Comments on: Why The Long Face Abe-san?

By: sotei-guy

sotei-guy — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 07:26:23 +0000

doesn’t surprize me about the relationship with his wife. I remember seeing an interview with her on a wide-show about the day before he resigned. She was so scathing of him and criticizing everything about the way he lead his life. Normally, you don’t allow the first lady to say stuff like that.

By: VoXman

VoXman — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 14:14:13 +0000

Ahhh yes!!!! Yamashita’s Gold rearing it’s ugly head again. The 100’s of millions of dollars backed by gold bullion that fueled the “amazing” and “surprising” rapid recovery of the Japanese economy in the 1950’s. Meanwhile when confronted by the evidence of Allied POWs being used in slave labor factories during WWII, Japan Inc hides behind the Peace accords in San Fran, CA. I sometimes think that our Japan friends make it too easy for us to counter their claims that they are a peaceful, and passive nation. Anytime they criticize a western country’s aggressive behavior, there is always an unresolved issue from WWII that one can hang over their heads.

By: Ryland

Ryland — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 22:45:57 +0000

Equally as interesting is the Prime minister-hopeful Aso’s history, especially about his family’s forced labour factories and his denial of this, even when Australian veterans who worked at that factory were in Japan at the time of his denials!

By: sorrydaijin

sorrydaijin — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 09:47:24 +0000

Adamatari, for me, its not about the rocks. It’s about the seafood… er sealife in the water around the rocks.
mmmmm. kaniiii. And I wonder why I have put on nearly 20kg in the last 10 years…

Back to Abe though, right from the word go, I thought he was weak and directionless. Most of his popularity was through the whole kidnapping thing which hasn’t really been resolved and has probably gone backwards since he gained power. He really seemed clueless trying to adopt a line that respected Koizumi’s reforms (which were pretty mangled by the time they were implemented anyway) while appeasing the old guard.
Personally I hope the DPJ can win a couple more elections on the trot to make the LDP realize its free ride is over and hopefully make politics a little more meaningful in Japan.

By: Adamatari

Adamatari — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:07:44 +0000

Azuma, that’s got to be one of the weirdest comments ever. So are you suggesting that Japan should take an agressive stance and possibly take back what are mostly uninhabitable rocks by force or intimidation? I doubt that would work with Korea, and certain Russia would just laugh at the prospect (their military is still quite formidable). These islands are pet projects of nationalists, but they aren’t that valuable in real terms. If Japanese nationalists think that Japan should build up it’s military and go to war over some rocks, I hope that events continue to conspire against them. These disputes should be settled through international arbitration or diplomacy.

I think Abe made a few mistakes, the one I’ve heard of was stocking his cabinet with friends (and apparently untrustworthy ones, considering all the scandals). That said, I think he’s just not hard enough/cynical enough to hold on to that position, and events conspired against him as well. It seems that he had a sort of nervous breakdown - I think if you’re on the verge of a nervous breakdown, I can forgive you for resigning suddenly.

By: Azuma

Azuma — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 06:52:01 +0000

The downfall of Abe is not good news for the Hawks.
If Japan is to regain the Northern Territories and Takeshima, it will need a real military to do so. I doubt it will ever happen with the present defense-only military policy and Article 9. It seems so ironic that after 50 years in power, with only the one short interlude, the right wing LDP is still stuck with left wing policies. However, I can’t see that changing anytime soon.

By: gman

gman — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 11:37:51 +0000

So he gave in to blackmail before he could get busted?? Sounds like he didn’t have enough bulldogs to beat down the dirt-mongers and ran out of fall guys as they’d knocked themselves off already.

There is an orchestrated attack on this administration, some changes were going too deep for the old guard. Clinton used a cigar in and did dodgy deals the whole time and he still survived! Take a lesson from the Yanks boys!