Bonus Perspectives: Trump's Foreign Policy Picks, Japan Opposition Adultery Scandal, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," and "Untitled Goose Game"
How Trump could address the war in Ukraine, the head of Japan's Democratic Party for the People gets caught with his trousers down, and your weekly media recommendations.
Bonus Perspectives is a weekly column series containing my thoughts on the latest international news and Japanese news, as well as film, television, music, book, and video game recommendations. It’s free for all subscribers to this Substack, but if you enjoy my writing, consider opting for a paid subscription. Doing so will give you access to exclusive in-depth pieces and my entire backlog of work. Your support is greatly appreciated!
Some housekeeping for the rest of the year
Yes, he’s back. You’ve heard all the analysis of how and why Donald Trump won a second term in what’s probably the greatest political comeback in American history, so I won’t bore you with those details again. It’s everything the international news cycle is currently talking about and there will be plenty of Trumpy analysis from me until the end of the year.
I would recommend reading the in-depth piece I posted within a couple of days of Trump’s victory. This was sent out exclusively to paid subscribers of Foreign Perspectives. While Bonus Perspectives will always be free for all readers, I would strongly advise you consider upgrading your subscription to this Substack as there’s going to be more paid content soon. I plan on quitting my current part-time job in January to transition entirely to freelance writing, so I appreciate any support you can give. Thank you again to all those who have subscribed already.
I recently wrote my first piece for Quillette, an in-depth look at director Francis Ford Coppola’s erratic career and the failure of his lifelong passion project Megalopolis. I’ve long been a reader of their work, so it was an honor to finally become a contributor. Their editorial standards are much stricter than what I’m used to with other places I’ve written for, but I’m glad to see the final results. Since their features tend to be very long-form, I’ll likely only be writing for them on an occasional basis. Still, they pay well and I look forward to future contributions. I also wrote my first article for Unherd, a piece analyzing the role of North Korean troops in Ukraine and how the incoming Trump administration cannot afford to ignore the Kim regime. I expect to be working with them more regularly, so expect plenty of exciting articles from me in 2025.
Regarding this Substack, there are a few additional updates. First, Bonus Perspectives will be taking two weeks off. Next week would have marked my late father’s 70th birthday, so I will be writing a tribute piece in place of this usual column that will be free for all readers. The following week will mark the latest entry of A Bit of Film and War, my column series dedicated to war movies that I revived last month. It doesn’t get as many views as my other pieces, but I like doing it as a breather from the usual stuff I cover. As I’ve said before, the last week of every month will be when I post A Bit of Film and War in the place of Bonus Perspectives.
I still have a few pieces for paid subscribers that I intend on finishing before we reach the end of the year. I have shifts at my current job this month to finish, but I will intentionally be taking December easy to give me more time to write in time for the holidays. I intend on finishing the last two parts of my travelogue series on lesser known locations in Japan, which I began in October with my piece on Yokosuka. Those are the priority, but I also hope to do more op-ed style articles. Again, please do consider a paid subscription to Foreign Perspectives. It not only helps me out, but it also gives you exclusive content.
I will also being taking a week off from all writing around Christmas and New Year’s, but I will provide further details when the time draws closer. Enough about all that though, let’s get into this week’s edition of Bonus Perspectives!
Trump’s cabinet will determine the future of Ukraine
Trump is wasting no time assembling his cabinet members and signaling to the rest of the world what shape his foreign policy is likely to take. Many are raising concerns that he will pursue a more isolationist stance and even potentially abandon U.S. allies once he enters the White House. Based on what Trump said about NATO earlier this year, those fears are not entirely without merit. As someone most concerned about Ukraine, Taiwan, and my neck of the woods Japan, I’m particularly invested in what happens moving forward.
With that said, there have been some promising signs that Trump will maintain at least some continuity with the outgoing Biden administration when it comes to supporting U.S allies. Marco Rubio, current senior senator to Florida, is slated to be nominated as the next secretary of state. The son of Cuban-American immigrants, Rubio has long been a hardliner against authoritarian states like China, Iran, and North Korea. He’s a staunch advocate of NATO, which is likely to provide a significant bulwark against any inklings of Trump pulling out from the organization.
Trump’s other notable foreign policy pick is Republican Representative Mike Waltz for the position of national security adviser. A retired Green Beret, Waltz is a combat-decorated veteran with over 25 years of experience in the U.S. Army and is known for being particularly hawkish on China. A veteran of Afghanistan, he has more direct experience fighting wars than the majority of American politicians. What I’ve read about him instills some confidence that he’s well-informed about these geopolitical issues, and I think anyone worried that Trump would abandon Taiwan can rest a little easier now.
Ukraine, however, is a more complicated story. Both Rubio and Waltz have expressed reservations on continuing indefinite military aid as the war has become a drawn-out stalemate for both sides. Yet it would not be accurate or fair to call either pro-Russia either. Rubio previously slammed Vladimir Putin as “a gangster and a thug” while being consistently in favor of sanctions throughout his political career. In an op-ed for The Economist published days before the election, Waltz himself wrote:
“The next president must change course. Supporting Ukraine for ‘as long as it takes’ in a war of attrition against a larger power is a recipe for failure. The next administration should aim, as Donald Trump has argued, to ‘end the war and stop the killing.’ America can use economic leverage, including lifting the pause on exports of liquefied natural gas and cracking down on Russia’s illicit oil sales, to bring Mr Putin to the table. If he refuses to talk, Washington can, as Mr Trump argued, provide more weapons to Ukraine with fewer restrictions on their use. Faced with this pressure, Mr Putin will probably take the opportunity to wind the conflict down.”
I remain very skeptical that any kind of lasting peace agreement with Putin is sustainable, but I think fears that Trump would permanently abandon Ukraine are somewhat overblown. Waltz clearly believes that the Biden administration didn’t go far enough with supporting Kyiv. In his own words during the early months of the war, he strongly supported sending military aid and his latest op-ed also states that this should continue if Putin does not come to the negotiating table.
What seems to have changed is his belief that the U.S. can support Ukraine without a conclusion on the horizon. A recent article published in the Financial Times provides some troubling insights on just how much Kyiv’s forces are struggling to keep their recaptured territory as Moscow prepares to fight back even harder, this time with over 10,000 North Korean troops also involved. I recommend reading my latest piece on what role the DPRK will play in this conflict, but what looks likely is another extended war of attrition. Total victory still does not look likely for Russia, but the same can also be said for Ukraine.
Whatever “peace plan” Trump, Rubio, and Waltz have in mind would inevitably require both sides to give up substantial concessions, which is why the next couple of months between Kyiv and Moscow will be critical as the latter launches its counteroffensive. Still, Trump’s stance that the aid will continue if Putin refuses to negotiate gives some indication that he understands what’s at stake. I don’t like uncertainty, but that’s all we currently have at this time. Perhaps Ukraine and Russia will end up looking the DMZ between the two Koreas. An eternal stalemate that lasts into the next century. It may not be what anyone wants, but there are no easy choices in war.
Japanese opposition party leader in hot water after cheating on his wife
I’ve often said that the stale banality of Japanese politics reminds of the more quaint times of American politics when a bunch of stuffy old men held long boring sessions about taxes and defense policy, as well as when the President of the United States was accused of being a sex pest. Well I guess all of that is still happening now in modern American politics, but I digress. But who doesn’t love an old fashioned cheating scandal where the leader of a political party is in hot water? Between that and Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party losing elections because of slush fund payments, it’s like we’ve returned to the Clinton era! Ok, these analogies aren’t really working. Moving on.
If you’ve been following Foreign Perspectives, you would know that I’ve been covering the world of Japanese politics lately, which is proving to be surprisingly more eventful than usual. The LDP just lost their majority for the first time in 15 years, meaning it’s a scramble between them and the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) to get as much support from the other minor parties as possible. One of the most interesting players in all of this has been the Democratic Party For the People (DPP), which gained 28 seats in the October general elections. Far away from becoming a majority government, but not bad for a small party that was only formed under its current leadership in 2020. Those votes will make or break important bills moving forward.
Out of the 465 seats in the House of Representatives, the LDP now only holds 221 seats, with the rest of the opposition having 242. This means that it’s going to be very difficult for the LDP under Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to get much of what he wants done now that other parties hold sway. While both the LDP and CDP sought the help of the DPP to form a coalition, both it and the slightly larger Japan Innovation Party declined, choosing instead to vote on an issue-per-issue basis. With the DPP being formed specifically to be an alternative to the LDP, its leader Yuichiro Tamaki stated that forming an alliance with them would be against what his party stands for.
Sounds like a principled guy, right? Indeed, some of his proposed policies like cutting taxes and push to address Japan’s stagnant wages have lead to the DPP receiving more support among young people as a viable alternative to the LDP. Unfortunately for Tamaki, his image as someone with principles is now being shattered. On Nov. 11, a tabloid magazine published photos of Tamaki entering hotels in Takamatsu, Kanagawa with the city’s tourism ambassador. Reports indicate that this woman is 39-year-old ex-gravure model Miyuki Koizumi, whose attractiveness quickly spread like wildfire across Japanese social media.
Tamaki more or less confirmed that the allegations of infidelity were true and apologized for his actions. A few days later, Japanese internet users dug up an old blog that Tamaki wrote back in 2006 which asserted that politicians should “never commit adultery” and they “should be a group of people with a higher sense of ethics.” It just isn’t our guy’s week, is it? Reactions across the political world and online have ranged from fierce condemnation to more pragmatic views that Tamaki should still be allowed to carry out his duties as party leader during such a pivotal time. Fellow DPP member Takae Ito slammed her party’s leader on Twitter:
“He’s disgusting. What’s he doing wasting this once-in-a-lifetime chance for the Diet to return to policy discussions of ‘solutions over confrontation?’ Please everyone, do not downplay what Yuichiro Tamaki did with phrases like ‘Even if it was immoral of him, he should still work hard as a politician’ or ‘He’s only human after all.’ Those who betray the people closest to them and throw them into a whirlpool of grief are only worthy of appropriate punishment. But at the same time, the only person in the universe who can do that is his wife. We shouldn’t forget that everyone must abide by their duties! Never shirk your responsibilities! That’s what the picture book Swimmy teaches.”
Ito’s objections aside, it seems that the DPP is still going to stand by Tamaki as their leader. He’s currently on an apology tour that’s more or less standard for Japanese politicians who get in trouble for this sort of thing. Disgusting behavior? Sure. A betrayal of principles? Undoubtedly. Then again, we are talking about politicians, so who’s really that surprised at this point? The world of politics continues to turn and if someone like Donald Trump can be president of the United States, one cheating scandal is more or less just an embarrassing footnote these days.
Somewhat more concerning is what will happen to Miyuki Koizumi. The city of Takamatsu has stated that they’re consider dismissing her as tourism ambassador, but no decision has been finalized. Naturally, the internet has been frantically searching for any information that can be learned about her, but she appears to have deleted all of her social media. Some are speculating that she was some kind of honey pot either placed by the party or from DPP rivals to undermine Tamaki, but I think that’s really just giving him too much credit. He’s an old man with basic human urges that he failed to suppress. It happens to the best of us. Just ask Bill!
What I’m watching — Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is political idealism we need today
I tend to watch movies relevant to the current season, so what better choice around election time than Mr. Smith Goes to Washington? The only Frank Capra film I had previously seen was It’s a Wonderful Life, which in many ways works well as a fascinating double feature with this one. Mr. Smith released in 1939, while Wonderful Life was out a year after World War II ended in 1946. Both works maintain a similar sense of idealism and the belief that mankind will eventually show its good side in the end, but after the world went through so much carnage, it’s not surprising that Wonderful Life ends up going into darker territory.
America, however, was a more innocent time in 1939. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is ostensibly about U.S. politics without actually diving into the weeds of politics. The parties are not named, which was a wise move on Capra’s part. We don’t even know what state the protagonist Jefferson Smith comes from because such details are not important. What is important is the overall message that sometimes idealism is needed for men to rise about the corrupt systems they inhabit. Explicitly naming the parties as Democrat or Republican would have turned the story into a partisan one, which Capra was not interested in.
The film’s premise of a naive country boy who ends up being thrown into the cut-throat world of Washington D.C. as a senator with no experience ends up feeling closer to a fish out of water story than a narrative trying to make a greater political commentary. Jimmy Stewart turns in one of his finest performances as Smith. No one else could have played the role the same way with his distinct drawl and gee-whiz demeanor. It ends up working perfectly against the no-nonsense attitude of Claude Rains as Senator Joesph Paine — another one of the finest actors of the 20th century. You would have no idea that someone who spoke with such a posh Mid-Atlantic accent initially began life living in a poor London slum with a speech impediment.
The screenplay by Sidney Buchman and Myles Connolly features the kind of writing you wish more of modern Hollywood would have. Capra’s films even in their day were accused of being preachy, but everything from the beautifully-crafted prose of Stewart’s speeches to the fiery exchanges on the Senate floor are what allow the material to be more than just a sermon. We believe what the film has to say because there isn’t an ounce of cynicism to be found here, which is a great contrast to the conventions seen in much of present day screenwriting.
That’s a large reason why Mr. Smith Goes to Washington remains so timeless 85 years later. The exact political issues that lawmakers debate may have changed, but the reality of politics being a merciless world has not. The United States is an even more polarized country now, which is why we need a Jefferson Smith to be a reminder of what American ideals are. These are principles that go beyond liberal and conservative or Democrat and Republican. Smith himself put it best when addressing the senators:
“I wouldn't give you two cents for all your fancy rules if, behind them, they didn't have a little bit of plain, ordinary, everyday kindness and a - a little lookin' out for the other fella, too...That's pretty important, all that. It's just the blood and bone and sinew of this democracy that some great men handed down to the human race, that's all.”
What I’m playing — Untitled Goose Game is delightful waterfowl fun
I think that’s enough politics for one column, so let’s end on something light. Until recently, it had been a very long time since I properly sat down and played a video game. My part-time job and other commitments left me with very little spare time to do much else, but now that I’m currently making some major adjustments to my work-life balance, I’ve finally been able to play some titles that have been left dormant in my backlog for far too long.
Among those is Untitled Goose Game, an Australian indie puzzle stealth game which does exactly what it says on the tin. You play as a goose. Or geese if you decide to go down the multiplayer route like I did with my wife. The goal is simple: cause as much mayhem as possible for the clueless humans around you and get the items needed to progress through the stages. As you ruin the lives of the poor people who inhabit this pleasant English village, the gameplay combines a mix of puzzle solving and basic stealth sections which require a bit of good timing to pull off.
Despite having no dialogue and being somewhat akin to a slapstick silent film, the sound design is the real highlight here. Whether it’s the chatter from your geese to distract the humans or a crate of tomatoes being smashed, you can tell that the developers were really attempting to create an immersive experience despite being on a limited budget. The use of calming Claude Debussy piano pieces during specific moments only adds to the overall charming atmosphere. Certainly one of the quaintest video game worlds I’ve visited in quite awhile.
Untitled Goose Game is not a long game by any means, being clearable in only a few hours. If you want an idea of just how terrible my time management skills are though, me and my wife started it in early 2023 and didn’t get a chance to actually finish it until this month. With that said, I found the short length just right for an indie game of this genre and think that multiplayer is the way to go. If you’re into speedrunning, there’s a lot of enjoyment to be found here as well. Untitled Goose Game proves that you don’t need lavish production values or a huge scale to provide an enjoyable experience. It does everything a good independent video game should do right, and I found myself grinning ear to ear the whole time.
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The game I have been playing this week is Lock down Protocol, a fun Among Us style game where the crew mates can be just as much of a threat to each other ass the dissident, its been pretty fun to lie cheat and steal with my friends lol.