remembered by historians as the yr when much of th left supported or acquiesced to: th closing of public schools & spaces, failed to even mourn th destruction of th working class thru job loss, & applauded the upward transfer of wealth to a few giant tech & drug corps
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We accepted ‘bare life’ so easily because we have already been conditioned to it for years: the mechanization of human interaction and relationships, technologization, isolation, and extreme individualization.
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Clearly this post touched a nerve with the Tokyo-Wall Street banking class. It’s funny how their rebuttal is always “actually visit the countryside,” when in fact I really do live here and they just shit-posting on break from checking stock prices.
Capitalism bad because uhhh... *checks notes* malls?
Talk to anyone who lives near these and generally people are delighted as it brings shopping, entertainment facilities and jobs into neighborhoods. Sorry we can't have communes where we all sit around writing poetry.
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Like much of the left, this fellow has confused cause/effect. It is not their riches which cause our poverty, but rather our poverty that enables their riches. So tell me friend, which must we eliminate first?
Why the Titanic Submarine Incident will be a Victory for the working class ⤵
Here is a thread: 🧵
(As of this tweet they have 5 Hours of oxygen left)
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Hey everyone, I'm giving a talk here tomorrow on Japan's Gokoku "nation-protecting" Shrines. Sorry for the very late notice, but if all are welcome to attend! Plz dm for Zoom link.
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Today’s reading, Edward Fowler’s “San’ya Blues.” A great sketch of construction workers’ lives and the doyagai in the early 90s.
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Today’s reading: Nimura Kazuo’s excellent account of the 1907 Ashio riot, a crucial event in Japan’s labor history.
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Mega solar project in Heguri, Nara has completely destroyed this mountain. This is the effect of so-called “green growth” strategies. Capitalism is fundamentally incompatible with solving climate change.
#megasolar
#heguri
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Researching mega solar in JPN and I'm constantly astounded at the scale (and destruction) of these places. This one from the Kanoya Osaki Solar Hills in Kagoshima is 220 hectares and 1000MW!
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This needs to be opposed by anyone who cares about public services, environment, degrowth, and community autonomy. Will keep informed if any mtgs or protests on issue. If u can vote vote local JCP.
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@PaprikaGirl_JP
Please come to Nara or Osaka and I will show you around. I 100% guarantee you the situation is entirely reverse. What in your opinion is “poorly understood”? It’s not even a “take” it’s an objective reality. Re language you clearly don’t know me so I’ll politely ignore that
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👉 Did a video lecture on the history of neoliberalism in Japan 👈👀😬
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Agree that Japan is changing but not as this author says. Wrong and misleading for various reasons. A 🧵
1) Seniority based promotion stopped being a thing here a long time ago. Everyone is part-time, precarious now with no raises/promotions.
OK, fine. I wrote about that BBC article about Japan.
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Hey I made a video lecture on prewar Japanese Marxist historian, Noro Eitaro, and examined his "Historical Development of Japanese Capitalism" in detail😎✌️
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85% of Westerners in Japan live in Tokyo and their only vision of the “countryside” is their periodic gallivanting in Karuizawa.
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lots of liberal hippie academics around me think that college kids love student-centered, active learning stuff where teachers take a hands off role. my experiences contradict this: college kids very often like to be explicitly taught information in the form of lectures
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An article I wrote on the Hiroshima Army Clothing Depot (ACD), one of the few a-bomb damaged buildings left and which is scheduled to be torn down, was published by
@ShingetsuNews
. Much thanks to SNA!
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Today’s reading, Patricia Tsurumi “Factory Girls.” A classic, and rightfully so for so many reasons. An investigation of working class culture in Meiji in the style of EP Thompson.
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Just learned this now but the original Japanese word for “the commons” is 入会権 (iriaiken) which basically refers to forests where people would gather firewood etc. Basically abolished with the Meiji “revolution” and the introduction of capitalism 🌲📚👓🧐
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Victims whose loved ones were injured or killed by the covid vaccine are suing the government for lying to the nation about the dangers of the vaccines. Even NHK basically acknowledges the truth of their claims now. Getting harder to keep ignoring.
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Delighted to have an article published with
@globalvoices
! "Japan's local rail lines become the latest pandemic victim." Also, many thanks to
@Nevin_Thompson
for his wonderful editorial assistance!
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@marxhaunting
The problem with quotes is that it’s not possible to interpret everything out of context. Marx was pro-freedom and anti-wage-slavery. He criticized bourgeois notions of “freedom” which he rightly noted were insincere illusions. It’s weird that Leftists uncritically “like” this.
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Parts I and II of my co-edited journal special issue in the
@apjjf
has been published! 😆🕺🥳 With articles from Collin Rusneac,
@Alison_Starr
, Beatrice Trefalt, myself and more! Thanks so so much to the contributors for their kind patience!🙏🙇♂️
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My
@compactmag_
article was translated into Turkish! Thanks to the translator and
@haricitr
for taking interest!
📈Kapitalizm demek, iktisadi büyüme mi demek?
📌Ünlü Japon felsefeci Kohei Saito'nun ekonomik küçülme teorisinin marksist eleştirisi
✒️Erman Çete
@ermancete
Justin Aukema'nın
@aukema_jk
'nın makalesini çevirdi
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@GearoidReidy
Gearoid I love ur posts, but u must know that with devalued yen Japan prioritizes exports including tourism & that whole thing predicated on abandoning home market, low priced goods-wages for Japanese etc. How has life materially improved for avg Japanese?
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@GaijinMommy
Kyoto’s failing bus system is result of privatizations, underfunding etc. Not residents’ fault. Fares rose for them too. Also, as part of city revenues, income from tourism is minimal. Tourism is a very poor way to support an economy in the first place.
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Almost done reading this book which it feels like I’ve been working on for ages. Review for this one definitely in the works. I would call this *very* early “Marxist” scholarship in Japan. But he cites Confucius and Mencius way more than Marx so just a heads up abt what to expect
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Teaching Japanese modern socio-economic history is tough because so many studies see the past through lens of contemporary victimization-identity issues. It is always history of "marginalized group A" or "marginalized group B." Where are all the histories of average people?
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Anyone shouting for mandatory vaccines and/or lockdowns please unfollow me. I’m serious, and I’m asking nicely. Goodbye to you 🤚
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Published new article, “Capitalism dreams of its future,” as follow-up to my earlier
@compactmag_
article and partly as ongoing discussion with my critics. This is 2nd part in my series on degrowth.
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Accurate reflection of the Japanese economy
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Happy to share my new article: "If Marxism is so Subversive, Why Does the Ruling Class Allow It?" I argue that many of Marx's key tenets have already been implicitly accepted. Which begs the question, where do we go from here? 👇🧐
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Went to see Motoda Keizō photo exhibit of Harajuku rockabillies the other day w fam. Brought back lots of old Yoyogi memories for me. I remember being there abt the same time he took many of these pics. Incidentally, son was very impressed w tattoos & pompadour cuts.
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Not long ago when I argued Covid policies were facilitating authoritarianism, editors of a certain Left journal ridiculed me. I wonder if they will apologize now that the “fact-checker” AP basically admits the same.
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@GearoidReidy
> the economy is doing pretty well
Who other than you is actually saying these things??
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I think if we just started calling the ‘defund’ movement what it is, ‘privatization,’ then more leftists would realize what a bad idea it is.
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Study finds that supporters of hard lockdown also more likely to think catching Covid was the patients’ own fault. Confirms my earlier analysis that the Covid Left & neoliberalism are 1&the same. Note neoliberalism always contained authoritarian streak.
「コロナウイルス感染は自業自得」と考える人の特徴→非常時に政府の行動制限に賛成 阪大研究者らが分析
なるほど。権威主義者はバカな偏見を持つ。
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Japan is a great country w wonderful people. But capitalism has beaten down its people & made the nation into a mere shell of what it could be. In this article I show some historical reasons for poverty in JPN & reveal the structure of Japanese capitalism
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Figured out key to happiness. It’s very easy. Wish I had listened to smart adults arnd me telling me same thing earlier. But better late than never.
(1) love God
(2) be grateful
(3) get married early & have lots of kids
(4) live in the country or small town close to nature
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I took the liberty of translating the JCP’s new slogan-poster in a way that reflects its ridiculousness:
“Life über alles. Don’t shake, penetrate.”
You’re welcome ;-P
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I will be doing my first ever, impromptu webinar tomorrow evening. Exciting! I will discuss my past & ongoing research into Japan's Asia-Pacific War sites as contested heritage. Streamed live & available on Youtube later.
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Is Japan 'poor'?🧐
Yes, in 2 ways.
(1) In the sense that capitalism makes us all poor &
(2) In a relative and empirical sense
My new article examines this (2) in more detail 👇📚
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Took seminar students mountain climbing to promote cultivation of strong mind & body 文武両道. Some disclosed that, even in their 3rd year, they have few friends, seldom interact w class members or teachers, & rarely get out. Now more than ever it is time to live actively.
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Lots of justified frustration with Japan’s travel bans on my tl. Yes this is good. Now let this frustration lead to the broader realization that “covid policies” and “covid” are two often unrelated things with totally different aims.
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Went to see William Morris exhibit yesterday. Excellent! Morris was a committed socialist & anti-capitalist who believed that beautiful works of art should be freely available for all; he was also an early environmentalist, preservationist, & fantasy writer.
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I admire and understand the desire of academics to pose in front of their books on the wall. However, am I the only one with piles of paper scattered all over their office?? Any office pic of me would look less like a library and more like Sakaguchi Ango's house...
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“Toxic masculinity” was a psyop to make the proletariat weak and effeminate; to discourage all the traits that were amenable to organized rebellion. Embrace masculinity.
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Today’s reading. Only halfway thru but enjoying immensely so far!
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On a purely superficial lvl, one of worst things ruling class has done is to normalize poor dressing attire (jeans/shorts, tshirt) for men. Even 19th-century farmers generally dressed better than the majority of western men today.
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@matthewmeyerart
@PaprikaGirl_JP
What does my skin color have to do w anything? Or are you one of those weird identitarians who sees everything in terms of 'race'? I have a PhD in Japanese history btw, not that it matters, and as I can't emphasize enough *actually live in the Japanese countryside*
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Thrilled to have another article published by the kind folks at Global Voices! "The true cost of Japan's Linear bullet train"
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Local place nearby selling (displaying?) Tōgō Heihachirō beer. Tōgō was a famous Navy Admiral from the Russo-Japanese War.
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Christopher Lasch probably had a better understanding of Marxist core concepts than most Marxists who simply repeat buzzwords and advocate outdated concepts.
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The Japanese propaganda machine is at it again. This time they're trying to convince the pliant public to stay at home because (drum roll)...it's cold outside! After 3 yrs of intense conditioning, this kind of dystopian dictate no longer raises eyebrows.
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資本主義経済の軸に立つ中国人労働者は、さすがにコロナ独裁レジームと資本主義がいかに関係しているかを一番よく分かっていますね。
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My new article, "Everyone hates GDP," is 3rd part in series on growth/degrowth. This deals with falling rate of profit, Marx's self-professed most important discovery, but perhaps also his most ignored one.
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“…growth, is the exception and not the rule under capitalism” — Ernest Mandel, intro to Capital v2. Strange how one of Marx’s key insights is being increasingly forgotten on much of the Left today 🫤
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@GearoidReidy
Once again Gearoid confuses ‘the economy’ (the distribution of goods in society) with ‘the stock market’ (distribution profits to shareholders 🤦♂️ Please no one show him this article from an actual economist 👇
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“False consciousness” is what the Left claims when it confronts the uncomfortable fact that many/most average people don’t share their views.
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@Logo_Daedalus
God revealing more of himself in progressive stages is key theme of Hebrew Bible to New Testament. Hegel adopted to establish his theory of progressive development of human history. And Marx borrowed for theory of historical materialism. So there’s a connection.
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It never ceases to amaze me how trained historians who are supposed to have learned that most news is bs can still form their opinions based on what they read in the mainstream press.
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Today’s (on the train) reading, Gavin Walker’s “Sublime Perversion of Capital.” Enjoying thus far. Review article to follow (maybe if I’m motivated 😬)✨✨📚
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Thanks so much to
@JosephEssertier
and
@beefheartchap
for their kind help! Essay may be of interest to
@MakingC19Waves
who runs probably *the best* blog on a similar topic.
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@FriedrichE49
Same is true in Japan too. Lots of empty homes in depopulated areas. Some imagine this as an idyllic countryside life just beckoning for them. Then they discover there are basically no services or important facilities around them. Hospitals hours away etc.
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“Peer review” is when you provide 30 pages of argument/evidence and then a reviewer says “no, I don’t think so,” or “not convinced,” but then provides no evidence and then wins based on that.
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@SzendiChelsea
Rosa Luxemburg wrote a huge treatise on Capital VII (!) and led a mass of workers against war and capitalism. Shigenobu Fusako wrote mediocre articles on politics and played commando, alienating much of the working class in the process. One deserves praise. The other? No so much.
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Really happy to have my article “On Marxism and Degrowth” published with
@newmultitude
Much thanks to editors who kindly took notice of and interest it 🙏🙇♂️😊Everyone please check out other articles on this fantastic site, too!
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I’ll just post this once again, no comment, and let people try to figure out why Japan is where it is right now.
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Friendly farmer-neighbor gave me a daikon while out on walk so I went straight home and made a simple but tasty 大根の煮物. It’s just stewed in soy sauce, mirin, sake, sugar, and sesame oil for about 45 minutes or so.
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I just found out about this too. So, ditto for anyone who’s interested in studying modern Japanese history with a focus on economy in Osaka. And for those interested in Japanese literature, who better than
@Swarthyface
in Nagoya!
just found out that as associate professor 准教授 i can host/supervise/sponsor foreign research students 研究員 at my university, for a year or two. grad or postgrad students who wish to do j-lit-related research here in nagoya, under me, will want to contact me.
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Stoked to see this in print. My text for my first year seminar students. 100 pages on how to use databases/archives, use bibliographic referencers, analyze historical sources etc. Self-published out of pocket so only 15 copies hehe 😅
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Thanks so much to Deep in Japan for having me on! We discuss some problems of rural areas and agriculture in Japan, the structure of Japanese capitalism, and why we’re all increasingly reliant on giant corporations
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Here's how covid policies are facilitating disaster capitalism in Japan: the Osaka Human Rights Museum founded by the prominent burakumin liberation movement, Suiheisha, has been closed/demolished. 1/2
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The thing I dislike most abt writing/editing is that it takes away all my time to read books. All I want to do is read books...
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‘Oh my God, the yen’s so low! Why is it happening?’
This is nothing. Thru the postwar the US fixed the yen at abt 360 to the dollar. Then in 1985 esp they demanded JPN raise it thus partly causing the bubble.
The yen will fall as far as America wants it to
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Drew up this garden design for the house a while back and am finally getting to work on the real thing now. Just added some メダカ today. Gardening is hard but fun and rewarding! 👨🌾
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Excited to get final proofs of my forthcoming textbook in the mail today! 😆😆 This was a fun one to write since it emerged very naturally out of my teaching.
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Many Japan scholars & pundits valorize Japan's 'love' of masks while ignoring their damaging effects, especially on children. To counter these views, I've translated an example of popular opposition to masks: a resident letter to Sakai City.
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Simply from the perspective of minimizing the production of surplus value, I actually sort-of like Japanese meetings for all the reasons that most people hate them: they're long, deliberative, and inefficient.
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Everyone should read this interview w Watanabe Hiroshi.
1) Japan’s overly export-reliant
2) Japan can’t rely on overseas earnings (& imported foreign capital I would hope to add)
3) Japan need to revitalize domestic production (& I hope consumption)
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There’s a certain segment of Left-Marxists who think the working class (WC) must be “educated” of their exploitation to become revolutionary. What a misreading! The WC understands their exploitation better than anyone. It is the PB-middle class-PMC who must be educated.
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