Talk politics.

http://www.cphpost.dk/news/national/islam-debate-takes-centre-stage-aarhus

Two demonstrations faced off in Aarhus last week on Saturday. The European Counter-Jihad Meeting – organised by British anti-Islam organization the English Defence League (EDL) – was hailed as the start of a pan-European anti-Islam movement.

“I’m protesting the ongoing Islamisation in Denmark,” he said. “Someday, we might all have to dress like this.


First of all, Denmark, fucking give your intelligence agency a name that actually sounds somewhat intimidating. When I think of an intelligence agency I should think of scary people in nice suits who like to take people to undisclosed locations and do delightfully horrible things to them and laugh about how totally legal what they're doing is. Seriously, since you're fucking with Muslims the CIA will be happy to give you all the advice you could ever need.

With that said, Denmark, I must praise you. You have done America a great service by showing that anti-Islamic foolishness is not limited to America. The world needed to be reminded that the "enlightened" people of Europe still know how to be intolerant and bigoted. The United States has dominated that field in the eyes of the world for two long. Now Muslims and advocates have someone else they can bitch at for a while. So thank you for taking the heat off us a bit. In gratitude we shall soon formally announce our support for the idea that Finns aren't really Nordics and that sure as shit Estonians aren't.

Battle on, brave Danes. In the great beyond Harold Bluetooth sings your praises and, more importantly, the US gains another reason to laugh at Europeans. As if how seriously you take the Eurovision Song Contest wasn't reason enough. But I digress...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/japan-the-land-of-the-rising-nationalism-2125690.html

This is a pretty interesting article on the rise in jingoism in Japan following China's climb to the #2 world economy. In short, Japanese hardliners are freaking the *&% out with some of them talking about Japan building nuclear weapons and kicking out long term Chinese residents. Granted, there are Japan's own right-wing nuts who have a lot of bark but little bite. What they do have is Makoto Sakurai, a man so hateful and narrow-minded he makes Glen Beck seem nice and reasonable. He's got some choice comments in this article.

But the radicals aside, this article does highlight two very important points. The first being that Japan's conservative media is stoking the anti-Chinese fires at a time when cooperation between Asia's two biggest players is more important than ever. Second, more and more politicians in Japan are finally owning up to the fact that the old ideas aren't working anymore and that Japan can't escape making some very radical changes in the way they do things if they don't want things to get worse.


Now I lived in Japan for about three years so I've seen these radicals in action and observed some of the other problems this article talks about. While there is no magic bullet, IMO, what Japan really needs to do is honestly open itself to immigration and internationalization. Currently Japan loves dress up shows of internationalization but they're just fluff. Behind the scenes the machine is in motion to keep foreigners out unless they're tourists who will be gone in two weeks.

The educational system gives students six years of English but the numbers of Japanese who can speak even basic English in shockingly small. The number of foreign students who come to study in Japan is minimal. And speaking as a foreigner who did study at a Japanese college, I can tell you that college there is a joke. 

Now do I think any real change is going to happen soon? No. It's going to take something big and radical to spur the Japanese government to make any real change. Sadly, whatever form this flashpoint will take will likely not be kind to Japan.