There has been quite a bit of
chatter over the last few months about the possibility of Japan legalizing
gambling. The big international gaming
companies have been lobbying Japanese politicians to change the laws, and
presented plans for prospective resorts in casinos in some of Japan’s major
cities. Abe Shinzo himself made an
appearance at a gaming industry event in Tokyo last fall, and pundits read his
appearance as support of the inevitability of changes that will legalize new
types of gambling in Japan. Japan’s
present gaming laws prohibit casino gambling, but allow bets on horse, bicycle
and boat races, and non-cash reward games.
There are a number of reasons Japan would consider legalizing casino
gambling and reason to prevent it.
Legalization would raise tax revenue, keep more money in Japan, and
possibly create more job opportunities in the casinos themselves and in the
regulatory apparatus. But the wealthy
pachinko business can afford to fight back, alongside anti-gambling elements in
the Japanese polity.
Monday, April 21, 2014
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Next Verse, Same as the First
There
is a noticeable tendency for tensions between Pyongyang and Seoul to flare up
in the spring. Last year North Korea
sealed the border, closed factories in the Kaesong Industrial Zone and
denounced US-ROKA exercises as a provocation.
Said military exercises occur every year. Two years ago, North Korea announced it would
resume nuclear tests, and the US Navy dispatched Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS
George Washington to South Korea in response. Well, last week, on Sunday March 30, North
Korea fired artillery into the ocean, over the armistice line, and the Southern
Navy responded in kind. Then on Monday
March 31 the South Korean Defense Ministry announced they had recovered a
crashed North Korean drone. These events
are nothing new, but later in the week Prime Minister of Japan Abe Shinzo
ordered the Marine Self-Defense Force to patrol the Sea of Japan with an
AEGIS-equipped destroyer and shoot down any North Korean missiles bringing a
new factor into the mix: the Japanese might actually do something. Previously, Japan was the least powerful
party interested in the tension on the Korean peninsula. However, if the Japanese were to actually
shoot down a North Korean device the rest of the region would have to take them
more seriously.
Labels:
Abe Shinzo,
China,
Cold War,
Japan,
JSDF,
North Korea,
South Korea,
US Navy
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