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 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
I also for slightly sorry for James Mattis as well.

Here he is on a shuttle diplomacy run, probably in contact with China, Russia, and a few others, maybe being close to getting a verbal agreement on a deal that might suit everybody...

And then Trump comes crashing into the room like a drunk uncle at Christmas, trips over onto the floor, falls asleep, and we recoil in horror as urine slowly seeps from him...

In Feburary 2021, this will probably all be comedy gold. Until then, it feels like watching Heath Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight, very funny until suddenly it's not.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
China has a serious demographic problem thanks to the one child policy.

One child was only ever enforced in the cities. The situation has been largely offset by drawing in much of the rural population in to the cities, which was likely the plan all along.

I think Japan will cope well with their population decline. It's a crowded country anyway and they will boost productivity to compensate for the lack of workers. In the worst case they can open the borders to more immigration. If they are going to do that they should do it sooner rather than later, and let in smaller numbers of immigrants over a longer period, to allow them to be absorbed into the local culture.

Abe is doing a lot to make Japan more accepting of immigration, and also to improve and encourage the female workforce. He has a lot of cultural barriers and vested interests to overcome, though.

 sebster wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
China has a serious demographic problem thanks to the one child policy.

One child was only ever enforced in the cities. The situation has been largely offset by drawing in much of the rural population in to the cities, which was likely the plan all along.

I think Japan will cope well with their population decline. It's a crowded country anyway and they will boost productivity to compensate for the lack of workers. In the worst case they can open the borders to more immigration. If they are going to do that they should do it sooner rather than later, and let in smaller numbers of immigrants over a longer period, to allow them to be absorbed into the local culture.

Abe is doing a lot to make Japan more accepting of immigration, and also to improve and encourage the female workforce. He has a lot of cultural barriers and vested interests to overcome, though.

The cultural gap to bridge is a large one to have to cross.
Japan has a very different culture to many nations, different ideals and social norms.

Any immigration would have to be slowly done and plenty of time, and some help and support even to get people to be able to integrate into what can be a fairly alien culture.

 jhe90 wrote:
.
Japan has a very different culture to many nations, different ideals and social norms.

This is true for every country on the planet.

Rosebuddy wrote:

 jhe90 wrote:
.
Japan has a very different culture to many nations, different ideals and social norms.

This is true for every country on the planet.

More different, it's a culture torn between ancient traditions and ultramodern robotics and systems.

Its very based on face, respect and has a unique nowadays culture of working for a company for decades often.

These are big shifts to maybe adapt too.
And some support to help people fit in and feel full and respected citizens would not be a bad thing.

Help bridge the gap and make people able to properly fit in and participate in the nations culture.

Rosebuddy wrote:

 jhe90 wrote:
.
Japan has a very different culture to many nations, different ideals and social norms.

This is true for every country on the planet.

Not really. Japanese is the only language that I know of that has a word for "worked yourself to death". Plus suicide as a socially acceptable, or even expected, response to failure.

Whereas in the U.S. it is just expected for us to work ourselves to death without a special word in the language for it

I haven't heard of people working themselves to death in the US being any sort of commonplace occurrence. To have a special word for something says that it happens a lot.

If you're poor and not doing that, you are considered lazy and a bad person to people...

Every national culture is unique, and there are unique variations between regional sub-cultures within every nation. However, neighbouring countries usually have similarities due to historical connections.

Japanese culture is much more different to French than French is to British or Italian, but Korean culture is a lot closer to Japanese than French, etc.

The wrong idea that people get is that it's impossible for an outsider to understand or assimilate into a different culture. Japan has a nationalised Finnish member of the Diet. You can't get much more assimilated than that.

 skyth wrote:
Whereas in the U.S. it is just expected for us to work ourselves to death without a special word in the language for it

I believe the word for it is "career"

 A Town Called Malus wrote:


I believe the word for it is "career"

'FML'

No, a career implies that upward motion is possible. This place I'm in now has a special catch 22 for that, as you cannot get a GS 6 position, but you have to have 1 year time in grade as a GS 6 to even apply for a GS 7.

Ain't that nifty?

Well according to:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-korea-backs-off-guam-missile-attack-threat-1502751054

NK is backing off it's missile tests near Guam.

 whembly wrote:
Well according to:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-korea-backs-off-guam-missile-attack-threat-1502751054

NK is backing off it's missile tests near Guam.

Yep. They blinked.

Soooo....back to square 1.

Aye. They backed down. Or at least, Kim isn't willing to push things any further it would seem.

I'd actually mark this one down as a victory for Trump. His actions in Syria gave him just enough a of a wild card reputation that China was willing to do that little bit more, and Kim wasn't willing to push it beyond rhetoric.

I suspect the attitude in both Asian countries right now is 'wait until he's voted out in a few years and we get someone more predictable to play with'.

 Ketara wrote:

I'd actually mark this one down as a victory for Trump..

If anything, I'd say it's a victory more for China, South Korea, Japan or just anyone other than Trump. Trump has done nothing in that matter, except not talking about it anymore - but seeing what happened during the week-end, I don't believe it's really his will. He just had his attention taken by something else, that's all.

 Ketara wrote:
Aye. They backed down. Or at least, Kim isn't willing to push things any further it would seem.

I'd actually mark this one down as a victory for Trump. His actions in Syria gave him just enough a of a wild card reputation that China was willing to do that little bit more, and Kim wasn't willing to push it beyond rhetoric.

I suspect the attitude in both Asian countries right now is 'wait until he's voted out in a few years and we get someone more predictable to play with'.

He managed to prove enough wild card to make Kim blink so I'd say he won that round of the battle of ego Lords.

Also a very solid defence secretory who been solidifying relationships with SK, Japan etc recently and working up regional allies.

So trump might be a loud mouth but he backed by some very capable people.

 Sarouan wrote:

 Ketara wrote:

I'd actually mark this one down as a victory for Trump..

If anything, I'd say it's a victory more for China, South Korea, Japan or just anyone other than Trump. Trump has done nothing in that matter, except not talking about it anymore - but seeing what happened during the week-end, I don't believe it's really his will. He just had his attention taken by something else, that's all.

Trump has made them reconsider because they think he's unpredictable. So China's applied a few more screws than it otherwise would have done to show willing in the hope that he'll get distracted by something else if Kim shuts up. Which he probably will.

I accept that it hasn't 'solved' the problem, but realistically, nothing any President can do short of declaring war will do that. The fact remains though that in this specific scenario, his volatile unpredictability has actually achieved additional sanctions that China did not enact under the much more softly spoken Obama. They still haven't done half as much as they could do in terms of economic sanctions, and they'll revoke it the second he leaves office. But hey ho.

 Ketara wrote:

 Sarouan wrote:

 Ketara wrote:

I'd actually mark this one down as a victory for Trump..

If anything, I'd say it's a victory more for China, South Korea, Japan or just anyone other than Trump. Trump has done nothing in that matter, except not talking about it anymore - but seeing what happened during the week-end, I don't believe it's really his will. He just had his attention taken by something else, that's all.

Trump has made them reconsider because they think he's unpredictable. So China's applied a few more screws than it otherwise would have done to show willing in the hope that he'll get distracted by something else if Kim shuts up. Which he probably will.

I accept that it hasn't 'solved' the problem, but realistically, nothing any President can do short of declaring war will do that. The fact remains though that in this specific scenario, his volatile unpredictability has actually achieved additional sanctions that China did not enact under the much more softly spoken Obama. They still haven't done half as much as they could do in terms of economic sanctions, and they'll revoke it the second he leaves office. But hey ho.

Alternatively they've reconsidered because they have no confidence in their missiles reliability to hit their test area. It is less of an embarrassment to stand down now than to go ahead and fail.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 Ketara wrote:

 Sarouan wrote:

 Ketara wrote:

I'd actually mark this one down as a victory for Trump..

If anything, I'd say it's a victory more for China, South Korea, Japan or just anyone other than Trump. Trump has done nothing in that matter, except not talking about it anymore - but seeing what happened during the week-end, I don't believe it's really his will. He just had his attention taken by something else, that's all.

Trump has made them reconsider because they think he's unpredictable. So China's applied a few more screws than it otherwise would have done to show willing in the hope that he'll get distracted by something else if Kim shuts up. Which he probably will.

I accept that it hasn't 'solved' the problem, but realistically, nothing any President can do short of declaring war will do that. The fact remains though that in this specific scenario, his volatile unpredictability has actually achieved additional sanctions that China did not enact under the much more softly spoken Obama. They still haven't done half as much as they could do in terms of economic sanctions, and they'll revoke it the second he leaves office. But hey ho.

Alternatively they've reconsidered because they have no confidence in their missiles reliability to hit their test area. It is less of an embarrassment to stand down now than to go ahead and fail.

Trump might be well, a tad crazy Trumps crazy streak has helped this time.
He did throw off Kim by the sheer difference in presidents, and his willingness to match him toe for toe.

Good and bad.
Was even this... Wild card a genuine stratagy?

 jhe90 wrote:

Was even this... Wild card a genuine stratagy?

Nah, the man's an imbecile.

And yet... He's a billionaire and has gotten elected president. I don't think he should be so easily discounted.

 SlaveToDorkness wrote:
And yet... He's a billionaire and has gotten elected president. I don't think he should be so easily discounted.

He's a billionaire who inherited a billionaires property portfolio and has actually done very little to grow the value of that portfolio compared to how it would have grown if he just left it as is.

 SlaveToDorkness wrote:
And yet... He's a billionaire and has gotten elected president. I don't think he should be so easily discounted.

All that proves is that an imbecile can inherit money and win votes by making mildly offensive speeches.

Seriously, I went through a period too, where I thought it might all be an act, and he might be a lot smarter than he appears. That all of his wall building and tweeting and all the rest was some sort of clever political ploy.

Then I actually looked into it and discovered that he's a shallow and vain 70 year old reality tv show sensationalist with an exceedingly fragile ego who doesn't know himself what he's doing from one minute to the next.

Ironically, that's what's gotten him this far in the Korean thing, none of the other major players can quite predict what he'll do, and don't want to chance their arms too far.

I agree with Ketara.

We don't know why Kim-Il Un is pulling back. Perhaps he never intended to fire the missiles anyway, and he isn't pulling back at all.

We just don't know.

This is also pretty typical for NK, rattle the sabre, drive up tensions, and back down. Not a new thing on their part by any means.

He did make China get off their ass.

 NenkotaMoon wrote:
He did make China get off their ass.

And do what? Tell both us and NK to knock it off? That's what they do anyway.

 Co'tor Shas wrote:

 NenkotaMoon wrote:
He did make China get off their ass.

And do what? Tell both us and NK to knock it off? That's what they do anyway.

Its also a no brainer for china to be seen to do something either. They don't really need NK imports of coal and ore at the moment.

Well North Korea launched a missile that flew over Japan.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41078187