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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   2217 thread views

Transnational Thursday for January 11, 2024

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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Japan

A follow up to the fundraising scandal that has rocked Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic Party and forced the resignations of the party Policy Chief, the Minister of Trade and Industry, and the Chief Cabinet Secretary. Prosecutors raided LDP offices a few weeks ago and on Sunday made their first arrest of an involved politician, a Congressmen and ex-Vice Minister of the Education Ministry. Amazingly, Kishida hasn’t been canned by his party yet, despite this, the Moonie funding scandal, and the assassination attempt (yes, that doesn’t seem like a fair thing to fire a PM for, but Japan historically changes leaders at the slightest sign of worsening vibes). Still, his days may be numbered if party popularity keeps falling (consistently sub 20% recently). Combined with the recent plane crash that killed 6 people and the brutal earthquake that’s piled up over 160 bodies so far, it’s been a really rough few weeks both for Kishida and for Japan.

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