Not only in this area, but they
- are moving hard in the direction of stripping the pledge to not use war as an instrument of policy from the constitution,
- are moving hard in the direction of becoming a nuclear armed state,
- are moving in the direction of stripping constitutional provisions that severely weaken democracy in Japan,
- yesterday passed a national secrets act that virtually eliminates public access to information on anything any legislator or bureaucrat wants to keep hidden,
From today's news:
Diet enacts controversial state secrets bill
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/12/06/national/secrets-bill-poised-for-passage/
Japan moving to lift arms exports ban
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201312060062
Everything you'd expect from a government that embraces nuclear power as "good" even after an event like Fukushima.
If anyone hasn't read the piece below it is highly recommended for it's insight into the way energy supply has the potential to shape culture.
Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken
AUTHOR: Lovins, Amory
DOCUMENT ID: E77-01
YEAR: 1976
DOCUMENT TYPE: Journal or Magazine Article
PUBLISHER: Foreign Affairs
In this landmark piece from 1976, Amory Lovins describes the two energy choices then facing the nation. There is the "hard path" and the "soft path". This path resembles federal policy of the time and is essentially an extrapolation of the recent past. The hard path relies on rapid expansion of centralized high technologies to increase supplies of energy, especially in the form of electricity. The second path combines a prompt and serious commitment to efficient use of energy, rapid development of renewable energy sources matched in scale and in energy quality to end-use needs, and special transitional fossil-fuel technologies. This path diverges radically from incremental past practices to pursue long-term goals. Lovins argues that both paths present difficult—but very different—problems. The first path is convincingly familiar, but the economic and sociopolitical problems then facing the nation loomed large and insuperable. The second path, though it represents a shift in direction, offers many social, economic and geopolitical advantages, including virtual elimination of nuclear proliferation from the world. For Lovins, it is important to recognize that the two paths are mutually exclusive. Because commitments to the first may foreclose the second, Loins argues that we must choose one or the other—before failure to stop nuclear proliferation has foreclosed both.
http://www.rmi.org/Knowledge-Center/Library/E77-01_EnergyStrategyRoadNotTaken
Directly download the paper with this link:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/nacwj7d
BTW, did you know tinyurl has a feature that lets you see where their link goes?
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