Best since Koizumi

In two years and ten months total in Japan, I've lived under 5 prime ministers. Koizumi was in his third term (terms are only two years) when I first arrived in 2006. Upon returning in 2007, we had Abe, Fukuda, Aso, and now Hatoyama. Quite a lot in two years, huh? Abe and Fukuda resigned over scandals and declining popularity; Aso stayed in office despite scandals and declining popularity. His party was resoundingly defeated in the election last summer. The Japanese don't use the electoral college system (being, you know, not America) but I saw a great American-style map of the winning party by prefecture. 45 prefectures went majority Democratic Party of Japan, while only two stuck with the incumbent Liberal Democratic Party. Japanese politics works a little differently than anywhere else I know of. Cabinet members are always being indicted for their role in some scandal or making ridiculous statements such as "Japan has only one culture, one civilization, one language and one ethnic group." (Courtesy Taro Aso; at the opening of a museum whose displays tell about the influence China and Korea have had on Japan's heritage.) Fukuda also made comments (off-the-record) that some college women who were raped were "dressing as if to say 'Give it to me.'" Yikes. Before you get too mad, remember that comments like this are what helped force him to resign.

Political families are the norm- rags-to-riches tales hold no sway here. Americans have the Kennedys and the Bushes, but just imagine if EVERYONE was from that type of family. Technically, Fukuda was the first PM (in over 100 years of prime ministers) whose father was also a PM, but it is very typical for your close relations to have been Cabinet ministers or members of the Diet. Many political families are related by marriage, too; Aso's and Abe's fathers-in-law were PMs. It's rather incestuous. The average Japanese is not very political; you can guess why. My friend Kayoko once told me she feels she can't trust any politician. People are interested in local politics- I saw plenty of parades leading up to Hyogo's prefectural election day last summer, and some campaign offices for city councilmember hopefuls were located on my street, so I got a front-row seat to the action. But national politics is so full of corruption and scandal that it seems to be a big turnoff. Sidenote: I read a review of Jenny Sanford's book-- juicy!

But I think the revolving door of prime ministers has stopped for now. Since Hatoyama was elected in August, I felt that he was different. He is from a different party, the DPJ, whose image is not as scandal-tarnished as the LDP's. He went to Stanford for grad school (met his wife Miyuki there) and his son is a visiting researcher at Moscow State University, so I thought he'd be more worldly than past PMs. Just as I thought: he has been praised for improving ties with Asian neighbors and making American policy decisions more transparent. But lately he also made a controversial statement: Hatoyama is antihuman!

What he actually said, in Japanese, was that the earth would return to a natural state if there were no more humans. He went on to say that "Since we humans are here, we must take responsibility for the Earth." He also made statements about global warming and how it is a big mistake on our part. In Japan, global climate change is accepted as fact and we have all moved on with our lives and begun to ecologize.

The ironic thing here is that in a country where politicians are constantly making gaffes and saying things they should not, this was not one of them. The Japanese are so much more environmentally-minded than most Americans I've met, and would not have viewed Hatoyama's comments as controversial. Thanks to CNNgo for trying to kick up a storm about his statements. Aren't there real controversies you can cover? Another sidenote: Do you really think Paterson will stay in office?

In fact, I think Hatoyama is the best PM we've had since Koizumi, and perhaps may prove to have a better foreign policy. I'm excited for Japan's near future.