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at maidrin_rua

Mark and Aaron talked to an eighty-six year-old Japanese poet and political activist who had lived in India and China.

Mark: Ok so you came back to Japan because it is an important time…like…the constitution…
Naoto: Yeah…you know…the constitution…August next year there is a national election, right?
Mark: Uh-huh
Naoto: That is a crucial moment, I think.
Mark: Uh-huh
Naoto: And also…no no…it is July of next year…national election.
Aaron: National election.
Naoto: And April next year I think provincial election. Kyoto is going to have an election. Local election, and also August next year the active running of Rokkacho, the recycling…
Mark: Uh-huh.
Naoto: Rokkacho…the nuclear…you know where Rokkacho is…Aomori Prefecture, right?
Aaron: Yeah.
Naoto: They are going to recycle nuclear fuel.
Mark: Nuclear fuel.
Naoto: They are going to enrich plutonium out there here too.
Aaron: Plutonium.
Naoto: They are going to start functioning fully next August. So it should influence a lot…over the Japanese environment…and also people’s minds too, and their lives too…
Mark: You are worried about the rise of Japanese militarism?
Naoto:Oh yeah sure.
Mark: I think it is a trick because the largest economy in the world; the US economy is a military economy…
Naoto: Yeah.
Mark: So this tension between North Korea and Japan, between China and Japan…it is fabricated…
Naoto: I have also similar feelings too…
Mark: It is a trick.
Naoto: …to make it easier for America to maintain their military bases in Japan…
Aaron: Yeah.
Naoto: …they make some trouble around Japan. It is happening between America and China…because what kind of accord they have, I do not know…because the North Korean problem is a Chinese problem.
Aaron: Yeah.
Naoto: it is totally supported by China…and…China…both America and China like to use North Korea like a card, you know?
Mark and Aaron: Mmm…
Naoto: …to play cards..
Aaron and Mark: Mm Yes.
Naoto: So that America can maintain their military bases in Japan, because…Japan wants to be protected…or does Japan want to become independent? I like the South American way. Multi-national treaty…military treaty…multi-lateral treaty not between one country like Japan and the States or Japan and Korea…between many
Mark: South America?
Naoto: Yeah like South American type. Might be more stable. We haven’t got yet…Are you Australian?
Mark: Yes.

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