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This interview is exceptionally published in my own newspaper as Fae is not currenly online and I've had a day full of work so I couldn't write the answers sooner. All credits of this interview still belong to Fae. -Mursu

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Hello and welcome to the interview, my name is Fae. Before we begin with the questions could you please introduce yourself to the readers.

My name is Lauri Mursu. I’m currently serving as both the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Economic Board Chairman (Minister of Finance). I’m an ex-congressman and I’ve hold multiple offices in the previous governments.

Thank you for that introduction. I will now begin to ask you a series of general questions. As to not favor one candidate over the other in responses I will not be asking any follow up questions to your reposes. Furthermore, I will simply ask the questions already prepared, all you have to do is reply. Since this is the case, I ask that you try to be as clear as possible when answering the questions I have for you today. Thank you.

The first series of questions have to do with you as a player. Let’s begin with our first question:

Why did you decide to run for president?

I’ve been thinking this for a long time and now the time was right. This next month I have a lot of time for eRepublik and that is basically, as I see it, the most important thing for the President. I have also been involved with the Japanese government for a long time, so now I wanted to try running for Presidency.

What experience do you have in eRepublik and how does this affect your candidacy?

6 x congressman, ex- Vice President, 3 x Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1 x Minister of Finance, ex- Party President, ex- secDEF… I’ve been serving as a Japanese advisory representative in both Sol and PEACE. JIA soldier and PEACEkeeper, ranked General.
Everything affects everything, and I honestly think that my vast experience from governmental positions would only benefit as President. But I’m not perfect, so I’ve gathered an experienced cabinet to help me run the country.

What quality make you more qualified than the other candidate?

Activity, definitely. I’m almost always around, unless I’m sleeping. 😉

What do you plan to do should you not win?

I haven’t decided yet. I have been asked to serve in Dokomo’s cabinet, but another tempting alternative is to get involved with PEACE more, and help them reorganizing the alliance while touring fields of war with PEACEkeepers.

What was your first political party in the game (if it's out of this nation, which nation was it in), and why did you choose it?

My first political party was in actually in Norway, where I was eBorn. The party was called Sovereign Finland, and it was organized to oppose the Norwegian invasion of Finland. Back then I wasn’t very active, and when I came back to the game, Finland was already freed, so my first real party is Liberaali Edistyspuolue from Finland. First I joined just because it was the biggest party, but when I got to know the players there, I knew I had found my first political home.

If HIZUMI, Hitoshi, no1kevin, and Hashimoto were running for president, who would you vote and why?

no1kevlin, the guy has so much energy and ideas, that he might bring a fresh tone to eJapan.

Sumo or Karate?

Karate. What’s cooler than chop logs with bare hands?

Who do you love more: Daddy or Chips?

Chips. Sour cream and Onion please 😉

The question everyone's been meaning to ask... Pie or cake?

Cake is a lie, so I choose Pie.

Sushi or Sashimi?

Sushi or Sashimi, raw fish suits a walrus!!

Ghost in the Shell TV series or Movie, which is better?

TV-series, haven’t seen the movie. 😛

If you could compare your presidential campaign/yourself to an anime character, who would you be.

Great Teacher Onizuka.. Always the underdog but finally comes out as the champion.

Which are more frightening, clowns or spiders?

Clowns, spiders are kinda cute.

What country do you live in in real life?

Finland.

Victory Party at Peter McGoon's or Kita Ikki's new house?

KITA Ikki’s house, I still haven’t visited there. Also KITA will offer a free round for everyone when I win.

With that, let’s begin our series of domestic questions

So your first domestic question is: What are your goals if you are elected as president, and how are you planning to achieve them?

My biggest goal is to be visible. Previous governments have in fact done a lot, but most of the work has been done in the secret cabinets and thus only minority of citizens has been able to see it. I also plan to take more active role in PEACE, as Japan needs to be driving the Righteous Nation to our allies as well. Third key aspect would be foreign relations to countries outside PEACE, such as the members of Sol and even EDEN/Brolliance.

There are currently many checks on the executive branch, but minute ones on the legislative, how do you see a more balanced government emerging?

The government is probably already as balance as it can be, game mechanically speaking. Executive branch after all is the one doing most of the tactical work, handling money and goods, and running companies, so they ought to have more checks.

Do you support a judiciary branch of the eJapanese government, more specifically a "Constitutional Court"?

I think public attention and forum admins together with the Speaker of Congress can quite well resolve all juridical problems. If needed, congress can discuss and vote for example about removing a specific congressman’s right for forum usage if he has misused his powers. Just an example.

Do you think the Constitution is currently being applied by citizens in an apt quantity?

The citizens who use forums probably know about it and have seen discussions concerning it, but it will be really hard to enforce Constitution ingame. Publicity via articles is the way to go here.

If not, how will you improve education of the Government mandates? If so, is the current quality of the document needing any changes or amendments?

The document is fine, and easily amended if needed.

Do you agree that the president and the ministries should provide citizens with the short reports on what they are doing? (like the ones that Ministry of Internal Affairs, JIS and MoD do)?

Of course. This will only help our nation as the citizens will get more information about what the government is actually doing.

Kokawa: Great Emperor, Greatest Emperor, Greaterestist Emperor, Only Emperor, or just plain divine?

Emperor. 😉

Are there any plans to improve nationalism on your agenda?

I think Japan already has a great amount of nationalism, but there’s always room for improvement.

What is your stance on Reiji Mitsurugi Philosophy?

Grumpy old troll Philosophy? Of course.

The last few Presidents have all campaigned on being present and visible but as soon as the votes were counted they have vanished. If you are elected how will you improve the President-Citizen relationship?

By being really present. I’m always around in irc and forums if I’m not sleeping, so citizens should not have a problem reaching me. I also think writing articles at regular intervals is a Presidential duty.

Being here for only a few days, I can see that some of the debates in Japan get really heated. As a president, how will you promote moderation and work towards finding compromises and solutions to problems?

I’ve always tried to understand views of both parties if a debate has emerged. President should always be open to new ideas and support open discussion, but still have the guts to call off a really heated or off-topic discussion.

Do you intend to continue the path of political neutrality eJapans has been undergoing in recent history? If so, how? If not, then what?

I do not see any real reason to change this policy. Japan is not a mighty military power, so we would face really hard times as an offensive member of PEACE. I believe that Japan should maintain good relations to our allies, but also to neutrals and our “enemies”.

What would your options be to improve nations utilized entirely for "wargames" and player XP gain? This includes the Baltic states and other nations who are only kept alive because of misuse.

To be honest XP is probably the most overrated thing in eRepbulik. The reason we attend wargames is that it provides wellness support and gives training to our military. Basically to maximize the gain, all active players should move to regions with q5 hospital, but then the congress elections democracy would be risked even more than currently. We still have actually 2 wargames ongoing, so citizens, take full profit of them!

What should the government do with the houses produced be JIS?

Use in the lottery, sell overseas, give to active new players.. Don’t really have a solid solution, but anything is better than building q1 hospitals. 😛

Should the JIA throw out people who make article's like Ryuunen's?

These things should be investigated thoroughly and if it appears that a citizen is really working against our nations best interest, a dismissal from government funded organizations can be considered.

What is your position on JIA soldiers' activity in PEACEKeepers? Should they be forced to work at PEACEKeeper companies? Should they be required to get approval for participation in battles from the MoD/President before deployment with PEACEKeeper operations?

I believe Japan should definitely take part in PEACEkeepers. This will show to our allies that we wish to help PEACE, but still our PEACEkeepers should remember the Righteous Nation –philosophy. If a soldier is a PEACEkeeper, he should work in a PEACEkeeper company. MoD/President should be consulted with offensive PEACEkeeper operations, but PEACEkeepers are in the command of PEACE.

Balancing the budget is going to be extremely difficult once the price of MPP's goes up to 100 gold. Specifically, what is your fiscal plan? Please include details like: Who are your economic advisors? How many MPPs do we need? Who would you like to see us sign an MPP with? Which programs will you try to cut funding from to afford your plan?

In my cabinet the place for MoF is still open (been having discussions thou), but as financial advisors I will be having Origineel.NL (VP), Vorph, Kenji Fujimoto and several other members of the Economic board. Our financial status probably gives room for 2-4 MPPs a month, and those should be proposed with our strongest allies (Hungary/Indonesia/Russia/Brazil/France/ Serbia).

What's your stance on the wargames issue? What would you like to see us participating in?

Japan is currently participating in the Sol wargames and I see currently no reason to change this. Of course we have the option to join PEACE games if current situation somehow changes.

Can you highlight 3 of the biggest problems Japanese businesses are facing and how are you going to address them?

As I see it: Lack of domestic resources (mainly iron), overheated competition, value of JPY. This would be a matter for the Congress, Economic Board and MoF to ponder.

What can be done about the iron deficiency during your presidency? Can anything be done to help the grain industry, which is suffering from lack of demand?

Domestic iron is not currently possible as I see it, so we should work on supporting Japanese owned Iron companies abroad. High grain and huge amount of companies making food for less than 500 active citizens, hard situation.

What will be your tax policy? Are you going to tax more, and if so, where will you spend the money? or if you are going to make cuts, what programs will you cut?

Taxing seems rather well balance currently after the latest reform.

Now that we have examined your position looking inwards, let’s turn our gaze outwards and discuss international matters:

What are your general goals, and opinions concerning eJapan’s Foreign Policy?

Better participation in PEACE, maintaining all diplomatic relations that we currently have, working on relations with EDEN/Brolliance countries. Otherwise I see no reason to change something that is working.

Who would you vote for in the eUSA election?

Josh Frost

What are your foreign policies going to be with the U.S and Indonesia?

We are pretty well pinched between these 2 superpowers, so my goal would be to maintain good relations to both. Swapping Kyushu to either is no longer an option.

What do you wish Japan's stance to be during the upcoming/ongoing World War?

Japan should maintain the current situation where we will help on defending our allies if their original regions are under attack, but take no further part in the World War.

Will you be leaving PEACE? Why or why not?

No. PEACE is very important for Japan, we are a founding member and just recently regained even some respect in the alliance.

What is your DETAILED plan on dealing with diplomacy within PEACE and what do you hope and plan to accomplish from it?

Talk, talk and talk. Having an active role in the alliance depends on talking with other countries and keeping Japan updated on the ongoing events and upcoming plans.

What are your specific plans to improve transparency of relations with PEACE?

I can bring the worries of Japan to the Security Council, and most importantly talk to the Secretary Generals that they should start once again writing articles about the alliance via PEACE newspaper.

What is your DETAILED plan on dealing with EDEN forces?

Hopefully we won’t have to deal with any EDEN military forces. Relations to EDEN should on the other hand be established, and talk with them about out concerns about the current world situation.

What are your stance to the theocrats?

I still do not approve the actions on gaining or using power in South Korea, but as long as they are not hostile towards Japan we should establish diplomatic relations towards them.

Lastly, the most obvious question that should conclude this interview: Why do you think you are the best candidate for this job, and why should eJapan's citizens trust you with the position?

I think Japan deserves an active President that is not afraid to talk his mouth clean. Japan has still huge potential, and I’d hate to see it go wasted.

Thank you very much for your time. Your answers will be openly published for all Japanese Citizens to read in hopes of helping them decide their future president. I wish you good luck with your campaign and the upcoming election.