[Asia Round-up] Is Japan on the road to becoming militaristic again?

Editor’s note: Followings are summaries of editorials from major Asian media on current issues.

Visitors look at a medical device at China Medical Beauty and Plastic Surgery Equipment Exhibition in Shanghai, China, Wednesday, June 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

China plastic surgery fraught with danger
[China, China Daily, 13-08-2013]
As an increasing number of people throughout the world resort to cosmetic surgery to improve their appearance, China has become the world’s biggest market for cosmetic surgery, even though South Korea still leads the market in terms of population to surgery ratio. Despite this boom in cosmetic surgery, people should be more aware of the detrimental side effects and risks that this surgery can bring.

In China, many undergo cosmetic surgery to become more attractive and increase their job prospects. The cost of surgery starts from about US$300 for a facelift to thousands of dollars for other procedures such as eyelid surgery, nose jobs, liposuction and leg stretching.

Even though discrimination against women still exists, job opportunities for women are increasing. However, employers often seek younger women, under 30, and those more physically attractive.
Single women in their late twenties are referred to shengnu or “leftover women” by their relatives, media and society. They must fight to overcome gender discrimination, especially in the work field.

The problem of cosmetic surgery is that it can easily become a contagious phenomenon. In the US, lawmakers have made a proposal to impose a tax on the surgery to prevent rampant abuse. A study in Norway shows that women who have undergone cosmetic surgery were more prone to have poorer mental health, including depression and anxiety. In many cases, the surgeries did not fix the problem, but aggravated it.

Instead of searching of physical beauty in surgery, Chinese women should learn the positive spirit of the shengnu, who in response to their given name, have accepted the title, but only the word’s other meaning of “victory.”

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows at the altar during the memorial ceremony for millions of Japan's war dead at the Nippon Budokan hall in Tokyo, capital of Japan, Aug. 15, 2013. Some 6,000 people including Japanese Emperor Akihito, Empress Michiko and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the ceremony on the 68th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II. (Xinhua/Ma Ping)

Is Japan on the road to becoming militaristic again?
[Taiwan, The China Post, 14-08-2013]

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s recent moves have raised concerns about Japan becoming militaristic again; Abe has launched Japan’s largest warship since the war, offended China and South Korea by denying Japanese past aggression toward its Asian neighbours, posed for a photo in the cockpit of a military training jet fighter emblazoned with the number 731, the unit number of an infamous Imperial Army group that conducted lethal chemical and biological wartime experiments on Chinese civilians, and permitted the use of the rising sun banner, a symbol of horror to Asian victims of Japanese colonial aggression.

Abe also has plans to send parliamentarians to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo to pay homage to the war dead, including General Hideki Tojo and other Class A war criminals. Japan’s postwar peace constitution is also to be amended to assert its right to declare war and the self-defence forces is to be renamed as the national “defence forces,” allowing it the possibility to be engaged in action other than genuine self-defence.

These developments are especially raising serious concern in China, South Korea and the United States of an increasingly nationalistic Japan than may turn imperialistic and invade its Asian neighbours again.

However, these fears seem to be invalid with times. The Liberal Democrats may all become ultranationalists, but this does not necessarily mean they will turn militaristic and militarism does not equal imperialism. The military is not the stabilizing power it was in the past and not blindly obeyed anymore. Abe and the Liberal Democrats want what a “normal state” enjoys under its “non-peace constitution.”

2013 World Press Freedom Map (Reporters Without Borders)

Total control of the Internet is impossible
[Thailand, The Nation, 09-08-2013]

The Vietnamese government is set to enact new legislation, known as Decree 72, to criminalise the use of social media for anything other than to “provide or exchange personal information.” The law also demands that all foreign websites have at least one server in Vietnam, which will give the Vietnamese authorities greater control of content. Anything deemed “public affairs” will be off-limits.

Vietnam has a poor record when it comes to freedom of expression, both online and offline. Reporters Without Borders ranks the country 172nd out of 179 in its press-freedom index, ahead of only China, Iran, Somalia, Syria, Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea when it comes to respecting media liberty.

It is no secret that the authorities screen all information disseminated to the public media in Vietnam. If the government in Hanoi’s intent is to further curtail the rights of its people and hinder its chance of fully integrating with global development, then it is doing a good job.

Vietnam, although it still calls itself a communist state, has been open to the world for decades, ever since the “doi moi” policy was initiated. The spirit of doi moi is openness, but openness means allowing people to know what they want to know and what is necessary for them to know.

Control of Internet communication is an impossible mission for any government. Any government that wants total control over the Internet needs a huge budget, resources and manpower to monitor every information transaction – and, more sinisterly, a deep and wilful distrust of its own citizens. It will realise eventually that such an effort is useless.

Protesters, mostly students and those affiliated with some type of religion, hold a demonstration outside the Philippine Supreme Court in Manila, Philippines on Tuesday, July 9, 2013, to coincide with the oral arguments by the highest court on the merits and demerits of the RH (Reproductive Health) Law which was signed into law by Philippine President Benigno Aquino III late last year. The protesters are calling for the Supreme Court to strike down the law which they claim is illegal. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

Rapid road to demographic suicide
[Philippines, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 17-08-2013]

Our leaders must make sure that no programme to aggressively promote a contraceptive mentality among the poor who are the only ones still not affected by a contraceptive mentality will be part of the implementing rules and regulations. We cannot make the same mistakes of China and Thailand, which are now on an irreversible road to demographic suicide.

Without any aggressive program for birth control over the last 30 years, Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in the Philippines was fallen from six babies per fertile woman in 1975 to 3.1 babies. This is a result of natural trends as later marriages, education of women, urbanisation and industrialisation. The birth controllers say that there is nothing to worry about because even at below replacement, the population will continue to grow because of a “growth momentum” that can last for decades.

The cases of Thailand and China are very instructive. Both countries still have growing populations but are already suffering from serious labour shortages because of aging. It is clear that the so-called growth momentum does not exist, and it would be against sustainable development for the Philippines to aggressively promote birth control.

Needless to say these labour shortages in Thailand and China have pushed their wages upward. These trends should be a warning to our government to either repeal the RH Law or at least slow down its aggressive implementation.

Obviously, the RH Law will not promote sustainable development. There is no need to push the TFR below replacement level at too rapid a pace. There are numerous positive ways of addressing the problem of mass poverty without endangering future generations, as the Chinese and the Thais have already done.