Aso says WBC win reaffirms Japan's power

Tuesday 24th March, 04:29 PM JST

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PaulieWalnuts at 01:22 AM JST - 25th March

politicians have never been afraid to grab a zeitgeist or jump on a bandwagon to divert attention away from their own responsibilities or shortcomings. Maybe he means to say "you don't need me. give up on politics and watch sport. Ichiro for PM"
PaulieWalnuts at 01:25 AM JST - 25th March

This is why I hate it when Japan wins an International Competition. nobody in the media or on the Japan Team bothers to make mention of the good play and hard work by the opposition...

it would seem Japan are your 'opposition'. congratulate them on their hard work and win already why don't you?
maxter at 02:19 AM JST - 25th March

Let's see...America's best players didn't participate. So...Japan beat an American team but not the American team. Congratulations to Japan for what they accomplished but can the Japanese team or Japanese people really believe they are the best if they didn't play the best team? Uhhhh...dumb question of course they will. I played Go the other day and beat a good Japanese player. I suppose I am the champion of Go now? Did I play the best player Japan has to offer? No, and that is not important, or is it? However, I did feel good about myself and I hope I can find another Japanese person to beat soon so that my "power" can be reaffirmed. Give it a little more time and baseball will have been invented in Japan. Where's my Go board?
ispano6 at 02:26 AM JST - 25th March

Aso is truly an idiot. Many Japanese people are idiots. Many are not. Just make sure to be friends with the non-idiots. I can't wait for Aso to be out of office.
Good_Jorb at 02:38 AM JST - 25th March

So...Japan beat an American team but not the American team.

There was more than one American team at the WBC? Otherwise the beat the American team at WBC. America may have been able to create a better team but they didn't, so that is America's fault. As well, there is no way prove that had different players been choosen, that the outcome would have been different.

I played Go the other day and beat a good Japanese player.

Did you beat him will play at the World Go Championship? If not, then your comparsion is not valid.

Saying you didn't have your best players out there is poor excure for losing in any sport (expect singles tennis). If a team lost thier star pitcher before game 7 of the world series and then lost the game, they don't get the World Series Trophy because they might have won had they had their star pitcher.
goodDonkey at 03:11 AM JST - 25th March

Congratulations Japan. I apologize for the petty little people from my country who cannot give you credit for your sports triumph. They spend hours figuring out ways to diminish others accomplishments. Incapable of such accomplishments themselves they feel the only way to glory is belittling others.

The most common reason for such pettiness is that they must live vicariously through the accomplishments of sports teams, corporations from their country and their countries accomplishments because they are quite diminutive in their own lives. You will generally find them cowering in some corner in real life.

Once again congratulations on a great victory.
herefornow at 06:29 AM JST - 25th March

Cut Aso some slack. Obviously the wing did not reaffirm Japan's "fundamental power", and anyone who does has absolutely no perspective. But, in fairness, I think it does somewhat reaffirm Japan's "fundamental strength", which is teamwork, dedication, and hard work. Maybe just a case of semantics or poor translation.
JoeBigs at 07:13 AM JST - 25th March

maxter at 02:19 AM JST - 25th March Let's see...America's best players didn't participate. So...Japan beat an American team but not the American team.

Ok so all those major league baseball players are not the best of the best of the best?

Someone better tell Derek Jeter that he needs to quit as "Captain" New York Yanks because he isn't that good.

Come on, the United States fielded the best team they could. So did every other nation. Japan just had the best team out there.

The United States is not as good as it used to be. Many nations have caught up and now we need to play harder. Not the usual easy time out there.

Major league baseball players in final 4 teams

Japan 5 of 28 (rest in the Japanese league) Korea 1 of 28 (4 Japan league) United States 29 of 29 (no minor league players) Venezuela 22 of 28

BTW, if you look at the rosters of all the teams that played you will find out where many of the MLB players played.

The United States is not producing the best of the best any more. Now we look for players in other countries.
mushroomcloud at 08:17 AM JST - 25th March

For the fact that Japan has so little to be proud of these days, it is a good thing that they at least have baseball.
plasticmonkey at 09:57 AM JST - 25th March

If you listened to Aso's comment in Japanese, it was clear that by "Japan" he meant the baseball team. Too much fuss over nothing, most of you.
Tahoochi at 01:06 PM JST - 25th March

Here's what Aso said:

今回の戦いを通して、わが国の底力を再確認した。こんかいのたたかいをとおして、わがくにのそこじからをさいかくにんした。

Now, first, the LITERAL translation:

Through this battle, we have re-confirmed the latent (potential) power of our country.

NEXT, this is how it should have been INTERPRETED:

Through this battle, we were able to re-confirm what the Japanese people are capable of.

You see, I took Aso's comment as sort of a post-game pep talk for the country to remain resilient and fight through these tough economic times. With that said, I do believe that he is just blowing hot air, and no one in Japan is listening to anything he says at this point in time anyway. But what do you expect from a politician?
Noliving at 03:53 PM JST - 25th March

Technically yes good jorb, the puerto rico is a part of the US, in fact the citizens of puerto rico are american citizens. Just that puerto rico is not a state of the US but it is a US territory and everyone that is a citizen of that territory including those born there are american citizens.
toguro at 04:30 PM JST - 25th March

First off, congratulations to Team Japan. My opinion may be a little biased, because of the fact that I'm an Ichiro fan. That being said, I love to watch good baseball, and Team Japan certainly did not disappoint. I also tip my hat to team Korea as weel, for they did manage to take the game into extra innings. I would love to see Ichiro get a shot at being clutch in a World Series game.
goodDonkey at 10:51 PM JST - 25th March

mushroomcloud said:

For the fact that Japan has so little to be proud of these days, it is a good thing that they at least have baseball.

Where the hell did you get that "fact?"

Japan can be very proud of one of the lowest crime rates in the entire world. Japan can be proud of a very unique history that has maintained a significant portion of its culture relative to any other culture. Japan manufactures excellent products. Japan turned around from a warring nation to one of total peace that is in fact an honorable advocate of peace. Japan has one of the highest rates of literacy in the world and a huge percentage of college educated workers including a very high percent of engineers. So the fact that Japan won the WBC is something to be proud of but certainly it is a fact that it is not by any means the only thing they have to be proud of.

I am no Japanophile and I know as every nation has its own unique set of problems so does Japan but to take this opportunity of success to get little digs in is . . . well petty, like I said before.

JoeBigs, I enjoyed your post.
smithinjapan at 07:05 PM JST - 26th March

goodDonkey: Sorry, but I have to side with mushroom cloud on this one, given that he said 'THESE DAYS' and not just in general. I mean, all of the points you mentioned: crime rate, culture, excellent products... compare them ALL with even two or three years ago and you'll see they're not quite what they used to be. Add politics, corruption, ineffectuality of the police force... you name it. Besides that, I agree with you that all countries have their fair share of problems.

With baseball, however, in this case Japan can certainly be proud of their team. As I think I said before, though, having Aso try to elbow in on the lime-light and say his two-cents really must be a downer for the celebration.