Japan’s Shinji Aguma delivers a brutal truth Americans still ignore:Trump isn’t a negotiator, he’s an extortionist. And while foreign leaders brace for his chaos, the U.S. media keeps feeding the myth
I would say that the people who love him are only paying attention to his PR. If you really looked closely there is a shit load of evidence that he is a liar and a failure and not equipped in any way to run a country (see multiple bankruptcies).
To be fair, I never paid attention to the loser until he entered the primary. What little I had seen before that already convinced me that he was not worth my time. I felt insulted and betrayed when he won the first primary.
If you look at the previous trade agreements Trump made and has already broken, it is obvious to any leader in the world that Trump views these agreements in the same way that he looked upon contracts with his subcontractors in New York: they are merely a way of drawing in the suckers and losers.
Wonderful article. So glad I've read it. The ease of this conman in gaining followers is heartbreaking. I'm looking on line for Shinji Aguma, finally found the speech with a different spelling, Oguma. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIao2kkB7Gg
I want to hear more from the rest of the world. BBC and CBC news easily available but in this interconnected world, surely we can hear from other nations. How did you find this? I hope it's reported on by our major serious news outlets.
This article caught my attention because I’ve lived in Japan for 30 years and am a Japanese-to-English translator. I hadn’t seen anything about this until now, but then again I’ve stopped looking at any corporate media, in English or Japanese, and only occasionally look at fb. So I started doing google searches, first in English and then in Japanese. I didn’t think the behaviour of the mainstream media could shock me at this stage, but this is a stunning wake-up call. This short speech in a parliamentary committee (it’s actually a question to the Minister of Foreign Affairs) by an MP from the largest opposition party—the Constitutional Democratic Party—last Wednesday has been almost totally ignored (hidden) by the Japanese media. There is one other possible explanation (which I’m going to investigate)—google may have deleted all media references from its search results with only one minor exception. I plan to ask an acquaintance who has worked as a foreign correspondent in Tokyo for decades and who is now an academic in the area of media studies, what he makes of this apparent “coverup”. If the Times of India media group hadn’t posted this on yt, it probably would have remained virtually completely hidden. The only western corporate media article about it was brief coverage by Newsweek. As an aside, the title given to the yt video by the Times of India is misleading and annoying—Shinji Oguma is not a “leader”. He’s a run-of-the-mill opposition member of parliament.
I'm an Oregonian living in Australia, and I cannot find anything on this in our press yet. I found Mary's article via an Aussie friend who posted it on her FB feed. I have asked her how she found it but don't have a response yet.
Shinji Aguma’s analysis is spot on. Japan and the rest of the world should go on forming alliances and establishing new trade priorities. The lesson here is that the countries of the world should be strong on their own so that they can be stronger in their alliances. If this kind of total breakdown of morals and laws can happen here, it can happen anywhere. Be strong, reliable to your allies and be independent.
I've had this asshole's number since 1987, there is a reason no one in my family is a magaloid, and it is, from the moment he slithered down his faux gold escalator, * I * was able to get to them before he did. By the time the election rolled around, every single member of my family who wasn't already clear on it, knew everything I knew about him (which was A LOT), and would have stuck their heads in the microwave before they voted for him.
There were even a few I had to remind a few times, if anyone started agreeing with him, or I saw them being swayed by the bullshit, I hammered them again. It was actually kinda fun saying "told you so" to people who *hadn't* caught whatever contagious brain virus he's infected his supporters with, and hearing "boy were you right about that guy, glad I didn't wote for him." Yeah, me too, I feel for people whose families got caught up in it.
People see what they want to see until what they’re seeing doesn’t match what is happening to them personally at that moment. As a proud and informed Canuck I can assure you lots of us in Canada see him for who and what he is - a craven and vile mob boss shaking down and extorting a country (a whole damn COUNTRY!!) for his own personal profit and to keep his sorry arse out of jail. He has his consigliere and his capos and their crews all fawning and doing his bidding in hopes of grabbing some personal power for themselves…along with some riches too - because enough is never enough. There are those in Canada who love the FacistFelon and I dare say they are likely fans of fox entertainment. The utter stupidity and total blindness of so many of his cult followers is truly beyond comprehension…🤷. People who close their eyes, turn away, and refuse to acknowledge what is happening to them do so at their peril. Sadly too many others, good honest people, will be taken down with them.
It’s both sobering and surreal that it takes a Japanese lawmaker to articulate, with moral clarity and strategic precision, what so many in our own government and media still tiptoe around. Aguma didn’t mince words because survival doesn’t allow for politeness.
Meanwhile, too many Americans are still clapping for the performance, not reckoning with the cost.
This isn’t politics-as-spectacle anymore—it’s politics-as-sabotage. And you’re right: the myth only lives because the media keeps feeding it.
Thank you for this piece. It reads like the kind of reckoning we’ve been too slow to have.
Thank you so much for this piece! Rupert Murdoch and the mush brain garbage that is televised, nonstop, has turned our country into a pathetic parody of the crap they are watching.
Beautifully articulated. I always objected to “he’s the symptom, not the problem”. No, he’s the disease. He can’t be contained; he must be stopped. Anyone who is exposed to his dark magic and has ANY vulnerability seems to be affected.
I say that without judgement given how many people have caught it while never personally meeting him.
Two people come to mind who presented an impressive immunity: Volodomyr Zelenskyy and Mike Pence. Zelenskyy refused to capitulate (under extreme pressure) and end the war in Ukraine by ceding territory to Russia. None of the demands imposed on him would ensure lasting peace and self determination for his people.
Mike Pence demonstrated extraordinary immunity after his 4-year subjugation in the administration by refusing to abet the coup of 2020. I grudgingly gave him credit until snarky and experienced shock jock Bill Maher caught the contagion (after a dinner encounter). I think the ability to make choices and take stands that are clearly honest and/or for the betterment of others and to withstand the risks to ego, power or expediency is a gift.
I really don’t understand why there is very little coverage from other countries about this horror. All the noise and protests con seem like reality tv at times. Nothing seems real and the atrocities in American government continues. This all gives me a cold feeling in my stomach. I’m sure it will take some time for organized opposition to be able to effect any kind of change. And I’m not at all educated about the political system to have any perspective, but it’s like living on a nightmare. And I’m not living in America - but Canada doesn’t seem far enough away. Is any place far enough away? I fully support all the American people who are doing whatever they can to oppose this illegal and immoral regime.
I see him clearly….its been pretty obvious for many years
It has, but so many people are just not paying attention.
Many are paying attention, they see what he is and they love it
I would say that the people who love him are only paying attention to his PR. If you really looked closely there is a shit load of evidence that he is a liar and a failure and not equipped in any way to run a country (see multiple bankruptcies).
He is worse than a liar, he is an evil narcissist but that seems to resonate with more than a few in our culture
He is in fact a psychopath.
Decades even.
To be fair, I never paid attention to the loser until he entered the primary. What little I had seen before that already convinced me that he was not worth my time. I felt insulted and betrayed when he won the first primary.
As did we all. It was shameful, to say the least.
Well put.
Trump is wrecking so many pillars of American power that I still don't believe many Americans fully grasp how badly this is likely to go for them.
https://substack.com/@abhcan/note/c-98995842
If you look at the previous trade agreements Trump made and has already broken, it is obvious to any leader in the world that Trump views these agreements in the same way that he looked upon contracts with his subcontractors in New York: they are merely a way of drawing in the suckers and losers.
Perfect analysis by the Japanese.
Wonderful article. So glad I've read it. The ease of this conman in gaining followers is heartbreaking. I'm looking on line for Shinji Aguma, finally found the speech with a different spelling, Oguma. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIao2kkB7Gg
I want to hear more from the rest of the world. BBC and CBC news easily available but in this interconnected world, surely we can hear from other nations. How did you find this? I hope it's reported on by our major serious news outlets.
This article caught my attention because I’ve lived in Japan for 30 years and am a Japanese-to-English translator. I hadn’t seen anything about this until now, but then again I’ve stopped looking at any corporate media, in English or Japanese, and only occasionally look at fb. So I started doing google searches, first in English and then in Japanese. I didn’t think the behaviour of the mainstream media could shock me at this stage, but this is a stunning wake-up call. This short speech in a parliamentary committee (it’s actually a question to the Minister of Foreign Affairs) by an MP from the largest opposition party—the Constitutional Democratic Party—last Wednesday has been almost totally ignored (hidden) by the Japanese media. There is one other possible explanation (which I’m going to investigate)—google may have deleted all media references from its search results with only one minor exception. I plan to ask an acquaintance who has worked as a foreign correspondent in Tokyo for decades and who is now an academic in the area of media studies, what he makes of this apparent “coverup”. If the Times of India media group hadn’t posted this on yt, it probably would have remained virtually completely hidden. The only western corporate media article about it was brief coverage by Newsweek. As an aside, the title given to the yt video by the Times of India is misleading and annoying—Shinji Oguma is not a “leader”. He’s a run-of-the-mill opposition member of parliament.
I'm an Oregonian living in Australia, and I cannot find anything on this in our press yet. I found Mary's article via an Aussie friend who posted it on her FB feed. I have asked her how she found it but don't have a response yet.
Shinji Aguma’s analysis is spot on. Japan and the rest of the world should go on forming alliances and establishing new trade priorities. The lesson here is that the countries of the world should be strong on their own so that they can be stronger in their alliances. If this kind of total breakdown of morals and laws can happen here, it can happen anywhere. Be strong, reliable to your allies and be independent.
I've had this asshole's number since 1987, there is a reason no one in my family is a magaloid, and it is, from the moment he slithered down his faux gold escalator, * I * was able to get to them before he did. By the time the election rolled around, every single member of my family who wasn't already clear on it, knew everything I knew about him (which was A LOT), and would have stuck their heads in the microwave before they voted for him.
There were even a few I had to remind a few times, if anyone started agreeing with him, or I saw them being swayed by the bullshit, I hammered them again. It was actually kinda fun saying "told you so" to people who *hadn't* caught whatever contagious brain virus he's infected his supporters with, and hearing "boy were you right about that guy, glad I didn't wote for him." Yeah, me too, I feel for people whose families got caught up in it.
People see what they want to see until what they’re seeing doesn’t match what is happening to them personally at that moment. As a proud and informed Canuck I can assure you lots of us in Canada see him for who and what he is - a craven and vile mob boss shaking down and extorting a country (a whole damn COUNTRY!!) for his own personal profit and to keep his sorry arse out of jail. He has his consigliere and his capos and their crews all fawning and doing his bidding in hopes of grabbing some personal power for themselves…along with some riches too - because enough is never enough. There are those in Canada who love the FacistFelon and I dare say they are likely fans of fox entertainment. The utter stupidity and total blindness of so many of his cult followers is truly beyond comprehension…🤷. People who close their eyes, turn away, and refuse to acknowledge what is happening to them do so at their peril. Sadly too many others, good honest people, will be taken down with them.
"The Ugly American" of the 21st century.
Other world leaders can try to negotiate with the new extortionist US president. But he will only humiliate them for the attempt and extort more.
It is a no win scenario for any world leader to approach Trump.
Trump has no cards to play now because the world knows of his fragile ever consuming ego.
He’s definitely outplayed himself and, unfortunately, the country.
Brilliantly laid out—and painfully true.
It’s both sobering and surreal that it takes a Japanese lawmaker to articulate, with moral clarity and strategic precision, what so many in our own government and media still tiptoe around. Aguma didn’t mince words because survival doesn’t allow for politeness.
Meanwhile, too many Americans are still clapping for the performance, not reckoning with the cost.
This isn’t politics-as-spectacle anymore—it’s politics-as-sabotage. And you’re right: the myth only lives because the media keeps feeding it.
Thank you for this piece. It reads like the kind of reckoning we’ve been too slow to have.
Thank you so much for this piece! Rupert Murdoch and the mush brain garbage that is televised, nonstop, has turned our country into a pathetic parody of the crap they are watching.
Beautifully articulated. I always objected to “he’s the symptom, not the problem”. No, he’s the disease. He can’t be contained; he must be stopped. Anyone who is exposed to his dark magic and has ANY vulnerability seems to be affected.
I say that without judgement given how many people have caught it while never personally meeting him.
Two people come to mind who presented an impressive immunity: Volodomyr Zelenskyy and Mike Pence. Zelenskyy refused to capitulate (under extreme pressure) and end the war in Ukraine by ceding territory to Russia. None of the demands imposed on him would ensure lasting peace and self determination for his people.
Mike Pence demonstrated extraordinary immunity after his 4-year subjugation in the administration by refusing to abet the coup of 2020. I grudgingly gave him credit until snarky and experienced shock jock Bill Maher caught the contagion (after a dinner encounter). I think the ability to make choices and take stands that are clearly honest and/or for the betterment of others and to withstand the risks to ego, power or expediency is a gift.
I really don’t understand why there is very little coverage from other countries about this horror. All the noise and protests con seem like reality tv at times. Nothing seems real and the atrocities in American government continues. This all gives me a cold feeling in my stomach. I’m sure it will take some time for organized opposition to be able to effect any kind of change. And I’m not at all educated about the political system to have any perspective, but it’s like living on a nightmare. And I’m not living in America - but Canada doesn’t seem far enough away. Is any place far enough away? I fully support all the American people who are doing whatever they can to oppose this illegal and immoral regime.
There’s lots of coverage from other countries. Maybe you’re not looking in the right place.
I do see some coverage. Just not as much as I would expect. But something is better than. O thing.
Not lost on Canadians. We know what Trump is.
Sadly we have our own maple MAGAs.
I for one see him very clearly for the monster he is