7d ago

What is Japan's play on Trump's tariffs? Hint: Do the opposite of what the Canadians and Europeans are doing

www.japantimes.co.jp

What is Japan's play on Trump's tariffs?

Japan is facing challenges with Donald Trump's new tariffs and is considering increased purchases of U.S. goods, negotiating tariff reductions and expanding auto production in the U.S. to reduce the trade deficit and avoid further economic tension. | AFP-JIJI

https://archive.ph/DRDeE

16 comments

I'm not sure if bullies respect and like you more if you give them your lunch money.

Wow, that's a weird play. Japan has its back to the wall, I guess. This decision probably won't work out, though; Trump is going to see it as weakness and will ask for even more.
- My guess is that Japan and East Asia are treating this a lot different compared to Europe and North America.
  For East Asian allies, the USA is pivoting from the full world to focus more on the Pacific Ocean, so a post Trump USA would still be involved in the region. Also, unlike Europe, East Asian allied countries can't outspend their strategic rival by themselves.
  So, they'll spend a little to keep Trump happy in order to keep the USA involved in East Asia while they wait out Trump.
  
  Wait out Trump.. I would bet that there will not be a fair election in 4 years' time.

Japan is used to working with Nazis.

Japan doing a Neville Chamberlain..
- Wait, that letter of assurance didn't work? My World History class in HS ran out of time and the last thing we covered before summer break was his speech proclaiming steady and enduring peace in Europe. Ah crap, what happened next? Was it something bad?
  
  Yeah, the aftermath was actually less than ideal
- This is bad history.
  Please explain what Chamberlain was supposed to have done differently. Explain how he was supposed to protect Czechoslovakia with zero military presence and zero contact with any resistance. Explain why Churchill's plan to protect Poland was identical to Chamberlain's plan to protect Czechoslovakia. (thoughts and prayers)
  No, the "Chamberlain could have stopped Hitler if only...." meme is reactionary missive against diplomacy. It makes perfect sense, if you don't think about it.
  
  All he had to do was to not force Czechoslovakia to surrender and he didn't need military presence in Czechoslovakia, deploying troops to France might have been enough. Czechoslovakia had mobilized 1 million man strong army, which would have been able to hold Germans for a considerable time. Not to mention he might have been able to get Poland to join.
  Also I am not sure about which Churchill's plan to protect Poland you are talking as by the time Churchill became a PM, Poland was conquered and Germany was just starting attack on France.

appeasement

Just vassal state things

I thought only South Korea and Taiwan would react this way, as they liteary depend on the US for defense. I expected more fortitude from the Japanese but than again their economy was already fucked to beginn with and it's not like they are buddies with China.
- I mean, Japan depends on the US for defense too. Their constitution only allows them to maintain a small “Self Defense Force” and everything else is run by the US. It was one of the largest and most impactful changes to Japan’s constitution in the wake of World War 2. Basically, the Allies went “you fucked around in Korea and China so hard that we need to prevent you from ever building an invasion force again in the future.”
  That’s why Trump threatening to pull the military out of Japan was a monumentally stupid move. The US military is already wildly unpopular in Japan; The average Japanese person’s experience with them is “US military dudebro gets drunk off base, sexually harasses a Japanese girl on the street, drives drunk, causes damage/injury in a crash, and flees back to the base to avoid punishment.” Even if the solider is penalized by the military for it, Japanese people still see it as avoiding punishment… Because Japanese punishments tend to be much much harsher than US punishments. So since he’s not being punished by Japanese authorities, he’s getting off too easy.
  Trump made the threat at a time when conservative (bordering on jingoistic) rhetoric is at an all time high in Japan. Japan has always been an extremely conservative country, but there has been a new wave of nationalism and xenophobia recently. So when Trump made the threat, there was a non-zero chance that the average Japanese person would go “fucking good, we deserve to have our own military again anyways.”
  It’s also why people were talking about China, Korea, and Japan banding together to oppose the tariffs was such a big deal. The three countries hate each other due to blood grudges that go back centuries… And yet Trump was able to get them to agree on something.

Last time Japan tried to play the game right and they got fucked, it didn’t end well.

They don't want to get nuked again.

16 comments