|
 |  | |
|
|
about Asia Buzz
Letter from Japan: Pure Greed
With Prime Minister Mori set to be dumped, will the LDP relinquish control of the nation? I wish!
By PETER McKILLOP
November 17, 2000
Web posted at 2:50 p.m. Hong Kong time, 1:50 a.m. EDT
|
INTERACTIVE |
|
Ticked off at Asia Buzz? Turned on? Talk back to
TIME
|
|
While the rest of the world looks in bewilderment at the never-ending legal
drama surrounding the U.S. presidential election, Japan is embroiled in a
struggle for its next Prime Minister. Again! With almost a new Prime Minister
each year for the past decade, Japan has gone through leaders as fast as
Elizabeth Taylor went through husbands.
| |
ASIA BUZZ |
|
Asia Buzz: Cat and Mouse
Shanghainese Web addicts take on the authorities
-
Thursday, November 16, 2000
Asia Buzz: Election Special, Part 55
It could only happen in America
-
Monday, November 13, 2000
Culture on demand: Election Knife-Edge
Our exclusive interview with an Absentee Palm Beach County voter
-
Friday, November 10, 2000
Letter from Japan: Like a Kid in a Candy Shop
A day in the life of a columnist
-
Friday, November 10, 2000
Asia Buzz: The Mile High Club
A website for pilots and airline types to get things off their chest is proving a hit
-
Thursday, November 9, 2000
Culture on Demand: Love Match
The world's tennis legends let their hair down
-
Friday, November 3, 2000
Asia Buzz: Online Advertising
Can you remember the last banner ad you clicked on?
-
Tuesday, October 31, 2000
|
|
ASIAWEEK |
Intelligence
The story behind today's news from the editors of Asiaweek
|
|
The names all blur into a gray mass of indecision: Miyazawa, Hatta, Obuchi,
Murayama, Hashimoto... And all come and go with one result: Japan sinks deeper
and deeper into a sea of red ink. With every new Prime Minister come new
revelations of just how troubled Japan's economy is. And just as the sun sets,
and rises, with every new leader comes the instant realization that nothing will
be done about it.
Japan and the U.S. are both witnessing the spectacle of pure, unvarnished
political greed. The world's two mightiest economic democracies find themselves
trapped by the refusal of their elected representatives to look no further than
what is in it for them.
In Florida, both George W. Bush and Al Gore have no qualms dragging a
disbelieving public through the political muck of this fetid electoral swamp.
Both men are obsessed with becoming President. Yet each day, a growing number of
Americans would be delighted if neither got the top job. As the credibility gap
grows between these candidates and the voters, so does the obvious self-denial
that seems to be propelling these two men to undertake yet more embarrassing
legal tactics to squeeze one or two more votes from exhausted Florida vote-
counters.
Electoral shenanigans and the total pursuit of self-interest should come as no
surprise to followers of Japanese politics. At first glance, Japanese politics
seems so complicated. All those strange names, the ebb and flow of factions, the
Byzantine parliamentary procedures, is, if you are nutty enough to care, the
political equivalent of Chinese water torture. Japanese politics, though, boils
down to this: LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) self-preservation. Like Bush and
Gore, the ruling LDP and its members will do anything to remain in power.
Anything! Gerrymandered districts, bias towards one constituency over another,
vote-buying -- all these cherished Floridian tricks are well known in Japan. All
are done for one reason: to subvert the will of the people to maintain the self-
interests of one politician or party.
How else could one explain the inability of a Japanese political leader to
emerge as a real leader after 10 lousy years? Year after year, and far beyond
the reach of regular voters, the revolving doors to the office of the Prime
Minister's whirls as fast as one political faction can spin it. Next week
Yoshiro Mori may lose his job. Why? Not because he is completely unacceptable
for the job (the overwhelming public consensus in Japan), but because the shadow
puppeteers of his faction have lost to the puppeteers of another faction. So
Mori will fall, and a new leader will rise, only to fall in a few months, felled
by sneaky behind-the-scene tactics of a rival coalition.
Is this anyway to run a government? With Japan experiencing a decade-long
economic recession, with it no nearer to achieving its foreign policy goals than
it was a decade ago, and with vast portions of the electorate opting out of
politics, the answer should clearly be NO!
My hope is that reasonable voters in Japan and the U.S. will eventually wake up
from this politically induced slumber and realize that democracies should be
guided by the self-interest of a nation, not an individual person or party.
Ticked off at Asia Buzz? Turned on? Talk back to
TIME
Write
to TIME at mail@web.timeasia.com
Search
for recent
Asia Buzz
TIME Asia home
|
|
LATEST HEADLINES:
|
Click Here for the latest regional analysis from TIME Asia
|
|
|
