Trainspotters to Trump whisperers: Contenders for Japan PM

Motegii probably a candidate for Crazytown like Trump

With strong English, Abe's former golf partner Toshimitsu Motegi was dubbed the "Trump whisperer" for his deft handling of the former U.S. president in tricky U.S.-Japan trade talks.

"Trump whisperer" eh?

Interesting. Trump's slurs and rambling have gotten worse and worse recently. Ironic since Trump keeps accusing Kamala of 'word salad' too.

Motegi would be very disappoint if he becomes PM only to be faced with a Harris/Walz US admin.

I’ve met Taro Kono in Sendai with my young child. He was a lovely guy. Hope he wins.

The PM of Japan has limited powers often dictated by career bureaucrats and influenced by which ever party in in Washington. But give Kono a go.

No oji sans please

Nothing will happen without Aso's approval. Vote LDP, you get LDP.

No oji sans please

So you would rather have an Obaa?

Why mention that T guy? He is going to quit the election soon now he knows he will lose.

Shigeru Ishiba looks always angry

I remember when Koizumi’s dad was mentioned a lot in foreign press because of his hairstyle

"Trump whisperer" eh?

See the name "Trump" in the title and people can for the first time comment on the politics in the country they live in.

Such weird ways to present candidates.

The model maker; the guy has a hobby and this is a highlight on his career?

The Trump Whisperer... Just weird and creepy.

The surfer... Will he make the progress of the nation "sexy" too?

And lastly, Kono.

backing same-sex marriage, more immigration and supporting married women retaining their names.

Does having a common sense make you a liberal? If so, I guess I can see why some folks can only see left or right, conservative vs liberal, instead of having an objective point of view.

With strong English, Abe's former golf partner Toshimitsu Motegi was dubbed the "Trump whisperer" for his deft handling of the former U.S. president in tricky U.S.-Japan trade talks.

The Harvard-educated former McKinsey consultant has had wide-ranging and important economic ministerial posts and has been economy and foreign minister.

Motegi, 68, is respected for his policy knowledge but is reportedly feared for having a short fuse. Trump reportedly told Abe that he thought Motegi was "too tough".

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やっぱり。 It seems that Toshimitsu Motegi is the right man to lead Japan.

Don’t think it’ll be the young guy, the first female PM or Kono who’ll show the other guys up. Motegi vs Ishiba with Motegi in the end. It’s Todai vs Keio. Money on Todai.

It will be Kano or Motegi, but probably Kano. Certainly the successful candidate will need to drink heavily... it's a tough job.

What is a "Trainspotters to trump"???

A female diplomat who's tough on crime? Seems like a good combo.

It's no secret that if more women were elected to the highest post in a country, we'd almost certainly see a huge downtick in conflict and war, as women tend to think with their minds, not their reproductive organs. (Remember that exchange from "Tomorrow Never Dies":

Admiral Roebuck: With all due respect, M, sometimes I don't think you have the balls for this job.

M: Perhaps. But the advantage is, I don't have to think with them all the time"

Prefer to see a man in charge, women haven’t done well as leaders over the past decades, Thatcher and that New Zealand woman for example.

At least we have learned here, that and why there is no real need for an opposition, because even those few party candidates are such different that they could together cover almost the whole spectrum of possible political directions. Although preferring Ms Takaichi, but I guess they will bring one of the left-wingers, because only such they can win the next elections as the PM and party support rate is currently very and maybe even historically low. Not good or even very bad, but it can't be helped, the alternative would be an election loss and becoming opposition block only.

Prefer to see a man in charge, women haven’t done well as leaders over the past decades, Thatcher and that New Zealand woman for example

I dunno,about. that,Steve.

Merkel had an incredibly long run as German chancellor.

I know Canadian politics is more your thing but in the UK we had Theresa May - not great but was on a sticky wicket to start with. Boris Johnson a disaster. Liz Truss a disaster. Rishi Sunak a poor politician but like May had a mess to clean up.

No real difference between men and women there. If anything, I’d say May was the best out of a bad bunch.

Jimizo

No, I’m not into any countries politics, all of them are as shallow as a worms grave, some shallower than others.

Glad you mentioned Mrs May and Truss, both was worser than Sunak and Boris combined, total mentalists.

Time for Japan to have the first woman PM. Time for the US to have a first woman president.

wallace

Why do you think that?

"Time for Japan to have the first woman PM. Time for the US to have a first woman president."@Wallace.

There is nothing wrong with having a woman president, after all heading fast towards the eschaton. The world will be lead by women and children. Since the senitiles will be compromised and falls asleep. Therefore, it's really great news, for those who have fallen a sleep for ages. Bearing in their second chance for eternity is within reach. Let's go full throttle people I can't wait for the New Jerusalem, New Tokyo, New LA, everything new!!

before Taro Kono eligible as the candidates, people shall seriously consider his family business in china for so many years, and how china going to manipulate this weakness to do something weird. The world dont need another china-friendly leader

Glad you mentioned Mrs May and Truss, both was worser than Sunak and Boris combined, total mentalists

Truss a crackpot.

May? No. One of the dullest bureaucrats you’ll find in politics. The ‘Maybot’ was many things but certainly not a crackpot. I can’t imagine her replying to her own statements.

Mr. Motegi looks like he's about to pop an aneurysm

Looks like he’s about to punch someone.

falseflagsteve

Why do you think that?

Women are the majority of voters. They should have a turn at the table.

One thing that stands out to me is I now have a good idea who the possible candidates are.

But I have absolutely zero idea what they believe in and what their vision for Japan is. Maybe that's more important than whether they like to make models?

wallace

Supposed to be the best qualified to do the job, gender shouldn’t come into it.

By LDP standards, he has liberal-leaning views, backing same-sex marriage, more immigration and supporting married women retaining their names.

And that is why Kono wont win.

Supposed to be the best qualified to do the job, gender shouldn’t come into it.

But you believe that men are better equipped to do the job as you stated you’d prefer a male leader.

Gender comes into it for you.

Clearly.

falseflagsteve

Supposed to be the best qualified to do the job, gender shouldn’t come into it.

There are many women more qualified than the men. It is an equal society. How many men are in the government compared with women?

falseflagsteve

I don’t have discrimination, I look at the facts and data.

Fact: You could write down more than 100 powerful female leaders.

Please check the fields above that you mentioned and see the divides in male and female participation. It’s due to personal choice, discrimination doesn’t come into play here I’m afraid, it’s a myth these days.

The choice is not personal.

In the U.K. there are currently 8 times more men in the construction industry than women.

But there are decades of history and discrimination. There are three million construction workers. There are 400,000 female workers.

In the U.K. only 11% or nurses are male. Is this discrimination of life choices?

Lack of pay plays a part.

I would like to see a Japanese woman PM and a woman American president.

I have worked for many women bosses and found them the best.

Time for Japan to have the first woman PM. Time for the US to have a first woman president.

@Wallace But Kamikawa is not the kind of woman we want as Prime Minister. She is a state sanctioned mass murderer. And she could be the target of an Aum assassination!

mountainpeace

Time for Japan to have the first woman PM. Time for the US to have a first woman president.

@Wallace But Kamikawa is not the kind of woman we want as Prime Minister. She is a state sanctioned mass murderer. And she could be the target of an Aum assassination!

I did not propose any candidate. AUM no longer exists.

*Let’s focus

@Wallace Aum does exist but under the names of Aleph and Hikari no Wa!

In 2016 they were found to be active in Russia and Montenegro.

And then as recently as 2019, nine people were injured (one seriously) when a car was deliberately driven into crowds celebrating the new year on Takeshita Street. Police arrested Kazuhiro Kusakabe who allegedly admitted to intentionally ramming his vehicle into crowds to protest his opposition to the execution of Aum cult members.

ishiba’s glare reminds me the mike tyson quote:

everybody's got a strategy until i punch them in the mouth.

Japanese major media spend many hours or spaces to report trivias of next leader candidates and distract public eyes from innumerable harm that LDP politics has caused, as same as 3 years before.

Such accomplices relation has assisted to maintain LDP regime's corrupted autocracy with pretending democracy.

Psychologically wise I think its better for a lady up to the right to be a PM of Japan.

All I can say is that I taught the son of one of those 6 and he was the worst student in the history of the school. He actually made teachers quit. School admin couldn't expel the student because of who his parent was. Not sure that says anything about the candidate, but its kind of scary.

Reminds me of something George Carlin said about not encouraging them...

At least we have learned here, that and why there is no real need for an opposition, because even those few party candidates are such different that they could together cover almost the whole spectrum of possible political directions.

Factions can play the role of opposition parties. In a single party government like in Japan and China, factions within the LDP or the CPC are the iron that sharpens the other iron. Voters do not get to directly vote for the leader but that is not necessarily undesirable as there are two sides to every coin: voters are often ill informed or choose leaders based on personalities.

Out of these intensely charasmatic figures running for the top spot, I hope Koizumi junior wins.

For one, he's a surfer.

And two, he's a surfer.

And three, he took paternity leave.

And four, we need young blood at the helm. No more geriatric dinosaurs.

My money's on Taro Kano, smart and articulate,

My money's on Taro Kano, smart and articulate, he's a rampant moderniser (especially by Japanese standards), he's charismatic in a slightly quirky eccentric way, so he could prove to be a breath of fresh-air here. Any politician who can draw on humour as a default setting really should be encouraged.

Added to which, he's gold-standard in terms of personal altruism - over two decades ago, he gave his father part of his own liver to improve his father's chances of survival from hepatitis, ( not a kidney donation as stated in the article).

Let's see if he can survive the sclerotic approval processes of the LDP membership.

no commento.whoever.dont expect any any changes.

quercetumToday 05:17 pm JST

Factions can play the role of opposition parties.

They can play "a" role, but they cannot replace opposition parties, unless your goal is autocracy (which is clearly the case for you).

In a single party government like in Japan

Japan is not a single party government. You know this, and you have been reminded many times. Still, that won't stop you re-posting this lie.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prime_ministers_of_Japan#Prime_ministers

Japan is not a single party government. You know this, and you have been reminded many times. Still, that won't stop you re-posting this lie.

Can't have it both ways. China has multiple parties and so does Japan. One major and all others insignificant. China and Japan is ruled by the CPC and the LDP. You can't take it literally and throw a fit or just take it as a normal person would in a discussion: LDP has rules Japan.

Choose your poison!!

Choose life, choose Trainspotting. LoL.

once our glorious leader is chosen the election will be held asap. They will be the main party so will go into coalition with komeito. They will win ( as old fold have voted for them for decades) and young people can’t be bothered to vote.

then the glorious leader in a few polls will become unpopular, if still unpopular before the next election , they will step down, and the new leader put in place.

At least the model maker understands you can’t just keep printing money. I wonder why the party aren’t so keen on him?

My money is on the one that uses the least hair dye…

Koizumi or Kono!

More importantly, which one was the train spotter?