Savage Worlds and Super People @knightofspiders42 - Tumblr Blog

gundamfight

is-the-battlemech-cool-or-not

Original art pieces by Spooky777

He calls these "practice paintings", which... if this practice...

gundamfight

is-the-battlemech-cool-or-not

IS Standard Battle Armor

Concept art from Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries Chaos Reigns DLC

centrally-unplanned

The Iran War is actually having a pretty big impact on politics in Japan, as it is deeply unpopular there - much more so than in Europe, actually. I just saw one survey that put it at net -73 pts approval! That is hard to get to! Japan is dependent on imports in general, and more specifically dependent on oil imports from the Gulf, and so is very threatened by the Strait being closed. Japan has a very specific relationship with the Iraq War and the Middle Eastern conflicts in general where they are cast in the dimmest light; there are wars their population would support, but not another (mis)adventure in the Middle East by America. And of course, Trump has explicitly called on Japan to help and has threatened the country like he does if they don't, which isn't great!

This is relevant because Japan is currently knee-deep in a years-long effort to amend Article 9, the "pacifism" clause in the constitution which prevents Japan from engaging in anything except direct self defense militarily. The LDP has long considered this to be a priority - new PM Takaichi has been calling for reforms for most of her career. The vast majority of LDP lawmakers support such a change, and have for a while - but the population was much more lukewarm on it. It isn't unpopular anymore? But polls fluctuate around 50% support for revisions. And all of this is of course focused around China, Taiwan, some bonus North Korea concerns, and allowing Japan to be a "full partner" in the East Asian security umbrella. Now under Takaichi the LDP just won its greatest electoral victory in generations; they have been discussing using that mandate to finally go forward with the changes.

But the Iran War has, shall we say, "negatively polarized" the population of Japan on this topic all of sudden. Everyone gets that the "security umbrella" that Japan is trying to participate in is the American security umbrella, and that has become deeply unpopular. Many people view the reforms as a trick to get Japan involved in overseas quagmires, and Article 9 as a shield against American pressure.

Except that isn't how the "national security establishment" sees it! They view Article 9 as a guarantee of dependence on the United States, as it renders Japan unable to intervene against a China that moved to threaten Japan's security position indirectly via things like annexing Taiwan & sea zone threats. They need America do the work of keeping Japan safe, and now America is a deeply unreliable ally in that regard, and preoccupied to boot. For them, the Iran War is a capstone on the past two years of degradation of the credibility of US security commitments, and as such Japan needs to reform Article 9 now to give itself the strategic flexibility it needs.

(And of course through all this is the traditional "middle" hoping to power through the Trump years and come out the other end with their military alliance holding strong & dependable)

So you can see how different sides are viewing events quite differently, and adding a lot of pressure to what was otherwise a reform effort the LDP was hoping would be relatively "quiet" if it did proceed. It has all been closed-doors talks so far; but I am keeping an eye out for how the legislative agenda for the Diet is gonna form up in the next weeks.