There is nothing special about November 20, and yet a glance at some of the articles I found in the newspaper speaks volumes about what is wrong with Japan (and many other places, of course) and what we need to do to make things a little better. If only I were optimistic that most people cared.

ISHIHARA SHINTARO
The Governor of Tolyo--a clown pretending to be a social and political critic--has meetings with local politicians and others to propose that Yokota Airbase be turned into a joint use airfield (military and civilian). The author of a popular book, A Japan that Can Say No, he pretends to care about the citizens of Tokyo who, by virtue of the fact that they live near one of many US military bases, are threatened by noise, nuclear bombs brought into Japan, and by other nations targeting Japan (because it welcomes the Americans who bring in those very same weapons that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki). Both governments deny what the New Zealand Government knew 10 years ago when it banned US ships carrying their lethal cargo.  The tatemaeis that there are no weapons because that is Japan's policy. The honneis that there have long been nuclear weapons and the Japanese government has been lying to the people all along.

But Ishihara does not care. He himself is an unabashed nationalist and militarist, and his pretending to stand up to the Americans is belied by the fact that he is not proposing that the Americans take their damned weapons and leave but that they share the use of Yokota with commercial airlines.

And who are the dignitaries that he meets with to discuss his bold proposal? They include the former soccer player Ramos, because he is so "cool" having used airports all over the world. How could voters elect this lunatic? Probably because, if nothing else, he is honest. Almost all the candidates from the mainstream parties share his reactionary politics, but they hide it and hope the voters will not see that they only represent blind nationalism and corporatism.

REKINDLING MILITARISM:  HIDING BEHIND HUMANITARIAN PRETENSIONS
The Japanese government shares with the U.S the distinction of being one of the best trading partners of Indonesia, those clients of Japan and America-incorporated who were thus enabled to build a system of repression that murdered hundreds of thousands of East Timorese. Yet Japan announced today that it will help move supplies for East Timorese refuges (who were, ironically created thanks to nations like Japan which looked the other way). This is only to make it look like its Self-Defense Forces work in the service of peace and democracy, when it really only wants a seat on the Security Council and an end to Japan's peace embracing "Article 9" in a Constitution that forbids war-making potential (in the 90s, America and NATO have made war and killing popular again, and Japan seems eager to join them).

MYAMMAR, INDONESIA:  JAPAN'S DEMOCRATIC FRIENDS
We also learn that Japan is looking into extending and deepening its relationship with Myammar, despite the fact that this dictatorship has imprisoned a democratically elected leader for years. If the U.S could befriend (and even help) Chilean murderer Pinnochet, then why shouldn't Japan do business with murderers in places like Indonesia or Burma (the country's real name)?

OKINAWANS SACRIFICED AGAIN
If anyone has been screwed, it is the people of Okinawa who have been betrayed by both Japan and the U.S. (Some would call both countries its occupiers, even though Okinawa is a part of Japan again since 1972) The government forces them to give up their land to play host to American weapons of death that have been used in Vietnam, Iraq and the Persian Gulf. The fact that they did not re-elect the popular Governor Ohta who stood up to Tokyo and Washington is because Tokyo tightened its vice like grip on them, threatening them with economic ruin if they did not elect the puppet Inamine. Most Okinawas will tell you they prefer Ohta.  And now that the Governor gave the Americans an alternative site for their helicopters, what thanks do the Okinawans get but a damned place on a new 2000 yen bill for some bit of Okinawan history and an the G8 conference next year. That and maybe a few roads so that the Americans can go on occupying Japan and interfering in the business of other nations from the convenient bases of Okinawa.  For shame.  And the silence from the rest of Japan is deafening.  The Okinawans are clearly regarded as second class citizens by the rest of this nation.

TOKAIMURA, MINAMATA, HIV:  The MITI CONNECTION
Finally the paper tells us that MITI officials have refused to meet with foreign nuclear experts who warn that its pursuit of MOX fuel can lead to a disaster so great that Tokaimura would look like Disneyland in comparison. The mayor of Tokai village says it is the national government that is to blame for creating the myth of nuclear safety, and yet he continues to support its development. Why is the budget for research into alternatives to nuclear power so small by comparison? Business of course.

And so we also learn that the residents of Hachioji are calling for the government to look into the fact that clean up work by Bayer of an industrial plant involving high levels of mercury may itself be poisoning the residents... and the government does nothing. Let it be known that Bayer is one of the companies here and in France that has been accused of  supplying contaminated blood products. Over half the hemophiliacs in Japan are now HIV positive (they will likely die of AIDS) thanks to companies like Bayer and the Japanese Government, which imported the contaminated products rather than safer ones  to give Japanese companies like Green Cross time to make their own products.

And this is the same government that in collusion with Chisso Corp saw hundreds of people die and get sick from Minamata disease.

The wheels of moneymaking spin round and round.  Where are the thousands of people protesting this madness as they did in Athens last night against the visit of President Clinton, who-in the name of humanitarian aid or aiding democratic change, has murdered thousands in Serbia and hundreds of thousands in Iraq, even violating UN regulations and international law in the process.

Ishihara's book asks when the people will say no.  So do I, but it is a different NO.  NO  to the U.S. ,  NO to big business and military interests in both the U.S. Japan that rape and rob the people and endanger us all.  No to Ishihara too, who is just another nationalistic former LDP diet man speaking the honne that the tatemae of other LDP members conceals.
 

November 20...an ordinary, depressing news day in Japan.