Another New Prime Minister?

Did you hear the news?  Japan’s embattled Prime Minister is calling for elections this August after horrible failure in the local Tokyo elections.  It’s epic!  Incredible!  Earth shattering!  The ruling LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) has been in power since the end of World War II and now it looks like the opposition DPJ party might take control.

Ok, maybe you didn’t hear about it, but I think it’s pretty amusing.  There have been three different prime ministers since I moved to this country, which seems a little odd because I’ve lived here for less than two years and there hasn’t been a major election yet.  The first was Shinzo Abe, whose name I memorized in case my JET program interviewer asked me about it.  He is remembered for being the youngest man ever to hold the office of Prime Minister and for always looking slightly to the left in photos.

After Abe quit for no discernible reason, he was replaced by Yasuo Fukuda who is famous for his epic gaffe during an interview about a college rape: “there are women who look like they are saying ‘Do it to me’. Those who have that kind of appearance are at fault, because men are black panthers.”  He also has a slightly evil looking smile, like a mad scientist who knows everyone is about to be eaten by mutant termites.  After slightly less than a year in office, he resigned in order to further the “democratic process” or something like that, and was replaced by Taro Aso, who looks like a yakuza bad-ass.  According to Wikipedia (thank you, demigods of information), his family made POWs work in their coal mines during the war and he is known for making mistakes while reading kanji words from teleprompters.  Personally, I think kanji are damn difficult so I don’t blame him, but some people are describing him as the George Bush of Japan.  That’s a pretty heavy title to live up to.

If the election doesn’t go well, and it doesn’t look like it will, he could soon be swept out of office as well.  Too bad Japanese elections aren’t as exciting as American ones.  Obama and Bush have come up in conversation with Japanese people more than any of these guys, but maybe that’s just because we make such a big show of things over there.  Here, politicians seems to just quietly fade away.

~ by Ryan on July 13, 2009.