Just a day after Taro Aso got the biggest seat in Japanese politics, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi admitted to reporters’ questioning whether he is finally quitting or not from the recent circus that has become of Japan’s political community. Koizumi is not talking about his reasons yet, but words on the street (political circles) claims that he might be disappointed with how the LDP election turned out, or plainly speaking he didn’t want Aso to become the new Prime Minister. It is clear even before the LDP election that Koizumi supported another candidate, Yuriko Koike, there’s no secret about that.

But what is not clear is why would the election of Aso lead to Koizumi’s retirement. Did Koizumi dislike the fact that his open support for Koike did not have any substantial effect on the rest of LDP politicians? Meaning he does not have persuasive power anymore even towards his own party?  Or is he just disappointed with what LDP has become these days? Either way it means he is disappointed with how the general politics of Japan is turning out.

Or maybe he thought he has earned the right to retire after all his hard work in reforming Japanese politics, not to mention his work on the privatization of the Japan Post? I don’t think so, the timing is so profound to be just a coincidence. My take on this is that he is trying to make a final statement, that his reforms are not be confused with the actions of the LDP leaders that have followed after him. Well, we’ll just have to wait for Koizumi to make clear the motive behind his action. 

There is another brewing discourse, or maybe more appropriately another hot debate, circulating among net web blogs and news sources, especially of Korean and Japanese authors, this time about the usage of a map depicting the body of water in between Korea and Japan as the “Sea of Japan” in globally televised Beijing Olympic closing ceremony. See the map above. As you may know, Koreans are quite touchy when you call that sea in between, “Sea of Japan.”

South Korea claims that that name was a colonial heritage of the Imperial Japan, and proposes to rename the sea with “East Sea”, reffering of course to the sea east of Korea. On the other hand, North Korea, which is more bullish on the matter, wants the sea to be called “East Sea of Korea”. Now, South Korea seems set to protest this event to China, thereby politicizing a normal Olympic relay and inflaming nationalist sentiments among citizens of both Koreans and Japanese once more, as if there is not much flame going on already between the two countries.

Daily Yomiuri has an article about this new rule being enforced “inconsistently” at the ongoing Olympic games. Allegedly, flags which were written on with messages, whatever their contents, are not being allowed inside the games. Some Japanese fans who are now in Beijing were reportedly not allowed to bring in this kind of flags by Beijing Olympic officials. Fans in the country usually write on these flags to send their own personal “good luck” wishes to the athletes competing at games. However, for some reasons known only to Beijing Olympic organizers these flags seem to be inappropriate in the games. How about you do you think this kind of flags shouldn’t be allowed in the Olympic games, and why?

What prompted this post is an article in Reuters called “Japan economy angst boosts sales of Marxist novel“. The novel in question is “Kanikosen” (蟹工船) or “The Crab-Canning Boat”, a novel written in 1929 by Takiji Kobayashi, a communist who penned several works before joining the Communist Party of Japan. Two years later, at the height of Japan’s militarism, he was arrested by the police and tortured to death.

“A Crab-Canning Boat” tells the tale of a crab boat crew working in harsh conditions under a sadistic captain. It was written by Takiji Kobayashi, a communist who was tortured to death by police at the age of 29 in 1933. Most of the novel is devoted to the crew’s struggle to unite and coordinate a strike, and the story ends with their vow to topple their capitalists masters.

The book has long been a favorite of scholars of Marxist literature, but it gained mainstream attention after an advertising campaign linked it with the concept of working poor, said Tsutomu Sasaki of Shinchosha Publishing Co, which reprints the pocket-sized book. The book has been on bestsellers’ lists since around May.

Experts say the novel’s popularity reflects anxiety over job security, widening wage gaps and the hardships suffered by growing ranks of low-paid part-time and contract workers.

“I think the keywords here are sympathy and similarities,” said Hirokazu Toeda, a professor at Tokyo’s Waseda University. “Young people are sympathizing because they see themselves and today’s situation today in the novel.”

The recent popularity of the book reflects the growing unease of the present crop of Japan’s working class, many of whom are employed in unstable jobs, working long hours to make ends meet. But what may be surprising to many people is that the Japanese Communist Party exerts a constant influence in the politics of Japan. With 400,000 members all over the country, it is one of the most successful communist parties in the world, getting 5 million votes in the 2007 Elections. Posters of the party are also a common sight in Japan, like the one on the right: “We are against the Iraq War. Let’s make a world that cherishes the rule of peace.” (Image by poverty jet-set). TIME Magazine did a profile on the Japanese Communist Party in 2007.