What do you expect?

David McNeill in the Independent writes a brief article about the new book by Kan Nobuko, the prime minister’s wife, called Now You Are Prime Minister, How On Earth Is Japan Going to Change? The piece is undistinguished, barely competent, and in its attempt to portray Mr. Kan as a henpecked husband, seems to have been written for the sort of audience that enjoys watching daytime television.

Then there’s this part:

(T)he book also reveals that Mr Kan had no great ambitions for the job and was catapulted into office by the resignation of Yukio Hatoyama.

Wrong verb. It doesn’t reveal that he had no ambition for the job, it claims that he had no ambition for the job.

Had McNeill been anywhere near a Japanese newspaper or magazine for the past two months, picked one up and read it, or hired someone to do his reading for him, he would have known that Mr. Kan has made no secret of his ambitions to be prime minister since his 20s. This has been amply supported in the Japanese media by quotes from people who have associated with him over the years.

He also would have known that Mr. Kan quickly saw the writing on the wall about the duration of the Hatoyama Cabinet, and began positioning himself as the successor.

This is the third time he’s served as DPJ party president, and he also ran at least once for the post and lost. It would be odd to say the least that the head of the primary opposition party in a parliamentary system would have no ambitions to become prime minister.

This is the sort of thing a competent journalist would have found some way to include in the article.

But what do you expect to emanate from the FCCJ bar?

Journalism?

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