Good cop, bad cop
Posted by ampontan on Thursday, November 11, 2010
THE MAINICHI SHIMBUN ran a story in its morning edition of 8 November that, if true, confirms what most people have long suspected. It’s one of the many reasons for the widespread anger with Chief Cabinet Secretary Sengoku Yoshito, and shows why speculation has begun that Prime Minister Kan Naoto will have to cut him loose if his Cabinet is to survive–though that’s growing increasingly unlikely by the minute.
Recall that in September, private-sector consultant Shinohara Tsukasa was recruited (likely by Mr. Sengoku) to create a channel of communication with the Chinese government. That paved the way for a meeting between Chinese officials and DPJ MP Hosono Goshi. Reported the Mainichi:
“Chief Cabinet Secretary Sengoku is said to have agreed to the Chinese demand that the video of the encounter between the Chinese fishing boat and the Japanese Coast Guard vessels not be shown to the public, and that the observation tour of the Senkakus by Okinawa Gov. Nakaima (Hirokazu) would be called off.”
One wonders what might have happened over the past two months had someone in the DPJ government been willing to stand up for Japanese sovereignty and its national interest, rather than cede the Japanese public’s right to know to the Chinese, and allow the Chinese government to dictate the travel arrangements of a Japanese prefectural governor within the borders of his own jurisdiction.
One also wonders what Prime Minister Kan was doing when all this was going down.
There have been reports that Mr. Sengoku from the start intended to act as a lightning rod for criticism of the Cabinet to protect Mr. Kan and the younger ministers, such as Maehara Seiji. After the past two months, he’s already absorbed so much electricity he probably glows in the dark.
People who serve as chief cabinet secretaries sometimes team up with the prime minister to work the good cop, bad cop routine. For example, Hirano Hirofumi said several times that he was more than willing to take the heat as the bad cop to Hatoyama Yukio’s good cop, particularly for the Futenma issue, but the latter scattered so many banana peels along his own path he couldn’t make it across the stage.
Though Mr. Sengoku seems to be a natural-born bad cop, even this less-than-dynamic duo can’t get the routine to work. That would require someone credible to play the good cop role, but Mr. Sengoku is stuck with the Japanese equivalent of Barney Fife.
Roual Deetlefs said
Ampontan.
http://news.goldseek.com/RickAckerman/1289458800.php
21st Century Schizoid Man said
The worst cop is the bad cop who believes it does good without a good cop and ever worse, he can act as both.
Pat Donnelly said
Good post, subtle and funny!
But what can the Japanese do?
They are presumably in contact with American thinking and may have been asked to keep issues “low key” for a period while Barry Soetoro tours Asia?
Magus said
Speaking of Kan incompetency, I was just reading MDN and came across this new article which has some pretty startling information and speculation
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/perspectives/column/news/20101112p2a00m0na003000c.html
“So, mystery number one. The Chinese trawler, Minjinyu 5179, rammed head first into two JCG ships. While these bigger ships suffered significant dents, there was almost no damage done to the Minjinyu’s bow. According to posts in Chinese military-related websites, the fishing boat’s bow had been reinforced with carbon steel. Could this mean that the boat was smuggling or fishing illegally, and was retrofitted to allow for an aggressive response and escape in the case that it was discovered by patrol boats?”
“Mystery number two. When the Minjinyu returned to Jinziang port, it had a large hole on the starboard side of its bow. The crew apparently bored a hole on their way back from Japan to emphasize the boat’s fragility in the face of JCG ships, making their intentions all the more clear.”
“Mystery number three. The trawler is a privately-owned boat built by a village in Jinziang with loans from a bank. Because the boat does not belong to a nationally-owned corporation, repair costs must be paid out of the private owners’ pocket. That the crew intentionally caused costly damage to the boat could be an indication that someone else is picking up the tab. And it is possible that that “someone else” instructed the boat to go into the waters off the disputed Senkaku Islands.”
If the Kan govt had kept the ship with the captain instead of returning it so quickly, these things could have been inspected.
—–
Thanks Magus:
Note to others–the article’s in English.
- A.