How Japan, America's Indispensable Ally, Got Swept and Paid USA Tribute

Thank God my Pacific theatre fighting relatives are dead for this one

Was Tetsuya Yamagami, who shot and killed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the most effective modern assassin? That’s the claim of an Atlantic article detailing the efforts by the Japanese (and American) deep state to sweep Japan of the influences of the Moonie cult.

Is it, you know, true? Did Yamagami fire the latest shot heard round the world? Consider that since he shot Abe with a handcrafted gun in July 2022 the U.S. has strengthened its intelligence sharing agreement with Japan and Japan, along with Korea, has continued to buy U.S. debt.

There’s even talk about expanding the five eyes intelligence sharing agreement to include Japan and S. Korea, as the 6th and 7th eye. (How many eyes does this beast need anyway?)

That seems implausible to me but one of the nice things about foreign direct investment is that the money tends to stay in country.

You’d be forgiven for thinking it was a sort of tribute paid by our Asian allies to their American protectors.

Read closely Maybe the Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere imagined by Hirohito will be jointly managed by Japan and America. “Japanese foreign direct investment into ASEAN countries has totalled $198bn, behind America’s $209bn, but beating China’s $106bn,” The Economist notes.

Squint closer and Japan’s model of low immigration and high foreign investment in regional players might even be something America explores as it gets its border woes under control and sweeps Latin America of Chinese-Israeli human trafficking influences. When I realized how many of the German investors weren’t so much as investing in Turkiye as bribing them not to send Syrians North, I got it all too well.

Naturally the news that Nippon Steel bought U.S. Steel for $14.9B occasioned a lot of mean letter writing and bipartisan economic illiteracy. You have the usual pro-Israel senators J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio, Josh Hawley, and yes, John Fetterman arguing that Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States should get involved. They’d never argue for that when it comes to Chinese or Israeli technology companies, of course. Could it be because they fear that Japan will not tolerate the mobbed up behavior of American steel companies?

It’s been fashionable among certain right wingers to hype Japan’s low birth rate while extolling Israel’s. This is just such a talking point that JD Vance echoed when he oddly went to Israel during his Senate campaign and met with Kahanist (and Netanyahu whisperer) Yoram Hazony. Now Vance doesn’t do a lot of due diligence as evidenced by his “investment” in Rumble, the video sharing app founded by Romanian-Canadians and backed by Israeli fronts. This simply won’t do going forward.

Vance and other Republicans are a part of the pro-natalist cult which seemingly believes that the appropriate response to a polluted world is to bring more children into it.

Could it be that Chinese women are having fewer children because they have correctly ascertained that it’s costly living in an empire, especially one with minimal social safety net?

Japan’s strategy may well be about making the world more Japanese — more conscientious about environmental degradation, more away that more people isn’t always better. The island nation’s approach of buying their way into the commanding heights of the American empire — or at least de-mobbing the U.S. Steel industry — could well be a reflection that they know that America’s best days are ahead of it.

It’s awfully telling that the Chinese-compromised Kevin McCarthy met with Japanese leaders in September and then was outed as speaker in October. You’re not supposed to notice that, so don’t. You’re not supposed to think that while we were helping to clean up Japan they were helping to clean up America. And certainly don’t focus on the weird ties between SoftBank and Japanese organized crime and how Masa Son seems to be doing exactly whatever the Japanese deep state wants.

Just keep buying your anime and green tea.

Certainly don’t ask about whether assassination might work in Israel.