Psephy's ~ologies: May 2023

Saturday, May 6, 2023

What will happen to Article 9?

Observations at this year's Constitutional Day demonstration.

I've been attending these gatherings (other than the Covid years) since I returned to Japan in 2016. Indeed, I could say, one of the reasons I returned to spend an extended time in Japan this time was to observe what was happening politically and socially as the debate over Article 9 of the Constitution grew more intense during the Abe years.

Fortunately, I was able to post a commentary on the Lowy Institute's Interpreter (here) and I thought I would add a few additional photos from the day.

In case you're wondering...

Thank you for visiting. My blog is like many others, mostly a way to extend my conversations on Twitter and/or comment on all the politics as the need arises. Politics is broadly defined here and, as I get older, I am trying to philosophise about life and politics--hence the '~ologies' (the 'psephy'--silent p--is short for psephologist, one who analyses elections).
At present, I'm seeking to find better ways for us, the electors, to engage with those, our elected. I am concerned about where too much apathy towards our politicians might lead us. I actually think the onus is on our elected representatives to engage with us as well.
I'm doing this via explorations of the idea of the 'social contract', espoused most famously by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the 18th century, but flavoured by others including Machiavelli, Hume, Locke, Kant, Mill, Arendt and Maruyama. These philosophical threads weave their way through all my posts here...they are ideas we need to revisit.

I am also a passionate educator and, after some three decades in Australia and in Japan, you'll find I have a bit to say about that too. In April 2016, I relocated to Tokyo to take up a position in the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Law at Musashino University. I'll be teaching Japanese politics and peace studies to Japanese students, in Japanese. These views are my own and any resemblance to actual events is likely to be coincidental. But such are our constructed lives and opinions.