Savage Worlds and Super People

Original art pieces by Spooky777

IS Standard Battle Armor

This is relevant because Japan is currently knee-deep in a years-long effort to amend Article 9, the "pacifism" clause in the constitution which prevents Japan from engaging in anything except direct self defense militarily. The LDP has long considered this to be a priority - new PM Takaichi has been calling for reforms for most of her career. The vast majority of LDP lawmakers support such a change, and have for a while - but the population was much more lukewarm on it. It isn't unpopular anymore? But polls fluctuate around 50% support for revisions. And all of this is of course focused around China, Taiwan, some bonus North Korea concerns, and allowing Japan to be a "full partner" in the East Asian security umbrella. Now under Takaichi the LDP just won its greatest electoral victory in generations; they have been discussing using that mandate to finally go forward with the changes.

But the Iran War has, shall we say, "negatively polarized" the population of Japan on this topic all of sudden. Everyone gets that the "security umbrella" that Japan is trying to participate in is the American security umbrella, and that has become deeply unpopular. Many people view the reforms as a trick to get Japan involved in overseas quagmires, and Article 9 as a shield against American pressure.

Except that isn't how the "national security establishment" sees it! They view Article 9 as a guarantee of dependence on the United States, as it renders Japan unable to intervene against a China that moved to threaten Japan's security position indirectly via things like annexing Taiwan & sea zone threats. They need America do the work of keeping Japan safe, and now America is a deeply unreliable ally in that regard, and preoccupied to boot. For them, the Iran War is a capstone on the past two years of degradation of the credibility of US security commitments, and as such Japan needs to reform Article 9 now to give itself the strategic flexibility it needs.

(And of course through all this is the traditional "middle" hoping to power through the Trump years and come out the other end with their military alliance holding strong & dependable)

The newest Tex Talks episode has come and gone. There's still new art to post.

Here is the art of the Spirit Walker I produced. It's largely based on a model created by Locust Labs.

BK vid here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38cHV-lZCXI&t=4476s

Arcueid Brunestud

What year is it?