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   Margarita Estévez-Abe (japanprof@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 01-Dec-2022 12:51:39 JST Margarita Estévez-Abe

   Thread 1/3 #Japan is going down the tubes under the LDP’s long rule. The LDP is holding the society by its neck not letting it change. It doesn’t censor the internet to cut its citizens off inconvenient news, but makes sure that they remain monolingual so that they can’t leave or understand what’s going on. The effect was in plain display when three nuclear reactors exploded in March 2011. The Japanese public was kept in the dark about what was going on.

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     Floaty Birb (floatybirb@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 01-Dec-2022 12:53:46 JST Floaty Birb

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     @JapanProf does the LDP have a conscious policy of monolingualism?

     I always thought it was weird that Japanese students spend a lot of time learning English but usually don't get very far functionally with it.

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     Margarita Estévez-Abe (japanprof@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 01-Dec-2022 12:57:54 JST Margarita Estévez-Abe

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     2/3 TEPCO, the operator of the nuclear reactors that exploded, had a bad track record when it came to safety. Newspapers preferred not to say anything. Right after the explosions, the Japanese meteorological association sent around a memo to its members asking them not forecast the direction of winds (that might carry the radioactive plumes). Those who had friends who spoke German could rely on the forecasts by the Swiss (or Germans). The media would repeated that the Japanese were unafraid.

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     Margarita Estévez-Abe (japanprof@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 01-Dec-2022 13:33:36 JST Margarita Estévez-Abe

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     • Floaty Birb

     @floatybirb No, it wasn’t a conscious policy but it has served the LDP government well. The LDP is a party that mostly recruits sons and grandsons of LDP politicians. Continuity serves them well so they can’t conceive change. The LDP just drifts along. It was evident in the 1980s that the Japanese needed to learn English if Tokyo were to become “the” business hub in Asia. Singapore became that hub. 40 years later, English proficiency index is lower in #Japan than in China and South Korea.

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     Margarita Estévez-Abe (japanprof@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 01-Dec-2022 13:53:26 JST Margarita Estévez-Abe

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     3/3 Under the LDP’s semi-permanent rule, gender inequality persists, marriage & fertility rates remain low, GDP per capita continues to drop, competitiveness declines, media freedom decreases. Had Japan been a more competitive democracy, #Japan would have been able to update the societal norms and incentive structures earlier and Japan’s socio-economic trajectory would have been different.