Ampontan puts North Korea—and global Democrats—in context

Ampontan explains an 'unintended consequence' on Japanese domestic policy because of N. Korea's attack on S. Korea.

I’ve praised the blog Ampontan for quite awhile because the author is an excellent writer who manages to put Japanese culture in context for us Americans. In a Thanksgiving Day post, Ampontan explains the intricacies of politics in Japan and the effect of the left of center government. There’s a striking similarity between what’s going on in Japan today and what’s happening to us in the US as Democrats push for the DREAM Act. The US is certainly not the only country with an immigration issue.

Ampontan writes about one impact the North Korean attack on South Korea had on Japanese domestic policy: “Not long ago, we had a post about the Democratic Party government’s intention to provide the high school tuition supplements received by the parents of students at Japanese schools to the parents of students at the 12 high schools operated by Chongryon. That’s a Pyeongyang-affiliated group known in English as the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan.”

If you read Ampontan’s post, you’ll likely draw a parallel between the Democrats’ DREAM Act in the US and the (Japan) Democratic Party’s similar move although the specific policies are different.

This passage will certainly resound: “These high schools are not classified as Japanese schools because the institutions do not follow the standard Japanese educational curriculum. That means tuition supplements are in violation of a provision in the Japanese Constitution prohibiting the expenditure of public funds on educational institutions not under Japanese authority. In addition, roughly 60% of the Japanese public is opposed to the plan. The DPJ government’s idea was to give them the money anyway and ask the schools to voluntarily modify their curriculum without requiring them to do so.”

Ampontan introduces us to chief cabinet secretary Sengoku Yoshito: “Mr. Sengoku was first elected to the Diet as a member of the Socialist Party in 1990. In those days, the party charter still contained favorable references to Karl Marx. The party sponsored annual peace cruises to North Korea. It was their official position that Pyeongyang couldn’t possibly have abducted Japanese citizens. Before embarking on his career as a national legislator, Mr. Sengoku was an attorney who defended labor unions, activist Korean citizens of Japanese birth, and gangsters."

Here’s the zinger: “Is there some sort of coded Esperanto hex embedded in the phrase “Democratic Party” that mesmerizes the members of all political groups worldwide with that name into believing that every event everywhere must first be analyzed from the perspective of how it affects their immediate political situation?”

What kinship I felt with Japanese citizens as I read Ampotan’s post.

The whole column is well worth your time. By the way, if you think you know how the word ‘kamikaze’ originated, you’re probably wrong.

It’s obvious that in Japan as in the U.S., socialist forces are at work—not as imaginings of some rightwing pundit, but as a reality of global ideology.

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(Commentary by Kay B. Day/Nov. 27, 2010)