For those of you who are actually interested in the politics of the thing, Reuters has profiles of various potential candidates for Japanese Prime Minister.
As cool as it might be to talk about having an otaku Prime Minister, Taro Aso actually doesn’t sound like a great choice by my standards (and it has nothing to do with the idea that government interference in anime/manga could be bad, i swear): he’s a bit of a traditionalist and supports the male-only tradition of Japan’s emperor-hood. Also:
“He appeals to fellow fans of “manga” comics, but has stirred controversy with verbal blunders.”
>> verbal blunders
>> verbal blunders
>> verbal blunders
…Hmmm…
The other possible candidates include finance minister Sadazaku Tanigaki, who wants to raise taxes; former “shadow foreign minister” Yasuo Fukuda, who could have been successor to Koizumi instead of Abe had he not dropped out; conservative foreign minister Nobutaka Machimura, and…Junichiro Koizumi!?
Yes, this article says there’s been talk of the Lionheart himself coming back and challenging, but it reads more like wishful thinking on the part of voters. Of the options listed, Fukuda seems the most promising to me, with talk of working on friendship between Asian countries…but I don’t know the first thing about Japanese politics. It’ll be interesting to watch, whatever happens.
Tags: junichi-koizumi, politics, taro-aso
September 12th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
As far as Japanese politics are concerned, the right-wing nationalists will always take the centre stage. After all, the Japanese mindset has always been that of a “siege mentality,” with all the talk about North Korean crisis, China and the irritating Constitution of theirs.
It’s unfortunate, really. Whoever comes up to take the PM post, will really have to clean up the “battered image” of the LDP in order to restore confidence of the people.
September 13th, 2007 at 4:11 am
[...] as “nerds.” Simon Jones suggests investing in Rozen Maiden dolls. And Giapet isn’t thrilled with Aso’s [...]
September 14th, 2007 at 9:45 am
More required reading on Aso here:
http://adriennecareyhurley.blogspot.com/2006/07/theres-something-about-aso.html
Aso’s family owned and operated mining operations during the Pacific War and used coerced Korean and PoW slave labor to make their money. No apologizes, no acknowledgment of his companies criminal past (and he ran the place in the ’70s and ’80s).
Otaku or not, he’s a bad dude with radical/right-wing connections that should scare everybody.