Opening The Diet With Abe Shinzo's Magical Tobacco Container

In a few hours the 186th Session of the Diet begins. The session promises to be both busy (80 bills and 18 treaties are in the docket) and fiery. The Diet will be debating the merits of an expanded liberty of action for Self Defense Forces under the existing Constitution -- a shadow play, as the Abe government has more than enough votes to pass the relevant bills right now, including the votes of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan -- and the just-passed special secrets protection act, which all the opposition parties (there is no point in referring to the gutted and purified Your Party as an opposition party anymore) are united in seeing at least amended, if not rescinded. Midway through the Session, which is scheduled to end on June 22, the much ballyhooed and probably quite reasonably feared rise of the consumption tax kicks in -- an imposition which will empty the nation's stores and showrooms (be prepared for the video of clerks standing around waiting for customers in vain on April 1).

Despite the challenges, the Abe government is in a sweet spot in terms of running the Diet as it pleases. The next national elections are in July 2016, unless, of course the House of Representatives is dissolved -- which is NOT going to happen. While the government would like Masuzoe Yo'ichi to prevail in February 9 by-election for Tokyo Governor -- which Masuzoe will do unless Hosokawa Morihiro hurries up and hires a bloody-minded press secretary soon -- Mr. Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party do not have any pressing elections of any kind before the so-called unified local elections in April 2015.

The distribution of seats and the continuing stumbling about of the opposition parties make the distant elections almost irrelevant. The LDP is currently allied with the New Komeito, giving it a super-majority in the House of Representatives and a majority in the House of Councillors. Should the LDP and the New Komeito part ways over policy -- a remote but not entirely zero possiblity during the upcoming session -- the LDP could easily and quickly craft new and sturdy coalitions with the Your Party and the Japan Restoration Party, giving the LDP even larger majorities in both Houses (see slides 26 through 29 of my Temple University Japan presentation of January 9, available online here).

In general, anything the PM wants to pass into law will become law, if Abe-san remembers to preserve appearances by offering opposing voices a chance to put on at least a show of resistance.

That certain elements within the Prime Minister's own party think that Abe has been shirking his duties in that department was made manifest yesterday. At a meeting inside LDP headquarters of the members of the Machimura Faction, the prime minister's nominal faction (his membership being suspended during his time in office) leader Machimura Nobutaka took members of the government to task for their insufficient consultations with LDP parliamentarians regarding the content of pending bills. As regards the ministers's having shelved, temporarily, a move to close debate on the so-called Third Arrow structural reforms, he crowed:

「いいことだ。政府は、『この印籠が見えないか。マル安倍と書けば何でも通る』『これは安倍さんの意向だから』という傾向が少し目立っている」

It's a good thing. The government has been saying, "Can you not see this personal tobacco container? Anything with a circle and Abe in it on it will pass." "This is so because it is Mr. Abe's will!" It was all getting a bit too noticeable.

(Link - J)

A little too esoteric for the lay reader?

Machimura was alluding to, in a oddly direct and simplified way*, one of the classic and recurring bits of Japanese television.


Poster for Mito Komon, season 35.
Image courtesy TBS.

"Can you not see this personal tobacco container?" (Kono inro ga mienai ka) is Machimura paraphrasing the recurring climactic line of the long-running (43 seasons) TBS television samurai drama Mito Komon. In every episode, at the very height of a pitched and protracted battle between local ruffians and corrupt officials on one side, and simple, honest citizens and their mysterious protectors on the other, the sidekick of the protagonist, a disguised Tokugawa Mitsukuni, raises a personal tobacco container (inro) bearing the trefoil crest of the Tokugawa House on it and cries, "Kono mondokoro ga me ni hairanu ka?" ("Does not this family crest enter thine eyes?") -- at which point everyone, villains and would be victims, realizing they have been misbehaving before the uncle of the shogun, all fall to the ground motionless in awe and fear.

[A scene that has to be seen to be believed. Unfortunately, TBS scours the Internet for snippets, meaning I cannot provide a decent video illustration.]

Machimura's allusion can be understood as being:

1) a petulant complaining about an inconvenient truth: that Abe's control of the party and government is so great that even his nominal factional superior cannot do anything but fall to the ground paralyzed at the sight of Abe's seal of approval on a piece of legislation.

2) the chiding of Abe's aides and allies in the party and the government for presuming that Abe's signature precludes the need to conduct preliminary discussions (ne mawashi) of pending bills and directives

3) both these things simultaneously.

Machimura has reasons, petty ones, for feeling slighted. He is the leader of the PM's faction and nominally the PM's patron. Machimura also ran against Abe for the post of party president in September two years ago. Unlike the other rivals in the presidential election, all of whom received Cabinet or party posts, Machimura received...nothing.

That Machimura would be willing to vent his anger at function attended by journalists indicates

a) the depth of the petty resentment he feels and

b) his sense of not being the only one with gripes vis-a-vis Abe and his people.

One of the few risks that Abe runs in the course of the next few years is an efflorescence of such resentment, burst from seeds of dissension sown through high-handed action. Until recently, Abe and his government have been restrained in their stimulation of jealousy and mistrust, not that they have not been willing to cut some rather important allies -- the New Komeito over Abe's visit to Yasukuni, rice farmers over their acreage-suppression subsidies (Link) and the elderly over their health and eldercare payments (Link) -- off at the knees.

As long as the betrayals have been couched as being reluctant and for the national good, the backlash has been subdued.

There have, nevertheless, been some disturbing signs of hubris and political tone deafness in political appointments of late, possibly indicative of Abe and his lieutenants becoming incautious.

The first was the terrible decision to appoint Watanabe Tsuneo, the don of the Yomiuri media empire, chairman of the government's advisory commission on implementation of the special designated secrets act (mentioned, with a link, here). Watanabe already received the gift of People's Honor Awards for two former members of the Yomiuri Giants baseball team -- more than a reward enough for the Yomiuri Shimbun's slavish service in support of Abe's premiership and his domination of the LDP. To put a man who does not and probably cannot understand the role the Fourth Estate plays in electoral politics in a modern democracy (imagine Rupert Murdoch being named chairman of Prime Minister Cameron's advisory council on press ethics and non-partisanship -- oh, OK, maybe that is too far) in charge of offering advice on how to safeguard press freedoms -- well, that's chutzpah.

The recent nomination, with Abe's fingers all over it, of Muto Toshio to be secretary-general of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics organizing committee (Link) seems similarly presumptuous. Muto may be a smart man with international connections and ties to all the heads of the major power centers in government and the business community (Link). If one wanted to send out a signal, though, that political and politically sensitive positions will be handed out not to the most capable and forward-thinking but old cronies and persons to whom favors are owed (Abe's former faction leader Mori Yoshiro has already been named chairman of the organizing committee), selling the Olympic dream out to Big Business and Big Government -- then annointing the twice-not-named-Governor-of-the-Bank-of-Japan and 70-years-of-age Muto is a good start.

When one has a magic tobacco container, though...therein temptation lies...


Later - In comments, "exex" provides a link to an illustrative video clip of a me ni hairanu ka scene from a Mito Komon episode.

---

* When one considers the reality that most adult Japanese have heard the original line hundreds of times, that Machimura would paraphrase it seems really odd.

Worthwhile Reads For October 16, 2013

You Can't Touch This - Ayako Mie in The Japan Times on the really spiny legislation up for debate and a vote in the brief 52 days left before the end of the Extraordinary Diet Session (Link - J) --  bills so potentially explosive Prime Minister Abe Shinzo failed to mention them in his Diet Policy Address (Link - J). The omission of even a hint about the Official Secrets bill, which surrogates like Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Ishiba Shigeru have been touting as a package deal with the establishment of a national security council, shows how fraught the outlook is.

Reform My Sweet Watusi - Sawa Takamitsu can be all over the map in his commentaries (a trait shared by a certain yours truly) but he hits the mark in an essay, also in the JT, accusing the Abe administration of reversing the reform legacy of not just the Koizumi administration, but the Nakasone administration as well. His sharpest characterization? That the peculiar attempt to browbeat big business into delivering wage hikes -- rather than, for example, creating incentives for more hiring of permanent workers or higher wages for workers already hired -- is nothing more than an attempt to establish a form of state capitalism. (Link)

As for Abe's numerous public declarations of wanting to earn the title of "Japan's #1 Salesman" it is strange that the promise has not stimulated journalists and commentators to recall French president Charles De Gaulle's famous description of Prime Minister Ikeda Hayato as a vulgar little transistors merchant.

They Made The Bed. You Have To Lie In It - Robert Dujarric, writing for The Diplomat, tells it like it is regarding the so-called East Asian history problem: Japan's engagement with historical issues is compared to West Germany's and likely always will be. Yes, the Japanese right is right: it is unfair. Incredibly so. Jiminy never told you, Fate is unkind sometimes, too. (Link)

Can You See The Real Me? Walter Lohman, John Fleming and Olivia Enos of the Heritage Foundation have produced a series of beautifully edited graphics pages providing the visual starting points for many a discussion of Asian security and economic issues. Pretty, pretty, pretty. (Link)

First Reactions To The Prime Minister's Address

1) The prime minister's speech was general, simple and covered relatively few points.

2) Foreign policy was a small heap of generalities -- then again so was everything else, including the treatment of the the closely watched so-called third arrow growth reforms.

3) At 24 minutes, the speech was six minutes longer than his January speech. Somehow, it seemed shorter. No mentions of contentious issues like the decision to go forward with the 3% rise in the consumption tax or the Official Secrets bill.

4) Few applause lines or stirring expressions.

5) Torimodosu ("taking the country back"), the verb on the Liberal Democratic Party's main campaign posters in the last two national election -- got two mentions. For the most part the speech was buzzword free.

In a colloquial phrase, there was nothin' we ain't heard before...

More thoughts after the Kantei provides the official text, as necessary.

Later - The prime minister's overseas speeches so florid, embarrassingly so, and yet his Diet policy addresses so spare.

What's up with that?

Live Blogging Prime Minister Abe 's Policy Address

2:27 And the weirdness begins: Endo Toshiaki comes out for a presentation on resolution regarding the 2020 Olympics.

2:24 That's All Folks! Let's all go out there and serve the public. (The Man is Finished Speaking)

2:23 Crowd shot of the New Komeito's upper deck of seat holders. Party policy research chief secretary-general Inoue Yoshihisa seems to be asleep.

2:21 Second maudlin anecdote: what Paralympic athlete Sato Mami told him, about not counting what one has lost but what one has gained.

2:21 PM has fought for the natinal interest in his many overseas official visits, and promoted Japan's charms.

2:19 Japan faces an increasingly severe security environment. PM promises to stregthen the security response apparatus in the Prime Minister's Residence.

2:18 Here in the 21st century, Japan must abandon its reflexive passive and become an energetic participant in world peace and security actions.

2:17 Getting excited, strikes the rostrum.

2:16 Promises to reform the healthcare system but assures seniors that his goal is safety -- so I guess he is sorry now for the co-payment increases his cabinet approved in August.

2:14 Declares that this will be the parliamentary session of "taking on the question of realizing the economic growth strategy" -- a rather long-winded locution.

2:13 "In the TPP negotiations we will attack that which needs to be attacked, protect that which needs to protected." -- which means diddly, of course.

2: 11 First export story: the delicious food of Japan which I have been promoting as the country #1 salesman. However, PM notes, agriculture been unable to lower costs and become more productive. Pledge to double agriculture incomes in 10 years, nevertheless.

2:10 Notes the reality that prosperity will come when women and the young receive opportunitis for greater remuneration.

2:08 Claims his economic growth strategy will bring back Japan's economic vitality, only better than in the past, because women will be participating in it.

2:07 First maudlin anecdote: reads letter to him purportedly by a young married woman forced to leave her home in Fukushima.

2:05 Notes that recovery and reconstruction from the triple disaster of 3/11 is behind schedule or halted. Promises action as the earliest.

Pledges total effort to decomission Fukushima #1 and control the radiation linkage.

2:03 Starts out by quoting national economic growth statistics at length, and selectively so as to tell the happiest tale.

Prime Minister's Policy Speech to the House of Representatives starts at 14:00

The Bad News

Satyajit Das paints an "abandon all hope all ye who enter here" portrait of the Japanese economic and budget situation, long term (Link). The upshot: getting all hotted up about Abenomics, whether for it or against it, is probably a waste of energy.

All that Das writes is true. I nevertheless take heart in this dismal passage:

Japan's current account surplus has also allowed the government to run large budget deficits which can be funded domestically. Since 2007, the Japanese trade account surplus has fallen sharply, turning into a deficit in 2012.

The factors driving the fall include an appreciating Yen and slower global growth, which has reduced demand for Japanese products, such as cars and consumer electronics. In late 2012, territorial disputes with China exacerbated the decline in exports. It also reflects the impact of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami as well as the subsequent decision to shut down Japanese nuclear power generators, which increased energy imports, especially Liquid Natural Gas.

Unlike the demographic and incomes problems the country faces, items in the above passage are fixable -- or at least lend themselves to amelioration with government help and guidance.

Work on energy supply -- which Abe Shinzo, in his recent policy address to the Diet, managed to ignore -- and you are attacking the trade deficit and economic restructuring at one swoop. Make gestures toward a cooling down of the acrimony in the Japan-China relationship -- which Abe is doing (Link) -- and one buys Japanese companies some breathing room to realign themselves to political changes in China. Damage the yen's status as a safe reserve currency -- and shutting up about doing so (in Diet questioning yesterday Abe again went into the red zone, promising to help those hurt by endaka) -- and one can help the profitability of Japanese companies (though just why Japan's exporters cannot handle currency strength and/or volatility escapes me).

It is not as though nothing can be done.

What Does Abe Know That We Do Not Know?

The most peculiar moment in the prime minister's policy speech yesterday?

The one that starts at the 16:22 mark of the exceedingly brief (18:55 - with applause) address, the text of which I repost and translate below. When watching the video (Link) pay close attention to what happens after Abe finishes his last sentence.

そして何よりも、拉致問題の解決です。全ての拉致被害者の御家族が御自身の手で肉親を抱きしめる日が訪れるまで、私の使命は終わりません。北朝鮮に「対話と圧力」の方針を貫き、全ての拉致被害者の安全確保及び即時帰国、拉致に関する真相究明、拉致実行犯の引渡しの三点に向けて、全力を尽くします。

And then, more than anything, a resolution of the abductees problem. Until the day is upon us when all of the families of the abducted can hold their relations in their arms, my mission will not have ended. I will not swerve from the plan of employing "dialogue and pressure" upon the DPRK. I will exert every effort to meet the three goals of confirming the safety of and securing the immediate return of all of the abducted, clearing up the mystery surrounding the abductions and having those responsible for the abductions handed over to our custody.

Notice the oddity? After Abe thunders out his determination, he is not greeted with a chorus of hooting or sustained applause. Just embarrassed-sounding shouts from a few members, quickly abandoned.

The abductees issue is Abe's signature issue -- the pole he has used to vault over his more experienced and politically savvy rivals in the party. The stick, if you will, that props him up.

One would have thought that the reactionary Friends of Shinzo, many of whom owe their seats and prominence to incessant thumping of rostrums about the abductees, would have prepared a coordinated explosion of applause and shouting at Abe's declaration of unwielding will.

One would have thought that...and been wrong.

I am not sure I understand the politics of including this paragraph in the speech, without support. The promises made are impossible to realize -- unless Abe knows something nobody else knows. Neither those in the chamber nor the public needed a reminder that Abe is Abductee Man.

So what was the point of making outlandish promises? To highlight the differences between his approach and the approaches of the last three Democratic Party of Japan prime ministers? When there cannot be any differences, either in approach or in outcomes?

What's Up With That?

Am I missing something?

Wizards managing the Prime Minister's Residence's (Kantei) website had the text of the prime minister's policy speech (and now the video too) up immediately following the prime minister's address to the House of Representatives.

The English-language Kantei page, however, has nothing.

Is it not standard operating procedure to provide the English translation along with the original text?

Shinzo Does The Minimalist Thing

For a guy whose Cabinet and party are riding high in the polls (Link - J and Link - J) Prime Minister Abe Shinzo delivered a subdued and limited policy speech. (Link - J)

Unsurprisingly, he opened with an executive summary of the Algerian gas plant incident and his government's response to the crisis. Surprisingly, he did not connect the events of the last two weeks with a call for an expansion of the capacity of the Self Defense Forces to carry out evacuations of Japanese nationals.

Also surprising was how much of the the body of the exceedingly brief speech consisted of the pattings of the heads of the pet issues of a tiny minority, ignoring big policy issues of interest to the majority of the electorate. How else to explain the call to build a "respectable and proper society" (matto na shakai) -- the answer, it seems, to everything -- or the call for Japan to aim to be #1 -- a reference not, as some commentators are going to say, to Ezra Vogel, but to a question posed by Democratic Party of Japan legislator Ren Ho to bureaucrats defending Japan's next generation supercomputer program?

It was also striking how much of the speech was delivered in an intellectual crouch. Was it really necessary to kick up the hysteria quotient, declaring the economy, reconstruction of the Tohoku, foreign affairs and education in crisis? Yes, if you are trying to seize power in an election. Yes, if you are trying to foist unpopular programs on a doubting electorate. But when you are front-loading the budgetary and monetary goodies and enjoying 65% Cabinet approval ratings -- do you need to do it then too?

Sometimes one had to wonder whether the various parts in Abe's government are speaking to each other. Who is going to listen to Finance Minister Aso Taro's scoffing at the concept of the Japanese government having a beggar-thy-neighbor weak yen policy (Link) when the prime minister says in his Diet policy speech that unless Japanese policy changes, there will be no way to pull out of deflation and a high yen?

As to foreign policy, who made the calls? Mentioned were:

1) the deepening the Japan-U.S. security relationship, including the third rail of the relationship, the move of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to a replacement facility

2) Japan-ASEAN relations

3) trendy threats: terrorism, cyberwarfare and natural disasters

What of China-Japan relations, other than a pledge to increase the national capacity to police Japan's territorial waters and airspace? What of Russo-Japanese relations? What of Japan-South Korea relations?

What of energy policy? Or energy, period? (Just one mention, PLEASE!) What of pensions, eldercare, youth underemployment?

And what are we supposed to make of a promise to return to primary budget balance in the medium term? Those who are interested in the issue know the promise to be a lie, while those are not interested in the issue cannot understand why the promise is being made.

And why as a conclusion, after making all sorts of promises to better Japan and make the lives of its citizens easier (including an eyebrow-raising pledge to make it easier for domestic companies and organizations to recruit non-Japanese employees) wind up the speech with an "Do not ask others what will be done -- the only way to improve your own lives is by your own hands?"

All in all, a surprisingly surprising little speech.


Later, much later - Here is a translated Yomiuri Shimbun article (Link) providing the background to Abe's rhetorical question, "Everyone, shall we not go forward from this day with a goal of being the best in the world?"

The Hatoyamas Have Things Made Up

A distinguished professor of Japanese Studies emailed me a while ago asking me about one bit of Prime Minister Hatoyama's policy speech which he found incomprehensible, rather than just reprehensible.

"Urakudari (裏下り）?" the good professor wondered, "I am unfamiliar with this term." He asked me whether I had come across it.

I confessed that I had not. A cursory search of the Internet turned up no definitions.

The good professor was flabbergasted. Surely the PM would not use a made-up word in his official policy address to the Diet?

Well, I have some good news and bad news.

The bad news is that, yes, there was no such term as urakudari.

The good news is that everything has been all cleared up. Based on an inquiry from Yamauchi Koichi of the Everyone's Party -- who like the professor wanted to know what the heck he is supposed to think urakudari means -- the Cabinet passed an official proclamation (kakugi kettei) on Friday determining that henceforth urakudari means "reemployment that cannot be confirmed to be amakudari conducted via the good offices of government ministries and agencies but that nevertheless cannot help but raise suspicions that it is amakudari conducted as a matter of routine through these good offices."(「府省庁によるあっせんは確認されていないが、事実上の天下りあっせん慣行と疑念を抱かせる再就職」).

So there.

Oh Hatoyama-san. Isn't it great to have a Cabinet that can retroactively define the words you make up?

Too bad the Cabinet does not have a similar power to retroactively erase Yosano Kaoru's astonishing line of questioning in the Diet on Friday, when he used a story he heard from your gnat-brained brother to accuse you of being not just "the king of tax evaders" but also guilty of lying to the Diet and the populace about your knowledge of your mother's donations to your political funding organization? He also called you a yakuza for having your underlings take the fall for crimes you pushed them to commit -- but that was more a theatrical flourish than a crippling accusation.

Wow, talk about a blindsiding by a member of the Diet who until Friday was known for his geniality, perspicacity and tact...and betrayal by another stupid man (for it is a stupid man indeed who places party above family) whom until Friday could smilingly call you aniki.

All that is destroyed now. No Cabinet proclamation can repair the damage that has been done.

I Want to Give Up On Hatoyama Yukio

In the first book of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, protagonist Arthur Dent escapes Earth as the unwelcome guest of the Vogons -- a race of nasty-tempered, ugly-minded, hideous-looking space-faring bureaucrats infamous for being the third worst poets in the Universe.

"On no account should you allow a Vogon to read poetry to you," warns the Guide.

Vogons, it seems, have nothing on Hatoyama Yukio's speechwriters.

Policy Speech by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama at the 174th Session of the Diet

I want to protect people's lives.

This is my wish: to protect people's lives.

I want to protect the lives of those who are born; of those who grow and mature.

I want to bring change to the sort of society where a young couple gives up having children because the economic burden is cause for unease. We must build a society in which children, who will support our future, are free to pursue their limitless potential.

I want to protect working people's lives.

Securing employment is an urgent issue. In addition to that, however, I want to create a society in which those who have lost their jobs and those who, for a variety of reasons, are continuing to search for work can remain active as members of the community, not losing their opportunities to interact with others. I hope to consider a new type of community in which all people can feel a connection with society, having a place where they belong and a role to play - through economic activity, of course, but also cultural, sports, volunteer and other activities...

The above is the official translation of the Prime Minister's policy speech to the regular session of the Diet.

The text seems off-kilter and off-putting. This is not the fault of the translators. Indeed, the translators should be lauded for their courage and forebearance. However awkward the speech in its English version, its defects pale to insignificance compared to the callow Japanese original. The translators having imposed structure, body, sense and decorum upon an avalanche of aspiration. In the original, the syntax is contrived; the rhetoric, incomprehensible; the diction, indefensible. At 51 minutes in length, the speech ties the record for the longest Prime Minister's policy address in history and is the second longest ever in terms of word count. Inochi ("life") makes 24 appearances. Hearing the Prime Minister deliver the speech must have been a near life-threatening experience for lawmakers sitting in the first few rows of the chamber. Had I been present in person, I would have sat, eyes like saucers, my fingers in tightening against each other in prayer, begging the Divine to please make the Prime Minister stop.

"I want to protect life. I want to protect life -- that is what I am asking for."
(Inochi o mamoritai. Inochi o mamoritai to negau no desu.)

What kind of opening line is that? What is it in response to? Has anyone ever started a policy speech with "I want to destroy life. I want to destroy life -- that is what I am asking for" in any venue other than a C-grade fantasy movie?

I sympathize with what I must assume is the foundation to Hatoyama's declarations of a strong desire to protect life. That which we call life in all its facets and forms -- life on earth, family life, life in the countryside, life’s golden age, working life – is under threat. In one way or in many, we all are standing upon the knife's edge.

However, by starting out with the solipsistic "I want..." Hatoyama reveals a complete misapprehension of his station. "I want to protect life" -- great, wonderful, become a volunteer fire fighter or a lifeguard at your local swimming pool. In the meantime, you are prime minister of Japan. Is it not time to start behaving like one, having your speeches begin with:

“Here are the problems our nation faces…”

shifting to

“Here is what I believe are the keys to solving our problems…"

building up to

“Here are the specific ways this government is going to deal with our nation's problems in the current Diet session…”

and ending with a mighty,

"I ask the cooperation of all here present to bring the plans of this government to fruition"?

Tobias Harris calls the Hatoyama approach professorial. Mr. Harris is too kind and his kindness obfuscates the seriousness of the dilemma facing the electorate. Prime Minister Hatoyama's approach to his jobs has been adolescent. He has viewed both leadership of the DPJ and the prime ministership as showcases for his creativity (Look at me! No one has ever delivered a policy speech like this before!) rather than crushing burdens. The serious business of being the duly selected leader of a people has been reduced to the level of a school art project, with its creator completely unconcerned about the marketability of his final product.

I have been willing to give Hatoyama Yukio the benefit of the doubt. The aggravating, misplaced and in the end foundationless idealism displayed in the essay he published last year in Voice could be attributed to either a lack of familiarity with the concept that words have consequences, or to a lousy ghostwriter. However, last Friday’s policy speech represents Hatoyama's second massive lapse in editorial judgment in less than a year.

A famed adage has it that while there is no shame in being fooled once, it is shameful to allow oneself to be fooled twice. I have had it for the time being with Hatoyama-san and his failures to respect the offices entrusted to him. His dilletantish approach to leadership is beyond me.

Original image credit: Reuters