How much of Japan's political system is taken over my corporatations and the rich?

[Brass]

As I'm sure you guys are well aware in America the big corporations and the top 1% of the wealthy have completely captured out political system and these days we pretty much have a fake democracy. I'm only 27 but what I understand this corporate takeover of our country started as early as the 70s under Reagan and finally completed their takeover in the early 2000's after Bush. The rich (top 1%) also control most of the wealth and yield all the power here so we are well on our way (if we aren't already) to becoming a banana republic.

So how is Japan's system compared to the US? How much foothold do corporations and the wealthy have in Japan's politics? I know your wealth gap is MUCH lower than the US, do you notice the difference vs the US?

[Brass]

No one has any insight on this?

[dogsbody70]

well I don' t know about Japan but big business controls so much.

[Ronin4hire]

It is my impression that Japan's companies are almost an arm of the government more than anything. At least when it comes to the way they invest overseas.

So to answer your question.. it might not be a question of how much influence corporations have on the government but how much influence the government has on corporations.

That might be an old fashioned view though as it's based on an article I read over a year ago about the way Japanese companies acted in South East Asia pre-1990

[Sangetsu]

Another rant about how bad America is given by a person who, had he grown up in the 60% of the rest of the wolrld which earns less than $2 a day, would be telling us what a wonderful place America is.

Politics and business have gone hand-in-hand since the time of Plato (who lived and died long before Reagan and Bush were born), and is not a recent phenomena.

I can imagine the OP sitting in his bedroom or living room typing his post on his own PC, which incidentally costs more than what most people in the world make in 2 years. Rather than be thankful for living in a country where he enjoys daily what many other people can only dream of, he has the nerve to tell everyone what a lousy country he lives in.

If you dislike America so much, you can probably find more than 2 billion volunteers who would cut off one of their own limbs to trade places with you.

In case you are unaware, the top 1% of wage earners in America pay more than 50% of tax collected. Not to mention that most of these rich people weren't born rich, they became rich by running businesses which employ other Americans, and thus contribute more than a little to the country in which they live.

If you think America's political/business system is bad, Japan's is a Greek tragedy in comparison, where bureaucratic mandarins control both politics and business, and have driven the entire economy to the edge of an abyss far deeper than that which America has so far dug for itself.

Stop being stupid! America's greatest failing is the churning out of semi-literate fools who criticize a world which they know nothing about.

[Ryzorian]

Reagan was in 1980, not the 70's. The American revolution was started by the "wealthy" who despised the king taxing every blooming thing. In Fact, becomeing that 1% is the American dream, everyone wants to become like that, so stop complaining about others who are rich, and try to become rich yourself. People in countries other than America, die constantly trying to get to the US because it offers that oppurtunity.

[fluffy0000]

No - the top 1% of wage earners are not responsible for more than 50% of taxes collected in the US .

Begining with the Pres. Reagan administration a barrage of 'supply side' radical tax cuts delivered huge amounts of wealth upon the top 1%.

One of Reagan's wunderkind, Office of Management and Budget David Stockman, confided to a Washington Post reporter (William Greider) that Reagan's tax cut was really a “trojan horse” for cutting taxes on the rich.

as explained by Naomi Klein in her book The Shock Doctrine:
"..,radical policy shifts must occur when the public is disoriented and confused."
In 1981 Reagan signed the “Kemp-Roth” tax bill about a week after he had taken the radical step of firing 11,000 striking federal air traffic controllers.

Wall Street Capitalism: A Theory of the Bondholding Class, economist E. Ray Canterbery explains what happened.
The tax cuts drastically increased the incomes of the rich and they used their newfound money from the tax cuts to buy the Treasury bonds, notes, and bills that the Treasury Department had to issue in order to finance Reagan's deficits.

The combination of monetarism (high interest rates), supply-side tax cuts, and the phantom Soviet threat created the bondholding class.
.., taxes on the rich were cut and they were handed an “investment opportunity”.

Treasury, State, and Municipal bonds are highly concentrated among the rich. In the 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances, the Top 5 percent (ranked by net worth) held about 93.6 per cent of all bonds (this does not include the savings bonds that the working and middle classes are familiar with).

Likewise, the Top 5 percent owned 82.4 per cent of all stocks.
The bondholding class oscillates between bonds and stocks as market conditions dictate.

( Housing bubble )
..,sustaining financial asset inflation to increase the enrichment of the bond and stock holders. Net interest payments on Treasury securities are welfare payments to the top Wall Street firms and their shareholders.

The fact, who got the largest welfare check ever written was not lost on the rest of us mere mortals as the top 5% cashed in bigtime.

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 , enacted October 3, 2008), commonly referred to as a bailout of the U.S. financial system.