Little Things from Japan: Will you do me a favor, my dear followers？ ＰＬＥＡＳＥ． Japan is facing...
Japan is facing many problems right now, and every one of them is pretty serious and can be critical. TPPA is one of those problems I have been concerned about recently.
The link below is a petition about stop TPPA, the petition to ask directly to the White House.
I understand few people here haven’t heard of this unfair treaty, but I don’t have time to explain the details. At least, I can safely say that this treaty has high risk of destroying life in Japan, our proud tradition and culture we have grown over generations. It’s really hard to describe, but in a word, I sincerely hope Japanese government doesn’t take the wrong way for the sake of their own benefit and ignore 99% of citizens.
We need to collect *numbers* of signatures in a week in any way.
You need to sign up and accept email for registration to take part in the petition, but it takes only a few minutes in all.
Please help Japanese 99% of ordinary people.
Please sign, please reblog, and please spread. I need action. I need your help and understanding.
Wait. Whoa. Hold the presses for a second. You want people to sign a petition but “I don’t have time to explain the details”?
Red flag. Wouldn’t it at least be good to link to where someone COULD read about it? I don’t care it it’s a “SAVE THE PUPPIES” petition, this is the wrong way to go about it.
As far as I can read, this is a Pacific free-trade agreement meant to bolster the economy by increasing food imports from other countries and focusing on other exports. The agreement would install a tariff-free zone for 10 years. The Japanese Yen has been gaining strength for the past few years which has been slaughtering its export market, iirc. The US, for instance, has been turning more and more to South Korea for electronics and other commodities.
The tariff zone would be installed to encourage more trade. ON THE NEGATIVE SIDE, Japanese farmers would suffer. Via Washington Post:
The free trade pact, according to government figures, would lift Japan’s gross domestic product by $34.7 billion, or 0.54 percent. Consumer prices of rice would drop 39 percent. But farmers would lose a commanding portion of their business, and Japan’s food self-sufficiency would drop from 40 to 14 percent.
Japanese farmers account for just 1 percent of the GDP, but they hold disproportionate power, with an electoral system weighted in favor of rural areas. When negotiating previous free trade agreements, Japan was able to work out exceptions that protected its farmers, allowing the country to maintain a 778 percent tariff on rice and a 350 percent tariff on butter.
And who knows? That could be biased. But as you said, “this treaty has high risk of destroying life in Japan, our proud tradition and culture we have grown over generations”. Yes. That’s very true. This has the power to completely change the Japanese system of government. I’m also well aware that Japan’s unsustainable economy is quickly going under. In two or three generations Japan might not exist at this rate. I’m equally aware of the value the society places on tradition and keeping things the way they are, but at this point, any change might be a positive change.
I could be wrong. I could be completely and totally wrong. But as of yet you’ve done nothing to convince me and those of you signing this petition without looking it up yourselves should step back and think about what you’re doing.
I don’t have anything intelligent to add at this point, so I’ll just second everything Ari said
