ラベル Politics の投稿を表示しています。 すべての投稿を表示
ラベル Politics の投稿を表示しています。 すべての投稿を表示

Kan Defeats Ozawa In Leadership Election

小沢一郎

Naoto Kan easily defeated Ichiro Ozawa by 721 to 491 points in the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) leadership election today.


Ozawa                                             Kan

Prime Minister Kan won a small majority among DPJ party lawmakers and was a convincing winner among local DPJ politicians and party members.

Ozawa's alleged involvement in a political funding scandal was likely to have told with disgruntled party members.

Japan's economy is still stalled as the yen hit a new 15-year high against the dollar today. Kan favors a rise in Japan's consumption tax, presently set at 5%, to help curb a Greek-style debt crisis.

© JapanVisitor.com

Yahoo Japan Auction Service
Japanese Friends
Tokyo Apartments Search
Japan Job Search
Rough Guide To Japan

Tags




Ozawa To Run In DPJ Race

小沢一郎

The decision of Ichiro Ozawa to run in the upcoming DPJ leadership contest against Naoto Kan may split the ruling party, many political observers believe.


After receiving the backing of former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Ozawa decided to enter the race against the incumbent Prime Minister, no doubt spurred by Kan's refusal to offer him a place in government.

A lingering money scandal seems likely to damage the 68-year-old's changes of taking the top job and an Ozawa win may not be popular with the majority of the Japanese electorate, though Ozawa's strong hand on the tiller could be welcomed by the business community, struggling with falling stock prices and the surge in the value of the yen.

Ozawa was in the news earlier this week for labeling Americans as "simple-minded" and "monocellular" in a speech to fellow lawmakers.

© JapanVisitor.com

Yahoo Japan Auction Service
Japanese Friends
Tokyo Apartments Search
Japan Job Search
Rough Guide To Japan

Tags




Giichi Tanaka

田中 義一

Giichi Tanaka (1864-1929) was the 26th Prime Minister of Japan and an important officer in the Japanese army during the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), and the later Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).


Tanaka was a native of Hagi in south western Japan and his statue stands outside the gate to Hagi Castle.

A vehement anti-communist hawk, Tanaka's policies while Prime Minister dragged Japan deeper into a growing conflict in China, though he withstood the machinations of the Japanese ultra-nationalists in China, which eventually lead to the resignation of himself and his entire cabinet in 1929.

Tanaka died a few months later.

© JapanVisitor.com

Yahoo Japan Auction Service
Japanese Friends
Tokyo Apartments Search
Japan Job Search
Rough Guide To Japan
Tags




Happiness Realization Party

幸福実現党



The Happiness Realization Party, founded in May 2009, is the political organ of the Happy Science religious movement. Happy Science is a sci-fi religion founded by Ryuho Okawa, a former high-flying trader turned charismatic religious leader who claims to be a reincarnation of the Buddha.

The Happy Science movement has been extremely successful. With a law degree from Tokyo University and a finance degree from the City University of New York,“Master Okawa” is obviously brainy; having set himself up as a literal demi-god, he is obviously ambitious; and, having attracted enough followers to have well over 200 centers in Japan and over 30 overseas, he is obviously charismatic and convincing.

The beliefs of Happy Science as outlined on its website are an untidy package of banal New Age platitudes: basically watered down Buddhism with plenty of sci-fi seasoning: “The ‘Real World’ is multi-dimensional. Human spirits exist from the 4th dimension to the 9th, with each having different qualities.” etc etc. (Incredibly, by the way, Tokyo’s free what’s-on magazine, Metropolis, published an article on July 9 about Happy Science that lauds the organization for its “heroic attempt to inject religious values back into modern society.” What other oddball cults has Metropolis magazine raved about in the past, we wonder?)


Little can then be expected then, of the Realization of Happiness Party, and little, indeed, does it deliver. I came across the Party campaigning in Ginza and, the next week, in Akihabara. “Doctor Nakamatsu” was the candidate for the proportional representational seats for which the elections were held last week. He paraded in absurd fairytale finery while a recording of him singing his election song in a quavery voice to the tune of “Doe, A Deer” played from his election van.

His young minions paraded behind him holding to their faces the paper masks of Doctor Nakamatsu that were the feature accoutrements of his campaign: a major platform of which is to ... lower taxes! The Party also milks the Japanese public's fear of China and North Korea for all it's worth by predicting a nuclear attack on, and the colonization of, Japan by either or both of these powers.

The dignity of Japanese politics got some respite in the first half of this decade with Junichiro Koizumi, but the lid is clearly back off. The encouraging thing is that “Doctor Nakamatsu” got only 30,000 votes. Er, did we just say “encouraging”?

© JapanVisitor.com

Yahoo Japan Auction Service
Japanese Friends
Tokyo Apartments Search
Japan Job Search
Rough Guide To Japan
Tags



Naoto Kan

菅直人

Japan's new Prime minister, Naoto Kan, came to office after the resignation of his predecessor Yukio Hatoyama early last month, becoming Japan's fifth premier in only four years.

A native of Ube in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Kan studied physics at Tokyo Institute of Technology and has a background in patent law and as a grass-roots activist.


Kan served as Health Minister in a coalition government headed by the LDP in 1996 and is popular for his role in admitting the Japanese government's responsibility for the spread of imported HIV-tainted blood among hemophiliacs in the 1980s.

Kan has led the DPJ before when he stood unsuccessfully against the LDP's Junichiro Koizumi in the 2003 general election, but stepped down in the wake of the unpaid pension contributions scandal sweeping through Japan's lawmakers at the time. Kan is seen as an opponent of Ichiro Ozawa's influence within the DPJ.


© JapanVisitor.com

Yahoo Japan Auction Service
Japanese Friends
Tokyo Apartments Search
Japan Job Search
Rough Guide To Japan
Tags




Japan PM Hatoyama Resigns

鳩山由紀夫

He came, he dithered, he went. Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has resigned after less than eight months in office to take responsibility for breaking an election promise to remove a US military base from Okinawa.

Since the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) swept to power in the general election last September, Hatoyama's ratings have begun to plummet and he has resigned along with kingpin Ichiro Ozawa to give the DPJ a chance in next month's Upper House elections.

Yukio Hatoyama

Besides his policy flip-flops over the marine base in Okinawa, Hatoyama has been involved in a financial scandal over donations made to him by his wealthy mother and has even been criticised for his choice of shirts.

Possible successors to Hatoyama include veteran Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Naoto Kan, lantern-jawed Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and the smooth apparatchik Seiji Maehara, who is the present Transport Minister.

Born in 1947, Hatoyama replaced Ichiro Ozawa as leader of the DPJ earlier last year, after the latter became embroiled in an on-going financing scandal involving political donations from a construction company.

Hatoyama is a rich, blue-blooded, hereditary politician and a grandson of a former conservative party prime minister, Ichiro Hatoyama (1883-1959) - one of the founders of the LDP.
Hatoyama's father Iichiro Hatoyama was Japan's foreign minister for a period in the 1970s. His brother Kunio Hatoyama is now a maverick politician and green-advocate.

Yukio Hatoyama is a graduate of Tokyo University with a PhD from Stanford University in the US.

© JapanVisitor.com


Yahoo Japan Auction Service

Book a hotel in Japan with Bookings

Tokyo Serviced Apartments

Japan Friends

Happi Coats

Japanese For Busy People

Tags

Takayoshi Kido Residence Hagi

木戸孝允

Takayoshi Kido aka Kido Koin (1833-1877) is my favorite protagonist from the Bakamatsu Period of Japanese history when the Tokugawa regime came crashing down after over 250 years in power, to be replaced by the modernizing and westernizing though extremely conservative Meiji government of 1868.


Takayoshi Kido Residence

I got to know Kido through his excellent diaries, which recall a by-gone life of late Edo Period Japan. Kido relates a typical day leisurely sailing down the river from Kyoto to Osaka, enjoying sake all the way, spending the evening flirting with geisha in Sakai, before taking a Western ship to Edo - all in the midst of a violent revolution! What calmness under pressure! What elan!

Takayoshi Kido

Kido was the son of a Choshu clan doctor but was adopted by the Katsura family when he was seven years old and was called Katsura Kogoro at this time. As a youth, Kido was a student of Yoshida Shoin in Hagi.

Kido's early life in both Edo and Kyoto was eventful and full of political intrigue and danger as he conspired with Choshu activists in the struggle against the Tokugawa. While in hiding from the feared Shinsengumi swordsmen in Kyoto, Kido sought refuge in a geisha house and was later to marry one of the geisha working there.

Kido also supervised the construction of Choshu's first Western-style ship in Hagi in his role of advisor to the Choshu daimyo.

After the Restoration in 1868, Kido was instrumental in drafting the Five Charter Oath and the legislation that would lead to the abolition of the han (domain) system and the subsequent beginnings of a centralized government. Kido was also part of the Iwakura Mission that toured the USA and Europe in 1871 to study the political and economic institutions of the west.

Kido's residence is preserved in Hagi's Horiuchi quarter and is a simple Japanese-style house with tatami floors in lots of small rooms. There are two entrances: one for family members and the other for guests.

Kido died early after a long illness, possibly TB and beri-beri, exacerbated by the prodigious amounts of sake he seems to have drunk throughout his life.

"I drank more than I should have tonight, and I dreamed endlessly. At times the moon shone brightly, then again it was hidden behind a cloud. My two acquaintances have died, so I do not record their names; but I grieve for them."

Excerpt from Kido's diary August 6, 1868


© JapanVisitor.com

Yahoo Japan Auction Service

Tags

Japanese Political Language

政治

As Yukio Hatoyama and his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) swept to a landslide victory in Sundays's general election, we look at some election- (選挙, senkyo) related Japanese.

The Japanese word for politics is (seiji, 政治), a political party is (seito, 政党) and a politician is (seijika, 政治家). The new DPJ government (seifu, 政府) will wield political power (seiken, 政権) through the cabinet (naikaku, 内閣). Domestic politics is (naisei, 内政) and foreign policy is (gaisei, 外政).

The present administration (gyosei-fu, 行政府) is obviously a civilian government (minsei, 民政) as opposed to the military government (gunsei, 軍政) of the war years.

Japanese Political Language

Japan is a democracy (minshu-shugi, 民政主義) with a parliamentary system of government (gikai-seido, 議会制度) centered on the Diet (kokkai, 国会). The word for ministry is (sho, 省) - thus Ministry of Justice (homu-sho, 法務省) and (gaimu-sho, 外務省) - Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The DPJ is the party in power (yoto, 与党) with the LDP (jiyuminshu-to, 自由民主党) now the opposition (yato, 野党). As in America, the Democratic Party (minshu-to, 民主党) is in power with the Republican Party (kyowa-to, 共和党) in opposition.


© JapanVisitor.com


Yahoo Japan Auction Service

Book a hotel in Japan with Bookings

Tokyo Serviced Apartments

Japan Friends

Happi Coats

Japanese For Busy People

Tags

DPJ Win Election Landslide

選挙

Yukio Hatoyama, and the left-of-center Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) swept to a landslide victory in yesterday's general election, ending virtually 50 years of unbroken LDP power and reducing Taro Aso and his party to just over 100 seats in the Japanese Diet.

Yukio Hatoyama

On a turnout of just under 50%, the DPJ is projected to win over 300 seats in the 480-seat Diet. Prime Minister Taro Aso is reportedly set to resign as head of the LDP to take responsibility for the disastrous result.

62-year-old Hatoyama replaced Ichiro Ozawa as leader of the DPJ earlier this year, after the latter became embroiled in a financing scandal involving political donations from a medium-sized construction company.

Yukio Hatoyama is a graduate of Tokyo University with a PhD from Stanford University in the US.

The Rising Sun and sex crimes - the LDP gets desperate

日の丸 性犯罪 自民党

LDP election pamphlet about Rising Sun Hi no Maru flag.

It’s official: two days before they receive their worst drubbing in over 50 years, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is utterly desperate.

I came home last evening to find the glossiest and most copiously-sized election-related pamphlet I have received so far in my mailbox. It was from the LDP. It may as well have been from local right-wing nutcases.

It has two photos on the front: one, at the top, of a not-one-hair-out-of-place, rigorously Soviet-style, LDP meeting at which an LDP dignitary, perhaps the madly unpopular Aso Taro, is at the podium under two flags: the Rising Sun (AKA Hi-no-Maru) and the LDP party flag. The caption: “A general meeting of the LDP with the Rising Sun flag.”

Then it shows another photo at bottom: an (unruly?) line of Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) characters waving to an audience – minus any flags on stage! The caption: “A general meeting of the DPJ without the Rising Sun flag.”

Between the photos reads as follows:

“Is this really a bona fide Japanese political party?
The DPJ rips the Rising Sun flag to shreds and creates a party flag of its own.
[Editor’s note: This is in spite of the only “created party flag” appearing on the cover being that of the LDP!]
DPJ = Japan Teachers’ Union
Don’t leave Japan to them.

(Note: The Japan Teachers’ Union is the arch enemy of the LDP and has been at loggerheads with it for decades over, among other things, the singing of the national anthem and the raising of the Rising Sun flag – which it considers relics of a war of aggression – in schools.)

From thereon in, the tirade is all about the Japan Teachers’ Union, and the DPJ doesn’t get a lot of mention. But that’s because we now know, thanks to the cover, that “DPJ = JTU.” Got it?

Inside, the pamphlet carries on the shrill panicky tone of the cover, saying how the JTU supports education that paints the Japanese as cruel tyrants in China in the years before and during WW2, and tries to stop Japanese children loving their own country.

LDP election pamphlet about liberal sex education.

And then it really scrapes the bottom of the barrel: sexual deviancy - involving kids! From page 5, the sanctimonious tone adopted throughout gives way to a gasp and shudder of scandalized Fox News-style horror.

According to the Liberal Democratic Party, the JTU occupies the extremest of positions regarding sex education, including support for the right to choose one’s own gender.

This is “backed up” by a picture of two dolls with their clothes half pulled off, which it states were used to teach about sex and childbirth to children. And, as a result of this heinous education, a mother in Fukuoka had to pull her first year elementary school son – who had been subjected to such outrageous tuition – off his little sister, onto whose netherparts he was pressing his penis! And, worse still, a mother from Miyazaki was subject to the indignity of witnessing her third year elementary school son having gay sex with a classmate in his room (so it says). And all because of the JTU, and sex education, and the DPJ, and, and … and … the fact that Japanese voters are thoroughly fed up with shameless LDP bullshit.

© JapanVisitor.com

Yahoo Japan Auction Service

Book a Japanese Hotel with Bookings

Japanese Friends

Rough Guide To Japan

Tags

Akihiro Ota New Komeito

太田昭宏

Akihiro Ota is the leader of the New Komeito Party, the junior coalition partner of Prime Minister Taro Aso and the LDP in the Lower House of the Japanese Diet.

Akihiro Ota New Komeito

Born in 1945 in Aichi Prefecture near Toyohashi, Hatoyama is a graduate of Kyoto University and was elected to the House of Representatives in 1993 after an unsuccessful attempt in 1990. On his personal website Ota lists Mahatma Gandhi and Katsu Kaishu (1823-1899) as his political heroes and reading, sports and ceramic art as his hobbies.

The New Komeito Party ("New Clean Government Party" or NKP) is backed by the rather murky Soka Gakkai Buddhist organization and can count on the huge voter base of Soka Gakkai members, somewhere in the region of 10 million followers in Japan.

Soka Gakkai, a lay Buddhist movement, is based on earlier Nichiren Buddhism and came into being in the 1930s. The movement's leader is Daisuke Ikeda and attracts adherents overseas.

Komeito's policies in its manifesto include support for the elimination of nuclear weapons, trimming the bloated Japanese bureaucracy and devolving more powers to the regions. However, Komeito's main political aim is self-preservation and to remain in power itself and the party may well jump ship and seek to form a coalition with the DPJ if Yukio Hatoyama and his party wins the upcoming general election.


© JapanVisitor.com


Yahoo Japan Auction Service

Book a hotel in Japan with Bookings

Tokyo Serviced Apartments

Japan Friends

Happi Coats

Japanese For Busy People

Tags

The Language of Politics

政治用語

The big news in Tokyo this week, indeed, across the whole of Japan, was the sound defeat of the Liberal Democratic Party in the local Tokyo assembly elections. The LDP was reduced to 38 seats out of 127, compared to the Democratic Party of Japan’s increase to 54 seats.

This has had an impact on the central government, in that the very unpopular Prime Minister, Taro Aso, has finally decided to quit trying to hold on to power, and will comply with the growing calls for a new election.

LDP poster, close up.

At base is the issue of authority, 権力. A Japanese person once said to me, 日本人はなんでも権力 (Nihonjin wa nandemo kenryoku), or “For the Japanese, authority is everything.”

Vying for authority, i.e., politics, is known as 政治 (seiji), the first character meaning “govern” and the second “rule” or, interestingly, “heal." A person who practices politics, or politician, is known as a 政治家 (seijika), the “ka” (pronounced “ie” when it appears alone) literally meaning “house.” (However, this use of “house” for “person” is well-established and seen in other terms such as 音楽家 (ongakka, musician).

Being a country based on 民主主義 (minshushugi, or democracy), authority is determined by 選挙 (senkyo, election). The first character means “to choose” and the second “to take action.” A vote is a 投票 (toh-hyo), the first character meaning “throw” and the second meaning “slip of paper.”

House of representatives, or parliament, is 国会 (kokkai) literally meaning “national meeting,” and the actual building the 国会議事堂 (kokkai giji doh) or literally “national meeting proceedings house.” A seat in parliament is known as a 議席 (giseki).

Political campaigning is huge, and very in your face, in Japan, taking place at the very visible AND AUDIBLE local level. 選挙運動はめちゃくちゃうるさい (Senkyo undo wa mecha kucha urusai), or “Political campaigning is off-the-wall noisy.”

But it’s all worth it in the end if you need something done. Behind the scenes, Japanese politics is all about 口利き (kuchi-kiki), literally “a mouth that really works.” 口利き政治 (kuchikiki seiji) means “the politics of influence peddling,” "of interceding on behalf of a bidder,” “of acting as an intermediary,” or “of providing one’s good offices.” 利くよ! (kiku yo!) “It really works!”

Yukio Hatoyama DPJ

鳩山由紀夫

Is this man the next Prime Minister of Japan? Will Yukio Hatoyama, the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), defeat the hapless and gaff-prone Taro Aso in the upcoming general election? What kind of man is he?


Yukio Hatoyama


Born in 1947, Hatoyama replaced Ichiro Ozawa as leader of the DPJ earlier this year, after the latter became embroiled in a financing scandal involving political donations from a construction company.

Hatoyama, like Aso, is a mega-rich, blue-blooded, hereditary politician and likewise a grandson of a former conservative party prime minister, Ichiro Hatoyama (1883-1959) - one of the founders of the LDP.
Hatoyama's father Iichiro Hatoyama was Japan's foreign minister for a period in the 1970s. His brother Kunio Hatoyama is now a leading LDP politician and green-advocate.

Yukio Hatoyama is a graduate of Tokyo University with a PhD from Stanford University in the US.

Hatoyama is considered to be the richest man in the Japanese Diet (Parliament) with an estimated 1.65 billion yen in personal assets, four times those of Aso. These figures exclude more billions tied up in Bridgestone shares - Yukio's father married into the family of the Bridgestone tire empire - the world's largest tire manufacturer.

Hatoyama entered politics as an LDP member of the Lower House in 1986, leaving the LDP in 1993 to form the short-lived New Party Sakigake, before setting up the DJP with Naoto Kan and his brother Kunio.

A social conservative, Hatoyama's stated policy initiatives include allowing women to ascend to the imperial throne and amending the constitution to redefine the Japanese Defence Forces (SDF) as the country's army.

© JapanVisitor.com


Yahoo Japan Auction Service

Book a hotel in Japan with Bookings

Tokyo Serviced Apartments

Japan Friends

Happi Coats

Japanese For Busy People

Tags

Taro Aso Calls August Election

麻生太郎

Taro Aso, Japanese PMTaro Aso, the hapless and gaff-prone Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Prime Minister has called a snap election for August 30 following his party's resounding defeat in local Tokyo elections on Sunday.

The opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won 54 seats to the LDP's 34.

Aso is the 4th Prime Minister since the last general election in 2005 following Junichiro Koizumi, Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda.

The choice awaiting the Japanese electorate in August is between two conservative parties with similar agendas and backgrounds. One political commentator has likened Aso and his opponent, DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama, to "Tweedledee and Tweedledum."

Both are aged, wealthy scions of political dynasties, but with Aso's popularity ratings hovering around the 20% mark, it seems the Japanese public are ready to to give Tweedledum a chance this time around.

Yukio Hatoyama replaced Ichiro Ozawa as leader of the DPJ earlier this year, after the latter became embroiled in a financing scandal.

Hatoyama, like Aso, is a super-rich, blue-blooded, hereditary politician and likewise a grandson of a former conservative party prime minister.

A graduate of Tokyo University, Hatoyama's grandfather Ichiro Hatoyama was a hawkish prime minister in the 1950s, Hatoyama's father Iichiro Hatoyama was Japan's foreign minister for a period in the 1970s. His brother Kunio Hatoyama is a leading LDP politician. Plus ça change.


Yahoo Japan Auction Service

Book a hotel in Japan with Bookings

Tokyo Serviced Apartments

Japan Friends

Happi Coats

Japanese For Busy People

Tags

Kaoru Yosano

与謝野馨

Rogues' Gallery Part XIV

Kaoru Yosano is the current Minister in charge of Economic and Fiscal Policy in the cabinet of Prime Minister Taro Aso. Yosano was defeated by Aso in the LDP leadership election in September last year after the resignation of Aso's predecessor Yasuo Fukuda.

Kaoru Yosano

A graduate of Tokyo University, Yosano has held a number of important government posts and is considered a reliable moderate, who may one day take the top job.

Yosano also took over the Finance portfolio in February this year after the drunken embarressment caused by Shoichi Nakagawa at a G7 conference in Rome.

Yosano is a grandchild of the feminist poet Akiko Yosano (1878-1942).

One thing that always puzzles me about the man, who lists golf, shogi and fishing among his hobbies, is that his hair is always jet black, despite the fact he's in his early 70s.

Can we trust a politician that hides the truth by dyeing his rug and eyebrows? Methinks not. To the tumbrils with him!

© JapanVisitor.com

Yahoo Japan Auction Service

Book a Japanese Hotel with Bookings

Japanese Friends

Rough Guide To Japan

Tags

Ozawa To Resign

小沢一郎

Ichiro Ozawa, leader of Japan's main opposition party Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan), has announced he will step down in the wake of a fundraising scandal that has reduced his popularity and that of his party battling to end the unpopular Liberal Democratic Party's grip on power.

Ichiro Ozawa election posterProsecutors in Tokyo have alleged that Ozawa's political fundraising organisation received 21 million yen ($216,000) in illegal donations from a mid-size construction company, Nishimatsu Construction between 2003-2007. Ozawa replied that he believes the charges are politically motivated.

Ozawa's move comes ahead of a general election that must be called before October this year. The Democratic Party of Japan has a real chance of toppling the government of Taro Aso and the LDP and Ozawa stressed that his move was to limit damage to his party before the poll.

Ozawa entered politics in the late 1960s and was elected to the Diet in 1969, becoming a member of the powerful Kakuei Tanaka faction.

Ozawa has twice held key offices in previous LDP governments, first in 1985 as Home Affairs Minister under Yasuhiro Nakasone and in 1989 as LDP Secretary General.

During the fall-out from the Sagawa Kyubin/Shin Kanemaru corruption scandal, Ozawa jumped ship from the LDP, where he had made many enemies during his heady rise, to form the Japan Renewal Party in 1992 along with long-time ally Tsutomu Hata.

This alliance lead to the end of LDP rule for the first time in 38 years with the short-lived administration of Morihiro Hosokawa in 1993, while Ozawa and Hata pulled the strings in the background in true kuromaki style.

Ozawa's became the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) from 2003, where he has joined forces once more with Tsutomu Hata. Ozawa was forced to step down briefly as leader in 2004, when he was caught up (along with a number of Japan's political elite) in the ongoing Pension Scandal.


Blueprint for a New Japan: The Rethinking of a Nation

Book a hotel in Japan with Bookings

Japanese Fiction

Happi Coats

Tags


Nakagawa Shoichi Drunk?

中川財務相

The latest calamity to befall the cabinet of hapless Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, was the "drunken" performance of his Minister of Finance, Shoichi Nakagawa, at a G7 meeting in Rome.



Nakagawa blamed his slurred performance on a heavy dose of cold medicine and jet lag. Nakagawa claimed he's imbibed no more than a glass of wine on his flight over from Japan. Nakagawa, who is known to like a drink, says he will resign after the government has passed its latest finance bill in the Japanese Diet and not before.

"I feel terribly sorry for the Japanese public as well as the Diet that such footage and words of mine were conveyed to the world," a contrite Mr Nakagawa told a parliamentary panel.


Yahoo Japan Auction Service

Book a Japanese Hotel with Bookings

Tokyo Serviced Apartments

Japanese Friends

The Japanese Spa: A Guide to Japan's Finest Ryokan and Onsen

Tags

The Truth About Nanking Movie

南京の真実

A new Japanese film looks likely to reignite tensions over the interpretation of the historical events that occurred in Nanking in the winter of 1937.

Here follows a press release concerning the movie The Truth of Nanking by Japanese director Satoru Mizushima, which had a free screening with a director's greeting and Q&A on Tuesday, October 14th at 1:30pm at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 8000 Sunset Blvd. West Hollywood, CA 90046 Tel: 323-848-3500

The Truth About Nanking Movie

#######

PRESS RELEASE

Japanese director and screenwriter Satoru Mizushima’s new film, first chapter of
“The Truth of Nanking” trilogy will be shown in Los Angeles.

This movie investigates the “real truth” behind the Massacre of Nanking that occurred more than seventy years ago.
While the rest of the world identifies the Japanese as the culprits of the Massacre, this film
investigates the involvement of the Chinese in this matter. The film is shot from a different point of view with the belief that the event was overemphasized. A movie like this allows people see a new perspective on a one-sided event.
As the first installment of a three part series, the production begins with the International Military Tribunal of the Far East, or Tokyo Trials. For 160 minutes, the film explores the testimonies of the Japanese military and government personnel at the hearing.

The Massacre of Nanking 71 years ago-

Throughout the world, the books published and movies produced about the massacre were carried out in succession, but to the extent as if it is a natural occurrence, when people of the world remember this event, there many different viewpoints to be had. However, is there not any information out there that misleads us?

“The Truth of Nanking” trilogy delves into the focus of all the countries involved, specifically from Japan’s viewpoint.
The first installment begins with General Matsui Iwane charged for massacre and describes the will of the seven class A war criminals of the International Military Tribunal of the Far East.

######

For further reading on this controversial new movie see the Wikipedia entry on the film and articles in the Japan Times and a review by Mark Schilling in Variety.

The movie follows the release of the documentary Nanking in 2007, directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, and starring Woody Harrelson and Hugo Armstrong. The two movies stand at opposite poles of the argument concerning what happened in Nanking in 1937, when the city fell to Japanese Imperial Armies. Two books at opposing ends of the historical debate are Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking and The Politics of Nanjing by Minoru Kitamura. The issue of the history of Nanking is a cause of continuing friction to this day between the governments of China and Japan.

Yahoo Japan Auction Service

Book a hotel in Japan with Bookings

Tokyo Serviced Apartments

Japan Friends

Shibori Bags

The Japanese Spa: A Guide to Japan's Finest Ryokan and Onsen

Tags

Taro Aso

麻生太郎

Taro Aso, Japanese PMTaro Aso, 68, was today elected at the new leader of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and will become the next Prime Minister.

A conservative hawk, who favors pump-priming the economy, Aso is the grandson of post World War II Prime Minster, Yoshida Shigeru.

It was 4th time lucky for the "charismatic" Aso who lost out in previous leadership elections to Junichiro Koizumi, Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda.

Aso easily won the vote by LDP MPs and regional party members - winning 351 out of the 527 votes cast, way ahead of his nearest challengers in the leadership race, Kaoru Yosano and Yuriko Koike, who polled just 66 and 46 votes, respectively.

Aso, a Roman Catholic, known for his straight-talking, frequent gaffes and love of Japan's manga culture, is a controversial figure and a member of the political elite that has ruled Japan since the Meiji Period (1868-1912). Aso is related not only to post-war premier Yoshida Shigera but also Meiji oligarch Toshimichi Okubo.

Aso studied at both Stanford University and the London School of Economics in his early years before joining his father's company Aso Mining Company in 1966. Aso served as president of the company from 1973 to 1979 and penned the firm's official history - making no mention of the wartime slave laborers (Koreans and Allied POWs) who were forced to work in Aso Mining's copper mines during World War II. Aso was also a member of the Japanese shooting team at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.

Aso's election signals a pronounced step to the right for Japan after Fukuda's term in office. Aso is a traditionalist and nationalist who favors a strong foreign policy stance vis-a-vis China and North Korea, though it remains to be seen if he will follow in Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's footsteps and visit the controversial Yasukuni Shrine.

Aso has made a number of contentious remarks during his colorful political career including disparaging a burakumin (dowa) minority MP and firmly rejecting calls for a woman to ascend to the imperial throne.

Yahoo Japan Auction Service

Book a hotel in Japan with Bookings

Tokyo Serviced Apartments

Japan Friends

Happi Coats

Japanese For Busy People

Tags

Fukuda Resigns

福田 赳夫

Yasuo Fukuda Yasuo Fukuda today has resigned after less than one year in office.

Fukuda announced his resignation at a hastily arranged news conference at his official residence in Tokyo.

Fukuda's administration has seen its popularity slump due to the sluggish economy, the lost pension records scandal and an unpopular healthcare scheme.

Fukuda succeeded Shinzo Abe, who also quit after less than a year following a series of embaressing ministerial scandals.
The hawkish Taro Aso, like Fukuda, another scion of the ruling elite, could be the next in line for the top job.


Book a hotel in Japan with Bookings

Japanese Fiction

Japan Book Shop Amazon UK

Happi Coats

Tags