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Toru Hashimoto: Japan's would-be dictator

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“He has no hobbies. His entire energy is directed to his job,”

That sounds about typical for a lot of 40+ Japanese blokes I know. "Sleeping" is considered a leisure pursuit.

22 ( +23 / -2 )

I'm supposed to comment like this but fortunately JT did it first. This guy has some issues, no doubt his personal background has some influence on him. I heard from a Japanese that this guy is good leader and Japan lacks a leader but unfortunately I think guy will break Osaka and Japan into pieces. I hope we wouldn't turn the next big Hitler.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

i thought he was okay but his little mustache is beginning to show.

9 ( +9 / -2 )

What, no comments about only being able to stand his children for 30 minutes at a time and that raising him is his wife's job? No comments about closing libraries and using the money to light up a street? No comments about wanting to cut benefits for those who need them? No comments on his surveys that go so far against personal privacy it isn't funny? No comments about him wanting to fire those that don't fill out his surveys? How the majority of Osakans can support him is beyond me but then again, this country will follow anyone who dresses themselves up and proclaims they are great - we can look at Ishihara for proof of that. Mark my words, this guy is dangerous not only for us, but the Japanese as well.

27 ( +27 / -3 )

He reminds me of Hilter in that self loathing way.

10 ( +13 / -5 )

A standard popularist politician who says whatever is popular at the time, and the backtracks the moment the fickle public changes its mind. It is so true of democracy, we get the type of leaders we deserve.

The problem is that once he's in power he'll no longer need to bow to public pressure and, after decades of bowing to the will of the public, will strike back by becoming a regular little despot.

Frankly it just confirms the old axiom, "Those who seek power are those least fit to wield it.".

8 ( +8 / -0 )

What an idiot... Big fat, boss-like stupid idiot... These kind of people, and their stupid followers can bring countries down.. No, they never survive to repair the damaged their own stupid actions have caused...

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Does not the constitution prohibit a dictatorship?

3 ( +5 / -2 )

draw a little Hitler mustache on the pic above, striking resemblance!

3 ( +5 / -2 )

“What Japanese politics needs now is dictatorship—the power enough to be called ‘dictatorship,’” Hashimoto said last year while adding that power needs to be checked by local assemblies, voters and the mass media.

Either there's been a mistranslation somewhere here or this guy's so stupid he doesn't know what "dictatorship" means, but likes the sound of the word.

I suspect the latter.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Yeaaaaa, let's all ask the folks in the middle east how those dictatorships are working for them.....

2 ( +3 / -1 )

I suppose it is ok for the newspaper to write anything that pleases them. But this biased, shallow description of Hashimoto is shameful. Newspapers have become useless to inform us of something that really matters in life. I personally don't like Hahimoto except a few things he is doing with the Nikkoyoso and Doa. But again the newspaper can be entertaining only as a cheap joke.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Once again the sheep are lining up to be led to slaughter. Didn’t Japan learn anything from the last round of dictatorship?

Now I agree, the current political system is broken beyond repair. But only a fool would think that replacing it with a dictatorship could make everything better. History has more than proven that dictatorships lead to repression and atrocities. Just ask Chille, El Salvador, Nicaragua, the former Soviet Union or any Chinese dissident. That is if you are a Japanese voter incapable of grasping your own history with dictatorial rule.

Hitler and many others started out as local guys with a following and a few ideas that sparked interest with the sheepish masses. People love a strong leader so it is no wonder that in Japan’s weak political field, this guy stands out.

What Japan actually needs is for the masses to wake up and become involved in politics. Democratic politics working to support and address the needs of working people. The right wing in history has always sold the idea that they support the working people. They restore values, the old way of doing things and use power to sort things out. But the right wing soon enslaves the working people and turns them into little more than tools in their agenda.

We don’t need a right winger in power. We need open centrist government devoted to the people. Hashimoto cannot be allowed to rise to the power of dictator. Or it will be game over for Japan. Again.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Lets all hope this goose does not win a seat in the diet, he has serious issues that we could do with out.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Why does Japan need a leader? Oh, you think a leader would handle the nuclear crisis better? Please. Japan needs good dedicated people on the job, and one man cannot make up for a lack of them. Better Japan have no rudder, lest she be steered by the likes of people like this one into WWIII.

If this guy does become dictator, he might find out how straight this American can shoot, although he might not approve of the target.

And "would-be" dictator? I think "wanna-be" dictator is more like it.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Power grubbing fool.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

this guy is DANGEROUS. let's hope he doesn't try to be prime minister.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Hashimoto was brought up by a single mother

Not the usual Japanese male highchair tyrant.... He's a highchair tyrant on steroids. I can just imagine his mother constantly saying he's the best, he's her "little man"... I got the whole picture now.

11 ( +11 / -0 )

Look at his one-way eyes. Eyes of a taker, not a giver.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

“Cockroaches are great,” he told a town meeting in 2010. “When you approach them, they dash off even though they have no eyes on their back. They have a great sense of crisis and we have to share the same sense of crisis.”

Freak.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Scary, sadly a great many Japanese wud love to have a guy like this rise up.

Sends shivers down my spine to see the same they that happened in 1920-30's can just as easily happen again now, that is a trait Japanese would have been wise to lose instead of keep buried.

Lets hope this guy soon shoots himself in the foot & quickly fades, no good will come from this guy

4 ( +4 / -0 )

If he says the Japanese should be more like cockroaches (i.e. running away in the face of danger), I don't think he'll be able to get a majority backing that view.

The guy is simply a populist - he is not of very high intelligence, but clever enough to understand and use popular opinions currently en vogue among the influential Japanese (i.e. the old men who have become bitter leading Japanese companies into submission to Korean and Chinese companies, and the do-no-good political class who are only interested in personal monetary gain through side-deals).

The scene is set for a dictator (or sort-of-dictator) to take over Japan. But I don't think the world would have worry much, as Japan can be wiped out by China in the bat of an eyelid.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Cockroaches are great,” he told a town meeting in 2010. “When you approach them, they dash off even though they have no eyes on their back. They have a great sense of crisis and we have to share the same sense of crisis.

This has to be the most retarded thing I've read in a while. I guess they didn't teach biology at his privileged school.

I do agree with him on this though:

He has taken on Japan’s heavily-protected farmers who detest his support for the Trans Pacific Partnership, a mooted huge free trade area.

The TPP would be good for consumers in Japan.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Apparently he was Japan's most popular politician in the earlier part of this year. I support him because he is one of the few politicians to appear to have a sense of crisis and to attempt cuts. I respect the fact that I may be one of the people to loose my job if he gets in, but debt crisis is debt crisis, without him, or someone like him, Japan may become worse than Greece. This would be bad for the whole world.

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

He is a Hitler in Japanese version. My biggest concern is that Japanese go for this guy. That's very scary. Japan is in trouble, IMHO.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

“The source of power is the will of the people… Japan’s biggest misfortune is that people cannot elect their prime minister directly,”

Well, he's right about that.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

he was a corporate lawyer??

He is a bad news!!

Shame on him! He is for rich, big business and oppressors, not for the poor, oppressed and under previledged . He did not have any moral, and ethical standards as a lawyer to set up his own law firm to defend the poors. Why did he become a corporate lawyer? To be rich and famous?

Some of you do not understand the difference what I am saying here, but watch out.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

i think the cockroach analogy has been misunderstood. he is attempting to say that even a cockroach can sense danger and have a reaction to it. but people in japan don't sense any danger to their livelihood (i.e. bankrupt pension system, soaring costs of medical care, aging society, etc.) so they continue to accept the status quo, which is imperiling the future of japan. if people in society can't even act as smart as a cockroach then there is no hope for japan.

in any case, hashimoto needs to balance his ideology and think a bit more. this country has much deeper problems than people with tattoos. stick to the populist message, dude.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

good to see an informative piece about this sociopath.

the fact that he was raised by a single mother, etc. and yet appears not only to have no empathy for people struggling to make ends meet, while evincing a unceasing ambition to establish himself in the ruling class would seem to indicate an expanding disconnect in this guy's psyche.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

exaclty even india needs dictatorship now. its the only way to root out corruption

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Premature to label him a "Hitler", but more like an Pinochet or Franco. No discernible beliefs, except to hack away at perceived Left-Wing institutions like unions and . Yakuza links. Will probably latch onto whatever corporate or social force would elevate him to more power. Start to worry when the goofballs in the black trucks start singing his praises. Carefully watch the cops and local arrests.

Never thought I'd be rooting for Japan's do-nothing bureaucracy to swallow a man up, but....

5 ( +5 / -0 )

He can be the prime minister. They never last long. J-gov never does.

But if he's planning to tackle Japan's moldy never-change-anything bureaucracy, he's doomed. Totally.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

DoLittleBeLateMay. 29, 2012 - 11:58AM JST

He can be the prime minister. They never last long. J-gov never does.

If he successfully becomes a dictator, he can do anything as he wants. He can stay in power as long as he wants against a will of people. .

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

It can not come as any surpsise to anyone who has an insight to how populism works that this person has tapped avvein of discontent and plain 'dissatisfaction' with the greying landscape of the status quo. Politicians who believe in something need to counter this rather dangerous man and quckly..

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Another self centered lunatic.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

A lot of his stuff I do not agree with, but it cannot be denied he is an important man in Japanese politics -- if only that he keeps the current ruling parties on their toes.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

He's a mere populist, I don't think that he will last even in Japan.

He seems to have no real vision or passion... he's only in it for the rush of "winning", and gaining more power, it seems. I'm guessing that his strange fanatical views will alienate even the Japanese.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Japan needs a true democratic system, and a transparent monitoring/reporting process for all public finances.

Dictatorship WTF... This guy is a narcissistic idiot and dangerous. Unfortunately, too many sheep incorrectly think he is the answer...

0 ( +3 / -3 )

This guy's not as capable as Hitler. But he's still dangerous. Anyone like that would be dangerous if he had a lot of power.The Japanese just don't have the "golden middle" or so to speak. They have either passive politicians or overly active ones, none of them is reasonable. Well, Noda's not THAT bad. He's just taking things at his own pace but I don'tthink he's a bad PM for now.

And Hashimoto's building an army of his own, that's right. The guy that originated his fame from the tv shows.... Imagine any dude from the reality show in America to become... .say, the mayor of Washington. lol LOL.

The reason the Japanese have this kind of politicians is partially due to their mentality.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

With 2,000 followers signed up to a school he established to teach would-be parliamentarians, Hashimoto has a ready-made army aiming to take the political high ground from squabbling lawmakers who have produced little more than a string of short-term, powerless premiers.

“What Japanese politics needs now is dictatorship—the power enough to be called ‘dictatorship,’” Hashimoto said last year while adding that power needs to be checked by local assemblies, voters and the mass media.

Just from these two paragraphs it's easy to see what this guy is looking to become. hitler and the hitler youth anyone.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I like him actually. I watch a lot of of DIET telecasts (not by choice, it is on the TV as I go to work) this country has no real leadership, at least Hashimoto has ideas, although some of them are crazy...some are good!

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

@shanbelle "this country has no real leadership, at least Hashimoto has ideas, although some of them are crazy...some are good!"

Exactly what the Germans thought around 1930 - can't you see having this "at least he does something" attitude is never going to end well?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Marcelito, you are sadly wrong here. Just because people recognize that Hashimoto is a potential dictator and a threat to Japanese liberty, does not in any way mean support for the existing government. There is not a black and white choice to be made here.

On the contrary, it is further evidence that Japan needs to positively rethinking its political environment and future to assure both liberty and constructive change. This is what I think most foreign critics of Japan believe.

Your arrival at some kind of decision between two dangerous and impotent options is illustrative of not understanding the issue at all. You cannot replace an inept government with a fascist and expect things to improve. Nor can you continue with an inept governement because you reject the petit dictator option.

What you really need to do is encourage the people of Japan to work for effective political leadership. Something that Japan is more than capable of doing and most certainly should do.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

“The source of power is the will of the people… Japan’s biggest misfortune is that people cannot elect their prime minister directly,” he said, referring to the system that sees lawmakers vote on who gets the top job.

And a dictatorship does? Hmm He doesn't seem to understand the concept of dictatorship.

Hes either the long lost love child of Adolf Hitler or Ishihara....

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Japanese are looking for a person like Hashimoto. They love super confident people like him that are great on TV. And the media loves him. He seems to be on all the time, and if you watch the camera angles etc, they seem to be building him up.

There are some ideas that he has and statements he makes that many average Japanese like, and even I like the way he is not afraid to be against everyone if he thinks he's right.

But. any politician who says the country needs a dictator - and who obviously looks like he is building towards being that dictator is dangerous. He could either be the best thing to happen to Japan or the worst since WW2. A country going nowhere with no confidence and no strong leadership is ripe for a guy like him. And as other pointed out, it all seems HItleresque. Obviously, Hitler promoted and stood for some things that appealed to Germans in the early times.

My gut feeling is that this guy is trouble. Starting a party of disciples like he is, I can see him changing every rule he can once he gets in. And, Japanese in my opinion are very easily fooled. Tough strong guy with better looks than the others who gets everyone singing kimigayo? Yeah, I think he'll be successful. But people don't think. And that's whats so dangerous about it all.

Men who like the word "dictator" are usually not people who really have the people's heart at interest. And as a gaijin, I can see him becoming increasingly willing to bash the gaijin if it helps him. That Japanese love guys like him and Ishihara is disturbing. My only answer is that they just don't think. And I admit, he's great on TV. So, he'll get the women's vote. (On that note I'll quit before I start offending women with insinuations about how much they use their brains....)

2 ( +3 / -1 )

But I'll allude to it. Ask Japanese women who they think would be a good PM, and you get Hashimoto, Koizumi's son, and Ishihara's son.

What do they know about their policies and qualifications? Nothing. So ...

1 ( +2 / -1 )

oh no!!!what's gotten into him?!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

But the real question is did he ever get the chance to knock up Agawa?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

A country in the grip of financial woes, a charismatic extremist... public sector employees should sing the anthem, no tattoos on public sector employees... guy's a Nazi.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Ask Japanese women who they think would be a good PM, and you get Hashimoto, Koizumi's son, and Ishihara's son.

You also get Ozawa and Ishihara himself which is why I don't think people who don't pay taxes shouldn't get the chance to vote. That would rule out the majority of women in this country and I am okay with them not voting since most of them don't have a flipping clue about politics and only vote on who is cute or whose dad was handsome... Ishihara remains IN Tokyo because of old biddies who think he's smart.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

I thought it was rather strange when he started getting more air time than Noda. Go figure.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Any society where blood sucking tyrant like this can win votes has serious problems. Is it too late for Japan?

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Please tone down your rhetoric.

Nisegaijin, THAT is the question alright.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

2016 headline: "Hashimoto re-elected after controversial cockroack suffrage reforms"

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Guys I sent this link to him and got a reply that said "you like cockroach? Have tattoo?"... I am on it.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

I don't know... It sounds like all he's doing is monitoring what the public says they want, then announcing he'll do that regardless of whether it makes sense to do so or not.

Imagine if the politicians governed based solely on what gets posted on JT. Chaos would ensue.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

On the populares we have:

Hashimoto Ishihara Kozumi Children Inc. remnants

On the Optimates:

We have none

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Wouldn't it be awful if Hashimoto fell under a bus in Osaka tomorrow. What a tragedy that would be.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

In seriousness, I reckon the whole Hashimoto thing is a good example of why the Democracy thing just hasn't worked in Japan. They tried to follow/copy the likes of Australia and New Zealand - but let's be honest here: the Japanese people just have not warmed to the democracy thing after 5 decades. Voting is probably just not their thing?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

tkoind2May. 29, 2012 - 09:07AM JST

@ikoind2, I have a high regard to your post. You and I share the same view on political apathy of Japan.

Well, after WWII, Japan has been soaked in a sweet cacktail called "peace and prosperity" which is good, but what do you expect from them including tabroid journalists who had never gone to a combat zone and never starved for freedom. They never had to earn it, it was given. It is not their fault to go crazy for AKB48 and moron TV programs. They will never wake up until everything becomes too late.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

the Japanese people just have not warmed to the democracy thing after 5 decades. Voting is probably just not their thing?

9 decades. Japan has has elections since the 1920's. What changed after WWII was that women were allowed to vote (amongst other things).

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I guess it makes sense that he isn't popular on JT. Typical posters on this site don't like any Japanese politicians expressing their opinions,

You don't like them for being typical J politicians not making drastic changes, and you don't like them if they are opinionated.

I'm sure someday you will find someone you guys agree with about everything about everything about everything

-3 ( +4 / -6 )

so is communism the opposite of a dictatorship?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

@johnny, I have a strong tie to Japan as many friends are still living in Japan since I left.. I lived there more than 25 yrs. I love Japan as well as you do and I want them to do better. . My comments are not valid on what? Please post your objections when you have a different view on each topic at that time, not later. I always respect different views from others on each issue. I leave that country to hands of dictator and corrupt business managers?. I have a strong value for Economic/Democracy. Freedom, Justice, Equality and Free/Fair Trade issues are important issues that have been cultivated over 50 yrs . Thank you for letting me know. I appreciate that very much.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

What Japanese politics needs now is dictatorship—the power enough to be called ‘dictatorship

Does he mean a left one or a right one?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

What next this Hashimoto is going to boast?? Japan can build 4000 nuclear warheads? I think this guy lacking the knowledges of how Japanese politics work: Money and family connections!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I am not sure why he is thought to be such a populist. Almost the other politicians have pork-barrelled their way into power, and even the recent administration, that half pork barrelled (free motorways, child benefits) and half promised cuts, did what the bureaucrats wanted - few cuts and expensive motorways.

Only Ms Renhou Murata (often alas referred to by her first name) seemed to try to cut budgets, so unpopular was that task.

The best students try to become bureaucrats so they can avoid hard work, and sit in the concrete palaces built with our taxes and manage those "boxes," "centres", and libraries, which spring up everywhere. They keep opening times that do not allow the tax payers (those working) to use them! My local library, a leisure facility in my opinion, was closed during Golden Week. I was disgusted. There are so many people employed sitting at desks in my local sports centre -- about 20 --- that they can not afford to turn on the hot water in the showers making the facility pretty unusable in the colder months. The sense of "I will let you use this facility", of entitlement, of the self-perceived sense of being among the elite is palpable, and to a large extent justified since the government workers are richer, better qualified. "A guy at the local library said "You can read books, here if you like." Each chair (laminated, sculpted) in the library cost as the monthly expenditure of the many of the local fishermen.

And Japan sinks into debt, which its children will have to pay. And still the other politicians talk about what pork they can distribute, what they can pay to the people. Japanese public debt is 230% of GDP second is Greece at 160% (IMF figures). This is out of all geographical and historical proportions (US public debt now and in the middle of WW2 is was about 100%)

This level of debt, this long pork barrel ride into debt, will end. Lender confidence is decreasing (see today's news about Fitch http://www.japantoday.com/category/business/view/fitch-cuts-japan-credit-rating-as-debt-balloons). I would rather the public debt spiral ended with cuts rather than by bankruptcy. And Hashimoto is the only politician that is affecting cuts. And yet everyone hates him. What is going on? Do other posters have children whose fate is tied with that of Japan? Perhaps when people say that Hashimoto is a populist they mean if he gets in he will be popular in retrospect with children who grow up to live in a country that is not bankrupt.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

and the banks are serving the interest of China? balanced maybe

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I guess it makes sense that he isn't popular on JT. Typical posters on this site don't like any Japanese politicians expressing their opinions, You don't like them for being typical J politicians not making drastic changes, and you don't like them if they are opinionated. I'm sure someday you will find someone you guys agree with about everything about everything about everything

I'm pretty sure people don't like him because he is crazy.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Wouldn't it be awful if Hashimoto fell under a bus in Osaka tomorrow. What a tragedy that would be. A city bus driver who had his wages cut, who has a tattoo who is married to a female teacher who refuses to stand and sing kimigayo! Awesome!

Hide, you can keep making such claims but we dislike this man for various reasons - as many have pointed out. Keep crying though.

Oh, Marcelito, you reminded me of more more thing... he wants to get rid of inheritance if I recall correctly. All that money the old folks have saved? Goes to the government, not the children of the dead. His 7 kids (whom I've had the displeasure to be stuck with in a room who are badly behaved) have been born with silver spoons in their mouths and will reap the benefits of daddy dearest. Make no mistakes, he is no different from the others except that he was the ones that bought the silver spoons.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I don't know if you can consider cockroach analogies as a political platform.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

You know one thing, aren't you? If he assumes power as the first Japanese dictator in history, once democratic monarchy collapses, we're giving this EEEH! the worst wedgie ever known to man

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Just elect the person who can get you results. This can be ascertained by examining their track record. Everything else is just a smoke screen. Maybe voters will wake up and see they aren't pigeon holed when it comes to elected officials. However, they are easily manipulated and we get the same lame candidates every time. Thus the choice is usually down to the lesser of the two evils or the one who runs a better PR campaign.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

No comments about wanting to cut benefits for those who need them?

Who needs benefits? If you are not sick or mentally impaired, get a job. Hashimoto is right on about government workers, they are a bunch of overpaid, unproductive whiners, whose numbers need to be cut.

The survey`s are necessary to determine who does what and are necessary. The same thing has occurred in the UK as a prelude to sacking people. Why should tax payers subsidize unnecessary jobs or benefits?

Thankfully, Japan is not like Europe or Australia or New Zealand, they don`t reward sloth, whiners or encourage dependancy.

Go Hashimoto!!

I like him and so do many Japanese. I don`t agree with on nuclear power or tattoos.

That sounds about typical for a lot of 40+ Japanese blokes I know.

Perhaps because they work long hours and don`t expect other to support them?

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Priest, single mothers need benefits because this society is so butt backwards when it comes to mothers working. If anyone should understand that, it is Hashimoto.

Funny, I don't see him making comments about cutting the 1.3 million cap for housewives. Why? Because HE benefits from it.

The surveys are NOT necessary and are a violation of personal privacy. Post me a link when the UK has sent a survey around demanding to know people's union activities and if they have tattoos and wanting to fire those who refuse.

Oh and you might want to look at Hashimoto's past comments on nuclear power. Flip flop....

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Priest, you don't have to choose an extremist to implement sensible changes to how the nation and cities spend money. Extreme positions create more problems than they address.

tMarie is right. In a society with so many damaging ideas about employment, you cannot help but have people in need of support. So rather than going after the support, go after the problems causing. Treat the causes of poverty not the symptoms.

Revise labor laws so that women can work and get paid equally. Did you know that 1 in 3 working women in Japan live below poverty lines?

End discrimination against age and sex. Penalize companies who practice such activities and give encentives to companys who hire women and older people.

Change the tax code to encourage women to get out and work.

Spend some money on retraining to allow workers to change careers more easily when their current careers are no longer viable. Recycle the energy and talent of working people and put them back to work.

Then sure improve efficiencies in government, but tattoos have nothing to do with anything. I have two and I am one othe hardest/smartest working people in my department. That nonsense about tattoos is utter BS.

Unions protect workers, we need more responsible and clean unions to protect working people from the excessive greed of corporations and the abuse by other employers.

Societies need to be responsible for their people. It is just a question of whether you make that responsibility passive as it is now, or positive and active as it should be. But you cannot just cut it without dire social consequences. This is something the boneheaded right can't seem to grasp.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

There is nothing really new about Hashimoto's rhetoric, nor his brash and vitriolic style. Third party candidates have always come and go, from all sides of the political spectrum, and rarely have they received the kind of media attention as Hashimoto. In the 1990's, Takako Doi, perhaps the antithesis of Hashimoto, was one of Japan's most popular politicians. She wasn't a member of Japan's political elite, she wasn't labeled a fascist, she wasn't nearly as controversial, and she received a fraction of the media attention; yet, she was able to lead her party to take 132 seats in the diet. There is nothing new about Hashimoto, except for his constant media attention shaping him into the only alternative to the status quo. What is new about Hashimoto, is his unusually long record of disregarding the law and the constitution--though he is supposed to be a lawyer. Not even his calls for an offensive military are new--just mostly ignored by a majority of the population in the past. Again, he is supposed to be a lawyer, but perhaps what is really new about Hashimoto is his brazen willingness to remove Japan's largest source of checks and balances, the upper house, or essentially reduce the Constitution to statutory law by making it amendable by simple majority vote.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

tkoind2May. 31, 2012 - 09:38AM JST

@ikoind2

Amazing, you and I are always on the same page. I am your shadow in many issues..... Just amazing! It has been my pleasure to read many solid reasonings in your posts.Great!!!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

"There is nothing new about Hashimoto, except for his constant media attention shaping him into the only alternative to the status quo."

Yep, the media seems to love him. But the media brings people up and then down too. There was a time when I saw Higashikokubaru on TV all the time too. And going way back when Koizumi first got in Tanaka Makiko was always on TV, and heralded as the next big thing.

btw, I think he's accepted the restart of the reactors this summer

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Despotism strikes again.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

If u don't think about it, it will go away. OH GOD, I'VE BEEN HERE TOO LONG.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Hashimoto is the result of decades of career politicians and bureaucrats, managing rather than leading the nation-state; bribing a largely unquestioning population and sycophantic media with a safe state and constant growth, in return for not rocking the boat. Problem is that Hashimoto may well rock the boat, and then simply scuttle it. Change for the better is good; a return to populist rightwing nutjobs isn't.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

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