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Why is Japan helping other countries? Do they have a choice?

7 Mar 2004
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My question is this: why is japan helping other countries?? Why are they going to Iraq? Didn't they just lost a politician to an Iraqi suicide bomber a while ago??

I thought that the Japanese don't value foreigners as much as themselves. Then why would they risk their life for someone that is non-Japanese??
Or where they forced yet again by the Americans to reinforce their overworked troops??

It is kind of strange when the Japanese government who seem to be very proud of their past attrocities, rewrites history,creates government conspiracies, etc. would help a country they almost never have contacted with in the past century. They even have certain racial laws for foreigners. If they are so adamant in keeping themselves apart from gaijins why would they send people to help in dangerous areas such as Iraq or Afghanistan?? Didn't the Japanese protest against risking lives of their own in a foreign country in a war that doesn't make sense? I.E. Iraq

Bottomline:

Where the Japanese forced to help??
 
Japan is militarily (which means also politically) depedant on the US. Most Japanese are against the war and against sending troops to Iraq, but the US officially asked Japan to help, so they can't refuse without risking offending their "protector".
 
Not to be considered a troll, but here my thesis goes... I think that Japan is under a certain deal to where they did not to my knowledge send troops to reinforce military actions, but they did send people/money/supplies to help the rebuilding process. Not to long ago I think they had some information saying how Japan donated Police cars to the Iraqi Government. As to what was said about offending the U.S. with not helping, Take a look at how France is being treated by the U.S. for not helping and turning its back when asked. I.E. - U.S. boycott's France, does not call "French Fries", "French" anymore, I do not know all the details of what was done, but there was a LOT of controversie here in the states such as people making products/signs/etc... Dissing the French people for their actions.

Though I disagree with some of President Bush's decisions, what would we do without him? Look at our choices for President.

If we get a Democrat in office, our military funds get cut in half, economy rises rapidly, and we get pushed around by other militant countries/enemies.

If we keep Republican (Bush) in office, we keep our military, we stay at war, other countries begin to hate us, economy does not rise. But we are safe and doing somewhat good.

Now I don't agree with the U.S. pushing weight around to help make other countries decisions on entering the war, but it is supposed to be the U.N.'s job not the U.S. and the U.N. isn't helping. :mad:
 
Also, to follow up. In no way am I dumping all of the blame on to the U.N.. Agreed that the Bush administration has some past agenda's that were not taken care of by his father and the U.N. does not want to put a hand in helping finish them. I think a high percentage of American's will agree with that as well as other countries. I am in the U.S. Navy, Active duty as we speak. I have had a chance to talk to Army/Navy/Marine/Airforce enlisted people the day they came home from Iraq, Afghanistan, and any other place they may have been stationed to be "Peace Keepers", And it is almost sickening to hear the responses of the people stationed in Iraq, I think it is a givin that something had to be done about Afghanistan and Osama Bin Laden, but it stops there. Bush pushed to go into Iraq for past agenda's, Now not saying that Sadam was not a threat or enemy, but he never showed signs of having the claimed "Weapons of Mass Destruction" that Bush has declared, the troops from Iraq I have spoken to hate the fact that we are over there, fighting wasteing our time, innocent lives, money, the U.S.'s reputation and services for what the President is trying to accomplish for his dad shall I say. Take a look into how the U.S. Military Personnel feel when they are doing all of this from orders givin promised that they would find all of this stuff and we have captured Sadam, raided almost every city and still no Weapons of Mass Destruction have been found. Now if we would have simply taken all of that effort and put it towards the problem at hand (Finding Osama) the U.N. would have stepped in a bit more.
 
mecharmor23 said:
My question is this: why is japan helping other countries?? Why are they going to Iraq? Didn't they just lost a politician to an Iraqi suicide bomber a while ago??

Japan took a lot of heat from the international community during the first Gulf War when they only sent a lot of cash. No people, no resources, no reconstruction teams ets. Japan imports 100% of its oil, so when it comes to politics in the middle east, Japan likes to remain out of the game.

That is part of the reason Japan sent support troops (not to be used in combat) to Iraq - to be seen as doing something, not just buying security.

Second, Japan is a joke when it comes to international relations. For better or for worse, international politics since the end of WWII has been about the military and oil (IMHO). If you had one or the other, you were a player on the international scene. Japan had neither.

A set of politicians recently have been trying to get Japan to be taken seriously when it comes to international issues and have been trying to take a more active role in international affairs. One of the things that wins you street cred in IR is doing stuff. Politicians think that now, this means helping out in Iraq.

Lastly, for some odd reason, Japan is after a permanent seat on the UN security council. Some hope Iraq will bring that goal a little closer.

mecharmor23 said:
I thought that the Japanese don't value foreigners as much as themselves. Then why would they risk their life for someone that is non-Japanese??
I get what you are trying to say, but you might want to rephrase it next time - Japan is more than happy to be a player on the world political scene. In fact, they have to be from an economic standpoint. Many Japanese would rather stay out of military affairs, but some politicians think that Iraq is the way to go. Many people disagree.

I think it is way off the mark to say Japanese people don't value foreigners. In any nation there are a great number of factors that complicate intraction with people different from the majority (be that in numbers or power). Not all of these factors are controllable or change-able by the individual. Please be careful when thinking that a restrictive political policy or practice is reflective of 100% of the population.

mecharmor23 said:
It is kind of strange when the Japanese government who seem to be very proud of their past attrocities, rewrites history,creates government conspiracies, etc would help a country they almost never have contacted with in the past century.
Oil. Japan imports 100% of their oil.

mecharmor23 said:
They even have certain racial laws for foreigners.
I have yet to come across any. Please name a few for me...

mecharmor23 said:
If they are so adamant in keeping themselves apart from gaijins why would they send people to help in dangerous areas such as Iraq or Afghanistan??
I'm afraid your statement is a very broad generalization. Please don't let a few bad governmental decisions impact your view of every Japanese citizen. The same (sending people to Iraq) question is being asked again and again in the US too.

mecharmor23 said:
Didn't the Japanese protest against risking lives of their own in a foreign country in a war that doesn't make sense? I.E. Iraq
Yes, they did, but like the US, the top levels of government have the power to send troops into any situation they choose without approval of the diet/congress or the citizens. Japan is not unique in this. The executive branch of the US steamrolls its citizens fr more often.

macharmor23 said:
Bottomline:

Where the Japanese forced to help??

No. It was a political decision calculated by the Japanese government to raise Japan's international profile and perhaps get a bigger piece of the pie if things ever settle down.
 
ODA Facts

This is something nice to know.
China is the second largest recipient of Japan's bilateral aid (based on cumulative net disbursements up to 1998).
This page shows net disbursements:

ODA Loans: $9900 million
Grant Aid: $756 million
Tech. Cooperation: $2528 million
(Cumulative through 1998)


ODA Site

Japan Struggles to Get Its Aid Message to Ordinary Chinese

Many Chinese, more inclined to think Japan has done nothing but bad for China since the 1931 occupation and World War II, do not even know the country has been giving official development assistance, a combination of grants, loans and technical expertise since shortly after a visit to Japan by former leader Deng Xiaoping.
 
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playaa said:
Not to be considered a troll, but here my thesis goes... I think that Japan is under a certain deal to where they did not to my knowledge send troops to reinforce military actions, but they did send people/money/supplies to help the rebuilding process. Not to long ago I think they had some information saying how Japan donated Police cars to the Iraqi Government. As to what was said about offending the U.S. with not helping, Take a look at how France is being treated by the U.S. for not helping and turning its back when asked. I.E. - U.S. boycott's France, does not call "French Fries", "French" anymore, I do not know all the details of what was done, but there was a LOT of controversie here in the states such as people making products/signs/etc... Dissing the French people for their actions.

Though I disagree with some of President Bush's decisions, what would we do without him? Look at our choices for President.

If we get a Democrat in office, our military funds get cut in half, economy rises rapidly, and we get pushed around by other militant countries/enemies.

If we keep Republican (Bush) in office, we keep our military, we stay at war, other countries begin to hate us, economy does not rise. But we are safe and doing somewhat good.

Now I don't agree with the U.S. pushing weight around to help make other countries decisions on entering the war, but it is supposed to be the U.N.'s job not the U.S. and the U.N. isn't helping. :mad:

Why France didn't help? the answer is easy. France wants to stop international terrorism, that is why France did help the US in Afganistan, France wanted to cacth Osama Ben Ladin, not throwing lives away for a tiny inoffensive (at least for other country) dictator, and the whole purpose of the war was a blatant lie. But if the US decide to continue the research of osama bin laden, no prob, we will help.
 
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Japan is a puppet nation to the United-States, its as simple as that.

France did not help because Jacque Chirac has common sense and is intelligent.
 
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