Cadet Killian Buckley's Blog

The relations between Japan and South Korea have been tense since South Korea’s annexation from Japan after WWII and the Japanese Occupation of Korea.  Recently, there have been monetary issues with the construction of the facilities for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyongyang, South Korea.  Therefore, the Olympic committee has suggested that, for financial reasons, some of the facilities could be build in Japan.  This has been met with outrage by the South Korean people and discomfort by the government. While the facilities are behind in construction, South Korea does not want to share the 2018 Winter Olympics with Japan due to their history.  The Japanese occupation of Korea was harsh and was a dark time for the history of the Korean people.  The citizens and government of South Korea would rather struggle through the financial hardships of running a Winter Olympics than be forced to work with Japan, particularly on an international level.

While there are diplomatic relations and trade between the two nations, the Olympics is a different level of cooperation.  The Olympics are a world event that often have political consequences.  The Olympics are where politics and sports intertwine.  The symbolism of a joint Olympics between Japan and South Korea would be a painful reminder of colonial rule to the Korean people.

From my earlier post, Japan has been suffering economic woes as of lately.  The recent elections show the nations concern over the recent economic downturn.  The nation has decided to re-elect Shinzo Abe as Prime Minster.  Aba and his “Abeonomics” seem to appeal to the Japanese as his political plans focus on revitalizing the Japanese economy.  His plans include increased government spending to help alleviate pressure on the economy.  While the election was an overwhelming victory for Abe and his party, the success of his economic policies remain the key part of his political platform and, ultimately, the determinant for his success. This has been discussed throughout the course, “Politics in East Asia”, as economic policy is the key to the legitimacy of many of the East Asian governments.

China is being chimed as a new creative spirit with a large number of patents and new innventions.  There has been the creation of a Chinese GPS system with the technology to go with it. There are news stories about a teenage boy creating a smart home system.  There are also stories about how China’s market and patent system is assisting in the international growth of the e-cigarette market.

China passed 629,612 patents in 2013.  This was a huge number in comparison to neighboring countries within the region and other similarly developed nation.  China has marked these patents as evidence of their innovative spirit and economic development as a nation. However, is this number actually representative of the true, legitmate proclamation of “intellectual property” or is it due to CCP policy in regards to the number of patents per yer per district?  Unfortunately, it appears to be the latter.  On average only 5% of patents filed by local firms in China where also put into the international patent procedure.  This may mean that the local district governments are accepting and filing a large number of patents to meet a proscribed quoata.  This can be assumed due to the challeging procedual limitations of the international patent system.

Therefore, the question remains; Why is the CCP filing so many patents?  Is it to appear to be innovators of the 21st century or are there truly that many new inventors within China?  The CCP seems to be more open to funding investors who want to create new technology that would be competetive at the world market.  However, there also seems to be a quoata on patents, as well.  Therefore, those 629, 612 patents may be a combination of bueracratic paper pushing mixed with a growth of inventions due to CCP policy.

As I am completing my research proposal, I saw an article regarding the women’s rights movement in Japan.  The Japanese government has been supporting the role of working women in Japan.  Recently a Japanese politician, Eikei Suzuki, took paternity leave after the birth of his child to support his wife’s economic pursuits.  His choice caused a media frenzy and brought the issue of paternity leave and women in the workforce to the forefront of the news in Japan.  Japan’s government has steadily been encouraging the women in the workforce with various policies, such as paternity leave.

Why is Japan doing this?  Japan hopes, like many other nations, to increase their productivity, their workforce, and their labor capital by further involving the other 50% of the population, women.  Child bearing and child care, in many traditional societies, lies upon the shoulders of the women.  This job is, within itself, a full time job.  However, this job does not add to the labor capital of a nation or to the GDP of a nation.  Therefore, many nations, like Japan, are expanding work opportunities for women in order to expand their production capital by enabling women to compete in the workforce.

Japan is official, due to the decline in its economy for two straight quarters, in a recession. There are fears that the recession will only continue and there is a stimulus package in the works.  This bad news for Japan could foretell disaster in the region due to the prominent role Japan plays in the regional economy.  The recession is most likely not going to impact the economy of the United States.  In fact, it will more than likely be a plus for US consumers due to the fact that as the Yen, Japan’s currency, decreases in value, Japanese goods will become cheaper and cheaper for them to consume.

While Japan’s recession might not impact its Western economic partners negatively, it could have a negative impact in the region.  Japan consistently has one of the strongest economies in the region.  However, their strong economy has overtime made Japanese goods more expensive to produce and the value of the Yen has increased due to its strong economic ties with Western nations such as the United States.  Since the value of the Yen has decreased, the price of Japanese exports has decreased and, therefore, making the export competition between the East Asian nations even tougher.  Nations like South Korea are struggling to export goods at the low price of the Yen.     The nations within the regions, many of whom have strong export economies, can not afford to export their goods at the cost that Japan can now do so due to their economic recession.  This may cause economic instability in the region and lead to a recession that could spread to other East Asian nations.

The 24 hour news cycle and the constant spread of news online has dramatically changed the ways citizens receive information and understand the world around them.  The most recent news doesn’t wait for the morning paper; it is posted by a blogger on-line for readers to immediately read.  Videos and pictures can be spread to the masses at the click of a button.  The media is changing and growing at a amazingly fast rate due to technology.  These changes are altering the way the governments deal with the media.

This is particularly true in nations like China with a one-party rule that relies on “firewalls” to prevent outside influence and media from interrupting the delicate balance of their control.   China has been forced to, or chosen to depending upon your point of view, to open up economically, politically, and with its control over the media.  The younger population wants to be connected to the world around them.  There are a great deal of youth within China going to college in Western nations, like the United States.  These students have been exposed to the free media and social media within these nations.  They desire a government that would allow them the same access to this interconnected media platform.  China, while slowly changing, fears an onslaught of Western ideals that would force changes upon the Communist Party.  The Beijing government is trying to be more modern without exposing the citizens to overt Western media.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/12/north-korean-propaganda-posters/

The propaganda of North Korean appears incredibly fake and unbelievable to many Westerners.  We question how one could actually believe the propaganda of the North Korean government.  However, the artwork and propaganda released by the government is typical to that which you could see in other nations throughout history that ran on a “cult of personality”.  It is not so different from the artwork of Hitler’s Nazi government or Stalin’s Soviet Union.  North Korea’s propaganda seems to be a relic of the past and that may be why we, as Westerners find it so outrageous.

https://broeder10.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/stalin-poster.jpg

However, the idea that the citizens of North Korean are completely blind to the outside world may no longer be true.  There is a black market of goods and ideas in North Korea that the citizens have access to.  The government has not been able to stop all sources of outside information and media from seeping through their strictly controlled boarders. As the world becomes more and more interconnected and information is transferred in cheaper and easier means, how much will North Korea’s government truly be able to stop?  Will this influx of information hurt this isolated nation?  Will the people demand more and want more as more information trickles in?  North Korea, in the future, may be forced to open up by the will of the people.  This opening of the economic system, travel, immigration, and information has lead to the downfall to many of these nations with “cults of personality”.  How will North Korea adapt to these changes?  Time will tell.

Wang once said, “I firmly believe that an individual, and a people, must possess the insight and courage to engage in self-examination. This spirit of self-examination is what guarantees that individuals will become real human beings, and that a people will develop into a strong and worthy nation.”

I am completing an Arab Capstone project for my Modern Languages and Cultures Major about the role that female women writers in Morocco play in the cultural changes of women in the nation and the region.  In relation to this project for Politics in East Asia, I found a particularly interesting Chinese  female writer, Wang Anyi.  Her work is considered some of the most important modern Chinese literature of the 1990’s.  She, like many of the Arab women writers that I discuss in my Arabic Capstone, takes a personal approach to writing and wants to give a voice to the younger generation, particularly a generation of women.  Her novels, also, tend to be controversial and cover taboo topics that have previously not been discussed to much length by many other writers.

Under China’s “One Child Policy”, many families preferred having males rather than females due to the fact that males carried on the family name and were considered more vital to society.  This cultural ideal could be shown through the rate of the unreported forced abortions and infanticide.  There was also a high rate of “sex-selected” abortions. While, I have yet to read any English translations of her novels, it would be interesting to hear the voice of a women writer, who is writing during this time of the “One Child Policy” in a culture that found the male life more important.

As we have been reading “Golden Arches East” by James L. Watson, in class we have been discussing the various details of each of the chapters.  We have discussed similarities and differences in how each East Asian country has dealt with the introduction of a foreign food company, McDonald’s.  Today, while reading the news online, I came across a story regarding the town-turn of McDonald’s in China.  The company’s down-turn is related to an incident in which expired meat was being used to make burger patties.  This outraged the Chinese media and the citizens of China.  While, examples such as this occur in other western nations, such as incidents of contaminated peanut butter in the United States.  However, in the book, many of the people in the East Asian nations mentioned one similar quality that they all loved about the company of McDonald’s; they loved how clean it was.  This aspect of cleanliness was and still is missing in the restaurant industry in these nations.  McDonald’s caters to the market, specifically families, that want a clean, safe place to eat and congregate.  This incident may not be seen as just an outrageous lack of cleanliness to McDonald’s Eastern customers, it is also a break of trust.  They trusted that this company would be clean and provide safe food for their families.  This incident may result in a economic downturn for McDonald’s in the Far East.

Data from “Regional Analysis of Divorce in China since 1980”, Demography, Vol. 37, No. 2. (May, 2000), pp. 215-219 and Xinhua News Agency, May 24, 2007.

Like many Western nations, divorce rates have been rising over the past few decades.  There seems to be a relation between the creation of the “New Marriage Law” in 1981 and the increase of divorces within the country.  The “New Marriage Law” seemed to pay greater attention to the emotional part of a marriage and made divorce more acceptable and available for various groups within the population.  There seem to be a various number of reasons that China’s divorce rate has been increasing throughout the years; cultural acceptance of divorce, greater women’s rights, and an increase in two-parent working homes.

China’s divorce rate is 57th worldwide.  This is low compared to the United States’ ranking, however, there is still a steady increase in China’s divorce rate.  Since many western countries suffer from higher divorce rates, could this be a symbol of China’s potential westernization?  Or, perhaps, is it just part of the modernization of their nation’s economy and culture?  Is divorce a symbol of cultural modernity?