Tobias Harris

@tobiasharris.bsky.social

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Japanese politics analyst; author of The Iconoclast: Shinzō Abe and the New Japan; Chicago-born Cubs fan now living in DC; marathoner.

Substack: Observingjapan.substack.com.

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Some notes on Tokyo's gubernatorial election, which both didn't surprise -- Koike won a third term comfortably -- and did -- a little-known mayor from Hiroshima rode a social-media-fueled campaign to a second place finish. open.substack.com/pub/observin...

Koike wins but voters may be hungry for changeopen.substack.com Notes from Election Sunday in Tokyo

Koike Yuriko has won a third term as Tokyo's governor, according to just about every media outlet. Seems pretty definitive given that the calls were made the moment the polls closed. www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20...

都知事選小池氏が当選確実石丸氏蓮舫氏ら引き離す出口調査 | NHKwww3.nhk.or.jp 【NHK】過去最多の56人が立候補した東京都知事選挙は、現職の小池百合子氏（71）の3回目の当選が確実になりました。

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I wrote about the election and the American project. www.ositanwanevu.com/will-america...

If birds are living dinosaurs, humans have gone to war using dinosaurs.

There’s a whole lot of people on here whose understanding of politics seems to come only from a childhood set of Tsar Wars action figures

Seems like "what parts of Project 2025 do you disagree with?" or "what parts of it are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal?" would be good questions for a reporter to ask the other elderly presidential candidate, but what do I know. on.ft.com/4ePQH0e

I watched "Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack" (2001) with my boys yesterday. That is DARK for a Godzilla movie. Godzilla as avenging spirit of Japan's war dead versus guardian spirits explicitly defending the land (and punishing wayward young people).

Holding pattern | This week in Japanese politics LDP contenders continue to mobilize, tax revenues continue to rise, and a scandal is uncovered at a defense contractor observingjapan.substack.com/p/holding-pa...

Holding pattern | This week in Japanese politicsobservingjapan.substack.com LDP contenders continue to mobilize, tax revenues continue to rise, and a scandal is uncovered at a defense contractor

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Tfw two of the candidates get the Earlybird special and the third one got the worm.

Even more broadly, I think there needs to be a revival of liberalism as a fighting creed.

This 4th of July, take a little time to think about how the Left can try to reclaim patriotism from conservatives. Seems like the story of a country that cast off a king and fought a civil war to free the slaves is fertile ground given our present moment.

Hahahahaha

This is a good argument for @leedrutman.bsky.social's "more parties, more democracy" program. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

If you can make the other side start eating themselves, all kinds of incredible things are possible. That’s a solid lesson.

Opinion | Our two-party political system isn’t working. The fix? More parties.www.washingtonpost.com More and better parties will make our democracy healthier.

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I wrote patriotically today. danieldrezner.substack.com/p/a-republic...

"A Republic If You Can Keep It"danieldrezner.substack.com Some Independence Day thoughts about some very un-American ideas.

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Years ago, someone on Twitter wrote that ‘your democracy is over already; you just don’t know it yet.’ Liberal democracy cannot survive in a two-party system where only one side is committed to it.

Reminder that even if Democrats drag Biden or someone else over the finish line, the threats to democracy will still remain. One party winning every time is not a plan (nor a democracy). And the president will still have the power to commit crimes with impunity even if the next one doesn't use it.

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At the risk of being tiresome in reposting my own writings on the separation of powers and executive accountability, since prominent scholars are now in the news saying "habeas corpus will still be OK"— Montesquieu's insight was precisely that it won't be. dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG....

Time to bring these shirts back: www.customink.com/fundraising/...

As always with stuff like this I think of Juan Linz and his basically correct conviction that the United States is a country determined to shed any accidentally remaining vestiges of parliamentary tradition and fully join its wider continent’s proud tradition of Authoritarian Presidentialism.

Juan Linz was right, Supporting American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Inc.www.customink.com Political scientist Juan Linz warned (1990) about the "perils of presidentialism." While the US long seemed like the great exception, that may no longer be the case. Support the defense of constitutio...

It* finally happened. * The cover of my copy of MITI and the Japanese Miracle fell off and I had to do some emergency surgery.

Just hook up a generator to John Adams's grave and we'll solve the climate crisis.

Current mood

Honestly, one thing that the elite-focused accounts of the American Revolution and its aftermath obscure is the extent to which ordinary people were *pissed off* and took matters into their own hands.

there's nothing wrong with having feelings of despair and futility, but i think it's most responsible to avoid airing all that out in public to the greatest extent possible right now. we need to cultivate a vengeance-driven, enraged espirit de corps right now, because we need people to fight

I don't know, might be relevant wapo.st/3xvYBez

Never a better time to read @christopherbrown.bsky.social, who imagined how authoritarianism can arrive cloaked in a judge's robes.

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RICHARD NIXON: Listen, you all laughed when I said that if the president does it, that means that it is not illegal, BUT WHO’S LAUGHING NOW

I'm really late to this but Godzilla Minus One is so damn good.

The world if Hamilton had been able to dissolve the states

The founders, in their great wisdom, have already outfitted us with an electoral college for just this outcome.

It's over Anakin, I have the high ground

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A new This Week in Japanese Politics: Kishida feels the heat | This week in Japanese politics The LDP field takes shape, chaos in the Tokyo gubernatorial race, and it's promotion season in Kasumigaseki observingjapan.substack.com/p/kishida-fe...

Kishida feels the heat | This week in Japanese politicsobservingjapan.substack.com The LDP field takes shape, chaos in the Tokyo gubernatorial race, and its promotion season in Kasumigaseki

I do love a summer カレライス

Guys, it's fine. Trump only wins in years when the Cubs win the World Series*, and lol, I don't think we need to worry about that. * N=2