Re: [tlug] [OT] Linux users voting (was: Linux breeding out Microsoft)

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Josh Glover writes:

 > Mate, it probably takes 10 years of living in Japan before you have
 > the level of Japanese and understanding of the Japanese political
 > system (and I mean the 本音、not the 建て前 democracy) to participate
 > meaningfully.

Actually, just reading Karel van Wolferen's _The Enigma of Japanese
Power_ will go a long way.  You'll have to ask Curt for an address at
cynic.org when you're done, though.

I don't think it's that hard to participate meaningfully.  If you want
to actually sway an election, yes, you'll need ten years.  But you'd
need that in Peoria, Illinois, too.  However, Japanese are always
interested in foreigner's opinions of things Japanese.  Tatemae, yes,
but if you answer with a question, they start to think.  Who knows
where thinking might lead them? :-)  Also, it's remarkable how
effective it is for someone to say the unsayable out loud.  Japanese
will say tatemae-unsayable things in front of a gaijin-only or gaijin-
majority group.  I think in some cases just your presence will cause
improvements in the flow of politics.

The important thing is to ask questions in a way that leads to them
to think.  That, I believe, is a generic talent, not something that
you will get from living in Japan for N years.

 > And tragically, the loudest voices in Japanese politics (and I mean
 > this literally) are the black-van ultra-right-wing facists. :(

But that's tatemae.  (And at election time they're outshouted by the
legit candidates.)