(Short video with subtitles in English here)
This overflows an already filled cup of sorrow.
Here is an example of the complete corruption of democracy in Japan and the United States.
There is a discussion of Japanese Child Abduction in the Diet (Japan’s parliament). … but…
The representative bringing the problem forward is a member of the far right “Japan Restoration Party,” who uses the situation to speak, not emphatically about the well-being and abuse of children, and the rights of both parents to raise their kids, but about the “risk” to Japan of the US withdrawing “security protection and support” as a result of the Goldman Act of 2014. A non-issue, since god knows the USA will never willingly withdraw from the massive bases from which it practices military dominance of E.Asia and the Pacific. And heaven knows there are numerous unheard Japanese voices who would like nothing better than to be rid of them.
This further allows the central government officials of the LDP to use the bad faith actions of the US Department of State against the children in question, and declare that the US Department of State has already backed Japan’s entirely specious claim that it is “compliant” with the treaty and therefore in conformity with International Law with regard to custody obtained by abduction of children (whereby 3 million Japanese children have virtually no contact, much less a normal ongoing relationship, with their parents.)
Elections held as show business and exercises in monetary influence and the futility of democratic activity in the absence of real democratic accountability create ideological cover for “elected officials” to practice the abuse of power.
It is way past time to consider the real cleavages that really exist in social orders today, and to amplify the discussion of who is organized into politics, and by whom. To ask to name what initiatives to restructure politics have already taken place, and what can be done.
This is *not* what we want for our children or ourselves: to have our struggle reduced to legalistic banter and mannered deference to bureaucrats.
Kenta Matsunami (Japan Restoration Party)
National Diet Budget Committee Feb 14, 2017
English subtitles
As much as I am indeed grateful for the efforts of this member of the Japanese Diet to bring the non-compliance of the Japanese State with international law in accordance with the Hague Convention to the attention of the government and all who may see this hearing on camera, it is equally illustrative of the ease with which those objections can be met with simple denials and untruths from each of the Japanese Ministries involved. Here we see the replies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Prime Minister’s Office, and the Interior Ministry, all of which merely brush off the issue like so many cookie crumbs, with all the focus on Japan’s reputation rather than the well-being of children. That they are able to do so indicates the support already in plentiful supply from the United States which covers for Japan by misrepresenting its non-compliance with an annual report granting fully-compliant status on the activities of the Japanese State. The Goldman Act was thus easily swallowed and dispensed with by the collaborative efforts of the U.S. Department of State and various ministries of the Japanese Government.
That our issue should be left to fall into the hands of Japan’s right-wing parties such as the Japan Restoration Party – a party pretending to be ’emperor worshipers’ but that in reality seeks to roll back what little class, familial, gender, ethnic and other forms of social progress there has been in Japan, is a scandal. They are regressive patriarchal nationalists, and if their national security posture doesn’t tip you off, then their nuance-free insinuations of impropriety characterized as falling squarely and exclusively on women’s shelters should.
February 16, 2017
This was posted on February 16th, on the anniversary of my mother Lois Marjorie Lurie Prager’s death.
Louis/ Rui was named in her memory. But he was kidnapped to Japan and has never had the opportunity to know the family from which he sprang. Like my mother, he is gone but not forgotten, and is sorely missed.
Shhh!
This is for Lois and Louis,
and for the gentle
One of her favorite songs, in her preferred version
La delaïssádo:
Uno pastourèlo èsper olaï al capt del bouès
Lou galan doguélo, mé né bén pas!
"Ay! souï délaïssado!
Qué n'aï pas vist lou mio galant;
Crésio qué m'aïmábo, è ton l'aïmé ièu!"
Luziguèt l'estélo, aquèlo què marco la nuèt,
e lo pauro pastoureletto
Démouret à ploura...
A shepherdess waits there near the top of
the woods for the one she loves,
but he does not come!
"Alas, I have been deserted!
I do not see the one I love.
I thought he loved me, and I loved him so much."
When the star comes out, the evening star,
the poor shepherdess is still alone weeping.'
For Rui Boy 
Brian,
Stay strong. While the Government doesn’t help us and our children grow older, we all hope a day comes when they reach out to contact on their own and then, they will see the have been deprived and robbed of being loved,
Sure your son is big and strong and at the age to get on social media and see all the wonderful and loving things you have said and done thus far!
Aloha,
Tim Johnston
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Thank you as always, Tim. You are the one of the real mensches who offers encouragement and support to fellow left behind parents. I hope you receive everything you’ve been wishing for for me, and more.
Keep on standing up. It isn’t easy.
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