Ichigen koji (105)

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- A person who has something to say about everything

Politics until now has been a world in which policy has been neglected in favor of “I like that guy, so I’ll ally with him,” and “I can’t stand that guy, so I’ll drive him out.” Policies and beliefs are nonchalantly changed one after the other for the sake of political crises.  Unless we deliver ourselves from that sort of politics, Japan will never improve.

- Matsuda Koji, upper house member from Your Party

Ichigen koji (104)

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- A person who has something to say about everything

No one in the mass media can read an academic paper. Not only are they too busy, they have no specialized knowledge.  Everything they know is what they’ve heard.  If you work in the news department for five years, you turn into an idiot (literally, アホ).

What I realized from working in television for 15 years is that television is a waste of time.  The best thing about quitting the network was that I don’t have to watch television anymore.

- Ikeda Nobuo, university professor, author, and blogger. He was employed at the quasi-public broadcaster NHK, spending part of that time as a program director. He says he resigned when it came time for promotion to a management position and he discovered it wouldn’t be possible to continue his involvement with program production.

Ichigen koji (103)

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- A person who has something to say about everything

I still clearly remember the words of (then) Democratic Party President Ozawa Ichiro when he proposed a grand coaltion to the Fukuda Yasuo administration (in November 2007). I was LDP secretary-general at the time. “The Democratic Party,” he said, “lacks both the ability and the qualities to lead a government. You must allow them into the Cabinet to study.” The idea of a grand coalition foundered due to Democratic Party internal opposition, but looking at them now as the ruling party, it is just as Mr. Ozawa said.

- Ibuki Bunmei

Ichigen koji (102)

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Unless the Noda Democratic Party swallows whole the tax increase proposal of  the Tanigaki Liberal Democrats and dissolves the lower house (for a general election), it will only create a synergistic effect of unpopularity for both the Tanigaki LDP and the Noda DPJ. The lower house will have to be dissolved next year anyway (when its term ends). Will that dissolution occur when the synergistic effect is at its maximum? That might be even more invigorating for everyone. It would give (Hashimoto Toru’s) One Osaka enough time to get ready.

- Hasegawa Yukihiro, author and member of the Tokyo Shimbun editorial board.

DPJ Secretary-General Koshi’ishi Azuma and other party members are now coming out in favor of holding a double election next year,  when the current lower house term expires and an upper house election will be held as scheduled by law.

Others, however, such as LDP upper house member Yamamoto Ichita, one of the last of the party’s Koizumians, notes that Prime Minister Noda, Deputy Prime Minister Okada, and Finance Minister Azumi are suggesting they are open to modifying the DPJ tax hike plan. Mr. Yamamoto is appalled, because he thinks this is a sign that (a) they will swallow the LDP plan whole, and (b) that will lead to a grand coalition without a Diet dissolution.

And that will lead to even more support for One Osaka.

Ichigen koji 101

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The important thing about the verdict (of not guilty for Ozawa Ichiro) is that the public now knows the fact that political funds are transferred in units of hundreds of millions of yen, and the fact that statements of income and expeditures for political funds can be made off the books to suit the politicians’ convenience. These facts are indisputable.

Because there was no direct evidence, I did not think it would be possible to prove there was collusion in the false bookkeeping entries. Therefore, the verdict is completely understandable and appropriate. But we can also assume that a report between former DPJ Secretary-General Ozawa Ichiro and his aide about the off-the-books transaction was acknowledged, so it cannot be said that (Mr. Ozawa) was completely innocent…The people will absolutely not view this as having been legal and proper.

- Takamura Kaoru, author and novelist, on last week’s Ozawa Ichiro verdict

Afterwords:

Please excuse my absence for the past week; the PC was on the verge of giving up the ghost, so that meant buying a new one, getting it set up, figuring out where they decided to hide the old familiar functions on the new model, and transferring a lot of files.

Ichigen koji (100)

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- A person who has something to say about everything

* (We in) Japan should repudiate the Constitution and immediately create a new one ourselves.

* The Constitution was written in three or four days by the Americans and consists entirely of hideous text that was translated from the English to the Japanese.

* It has been the valid law that governs the country, even after Japan regained its independence with the San Francisco Peace Treaty. Nowhere else is to be found an example of idiocy such as this.

* (The Constitution) has created an extremely distorted mentality among the people, who have a strong awareness of their rights, but no awareness of their responsibilities.

- Tokyo Metro District Gov. Ishihara Shintaro in a speech to the Heritage Foundation in the United States on the 16th. The coverage of the speech in English focused entirely on his mention of the intent to purchase some of the Senkaku islets from the family that owns them. None of them mentioned his discussion of the Constitution.

All the major overseas news outlets did find the space to mention that the Heritage Foundation is a “conservative” think tank, though those same outlets never find the space for an adjective when the think tank is left of center.

As the blogger Heartiste wrote recently in a different context, “The world has changed and integrity is now a passé virtue. I doubt (any) of the media propagandists care about their bias. War has a way of enfeebling the moral conscience.”

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Ichigen koji (99)

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One experience I’ll never forget. Soon after I became the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications (October 1005), I tried to reform the way that local government bonds were issued (by municipalities and prefectures).

Though I call it a reform, it wasn’t anything special — I just wanted to do something that everyone else takes for granted. When companies float bonds to procure funds, the rate they pay will of course differ for Company A, which has strong revenue and earnings, and Company B, whose performance is weak. The risk of lending money to Company A is low, so the interest earned will be low. In contrast, the interest will be higher for Company B.

But when cities and prefectures issue bonds (in Japan), the solicitation is done through a financial institution selected by the national government, and the interest rate for procuring the funds is the same for every city and prefecture.

People who hear about this for the first time are probably surprised. This is the very definition of government-led collusion. It’s terrible, and it is probably enough for the Fair Trade Commission to issue an order prohibiting it.

As the Minister for Internal Affairs, I was responsible for fiscal matters related to local governments. I tried to stop it immediately. But not only were the bureaucrats opposed, many local governors and mayors were also upset. If the collusion fell apart, all of their problems would be exposed.

- Takenaka Heizo, Koizumi Jun’ichiro’s privatization guru

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Ichigen koji (98)

一言居士
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Whether it is the result of confrontation or discussion between the DPJ and LDP, a Diet dissolution and general election in June is probably unavoidable. What will the issue in that election be? It will undoubtedly be Prime Minister Noda’s consumption tax increase, but what is LDP President Tanigaki doing? During the campaign for the 2010 upper house election, Mr. Tanigaki said, “As a responsible opposition party, we must resign ourselves to a consumption tax at the 10% level.” Yet now he is complaining about a consumption tax increase and demanding the Diet be dissolved. His opposition to a consumption tax increase is nothing more than a procedural argument: the DPJ said they would not raise the consumption tax during their (four year) term. The once-dominant party is now driven only by political crisis. How they have fallen.

The DPJ is calling for reform that integrates social welfare with the consumption tax, but they will introduce a bill only to raise the tax, divorced from a pension scheme. If the bill passes, no means have been created for accepting the increase in revenue. At first, it will most likely be used to offset the fiscal shortfall. If that happens, it would be just as the Finance Ministry planned it.

- Yayama Taro

Earlier this week, the LDP said that one part of their next election manifesto would be a call to raise the consumption tax to 10% “for now”.

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Ichigen koji (97)

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I never cease to be amazed at how foreign newspapers, especially American or British ones, fail to report the truth about Italian politics. Since I moved here in 1998, I cannot recall a single article that was not a grotesque distortion of the political reality. If they get Italy so wrong, what about the rest of the world?

- Nicholas Farrell

I could well have written that second sentence about Japan, changing only the date to 1984. As for the first sentence, I ceased to be amazed long ago. As for the third sentence: He has to ask?

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Ichigen koji (96)

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(Osaka Mayor Hashimoto Toru) is like a tuna. He has to keep swimming in order to breathe.
- A former DPJ Cabinet member who chose to remain anonymous

If I stop, I die.
- Osaka Mayor Hashimoto Toru

****
Nothing for a hot tuna to do but keep on trucking.

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Ichigen koji (95)

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Why are there so many people here? Important matters are decided by five or six people. Quit screwing around! Get a smaller room ready!

- Former Prime Minister Kan Naoto on 15 March 2011 at Tokyo Electric Power headquarters, as quoted by the Tokyo Shimbun. He was in the Operations Room, where more than 200 people had stayed up all night the night before dealing with the Fukushima nuclear accident. He thought he was in the Conference Room.

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Ichigen koji (94)

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Taxes should not be raised with these economic conditions. If you submit a bill (to raise taxes), you and Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko will fall into hell.

- Kamei Shizuka, president of the People’s New Party (still in the governing coalition), speaking directly to Deputy Prime Minister Okada Katsuya

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Ichigen koji (93)

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During the Edo period (1603-1868), when a townsman started a fight with a samurai, people would listen first to the townman’s side of the story. If they learned that the samurai was at fault, the samurai would take responsibility by committing seppuku (ritual suicide). Thus, there was a certain relationship of trust between the general public and the samurai.

In today’s Japan, however, the politicians and the bureaucrats, who correspond to the samurai of the Edo period, take no responsibility at all, even when they are political failures. The relationship between the policymakers and the people has collapsed. We don’t know who took responsibility for the events of 3/11 (last year’s Tohoku disaster). Therefore, can we not say that the system of governance was much more advanced during the Edo period?

- Nakano Mitsutoshi, professor emeritus at Kyushu University

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Ichien koji (92)

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Life is (a process of) rehabilitation. I’m rehabilitating now myself…but perhaps the one who needs rehabilitation more is the Democratic Party of Japan.

- Former Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio of the DPJ

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Ichigen koji (91)

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I’m fed up with the Democratic Party (of Japan). They’ve got to start all over again…Taken from the most extreme perspective, their government is no different from the Liberal Democratic Party governments. But if you think about it, there is one difference. They’re even worse than the LDP…They have no sense of direction when responding to nuclear energy, economic policy, or foreign affairs and defense, such as the Senkakus and the (American base at) Futenma. They’ve made almost no progress in responding to the Tohoku disaster…What was it, that Noda declaration about “convergence”? (N.B.: The prime minister stated there was a cold shutdown of the Fukushima plant, achieving “convergence” with Tokyo Electric’s plan for dealing with the disaster.) Does Noda really think there was convergence? He should go back to grade school and study the meaning of convergence.

- Yamagishi Akira, first chairman of Rengo (the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, one of the DPJ’s most important organizational supporters), and a longtime activist in leftist politics in Japan

A report this week states that only 5% of the debris generated by the Tohoku disaster in the three prefectures with the worst damage — 11 months ago — has been disposed of.

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