Japan General Discussion

[warandwar]

アントニオ猪木 - A famous sumo wrestler before entering politics as very colorful politican.  Was in FPG for a while before joining AEJ.   He was the lone dove in FPG and was close to the DPRK regime.   He only joined FPG because of his relationship with Ishihara Senior.  Once Ishihara retired he also split from FPG when his politics does not match FPG.  Most likely to be against Constitutional change.

Antonio Inoki is not a sumo wrestler! He's one of the most famous professional wrestlers ever (invented the Enziguri, wrestled for 4 decades, wrestled almost every wrestler in existance, basically invented MMA, once fought Mohammed Ali, etc.). Kind of like Japan's Hulk Hogan equivalent.

If you saw a picture of him, you'd know he was never a sumo wrestler (far too skinny).

[warandwar]

So Hase Hiroshi is the new Minister of A Lot Of Things, We'll Say 'Culture' For Now. Hase is one of the few relatively good eggs in the LDP right now (in particular he's strong on LGBT rights), so I'm pleased with this, but one suspects his appointment is meant to function partially as a way to distract attention from MEXT's role in the recent attack on the humanities and social sciences in Japanese universities.

He's also a former professional wrestler.

[warandwar]

Kyoto is a Communist stronghold? It's amazing, really-- who would have thought Japan would have been perhaps the only developed country where the Communist Party remained relevant?

If you read the platform of the JCP you would find that it is mostly a European Social Democratic Party.  Also Kyodo is a JCP stronghold in the sense that it is capable of winning elections on its own even though it is infrequent.   It is the largest non-LDP political force there and in fact, as I pointed out, often force the creation of anti-JCP united front from time to time.

Does this have anything to do with the amount of Zainichi there? I'm pretty sure Kyoto has a fair amount.