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Do you think Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto is the man to change Japan's political landscape?

17 Comments
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17 Comments
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Given his nationalist stance, him being a "Yakuza brat" and his bullying of schoolteachers and government employees, definite NO!

3 ( +7 / -4 )

No. Unless you mean in a bad way?

6 ( +10 / -4 )

Japan's politics is mired in vested interests. These might be addressed on a local level, like Osaka, but once Mr. Hashimoto makes it to the big leagues he's going to run into a brick wall. And the Japanese media will cooperate in trying to bring him down, waiting for him to make a careless statement or catch him in some scandal. He'll be walking on ice from now on.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

You're kidding, right?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

If by "change Japan's political landscape" you mean turn the current "getting nothing done" type of political landscape into a "getting bad things done" landscape, then yes.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Agree with Michael Craig. This guy is a lunatic that is more suited to driving a black van around shouting Tora, Tora, Tora than governing!

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Desolate the landscape. I suppose that's a change.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

He is amongst the most frightening politicians to come through in a while, blatantly ignoring human and privacy rights of law abiding citizens.

I hope the Japanese public can see through people like him, Japan needs to move forward not backwards into its murky nationalist past.

Again.. while paying plenty of money Im guessing more than half the people commenting on here can't vote anyway..

0 ( +3 / -3 )

"This guy is a lunatic that is more suited to driving a black van around shouting Tora, Tora, Tora than governing"

I think his style of government will actually involve driving a black van and shouting Tora, Tora, Tora - and other random slogans. He'll probably pick his cabinet from his favorite black van too.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Definitely not the man for the job. The last thing Japan needs right now is an extremist at the top. That would be very, very bad with tensions between Japan and China and Japan and South Korea not exactly at their best right now.

I dream of the day when Hashimoto and Ishihara are exiled to Dokdo/Takeshima like Napoleon. If only...

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Yes, he is the only one who has any chance of changing Japan. Funny how you guys complain about typical J politicians who try to please everyone and accomplish nothing, and now we have finally a decisive leader who isn't afraid of unions, large corporations and still complain.

Good luck waiting for a politician who you agree with about everything. I don't agree with some things he does but he is one of the very few things who can do what's normal by regular people.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Yeah, he will change it alright! But, putting Japan back into war with the rest of Asia is not really a step in the right direction, is it?

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Who do these fascists think is going to fight their wars? The average Japanese male, more interested in hair product and matching his designer sneakers to his backpack than in girls? The average 80-pound Japanese female who is socialized into acting like an 11-year old well into her adulthood? How many blue collar workers who might be able to handle a rifle are going to be willing to go when some war monger tells them it's time to go kill and die for a ROCK?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Hashimoto is an unknown quantity as a political leader. The present days are often compared to Nambokucho period (1333 to 1392) when the old order was superseded by a new one after twists and turns. The permanent vice-ministers or jimu-jikan of each ministry in Kasumigaseki are the de fact decision-makers of this country. The "vice-" in their titles does not mean secondary but actually supreme in power without any political liability entailed and therefore it's no less than the vice of this civil polity, to which Hashimoto seems to have a strong objection. Do-Shu-system or regional administration he advocates aims to dismantle Kasumigaseki including part of its power to levy taxes. It's a kind of revolution. His name Hashimoto literally means "under the bridge" where segregated people live. He may represent the discontent of the society acting without restraint and often with pretension ("basara") and rationality (Neoliberalism). This world doesn't seem to put fetters upon him except his wife. That's why he has brains who are so called "dappan kanryo" or dropped out bureaucrats like Sakaiya Taichi, Koga Shigeaki and Takahashi Yoichi who can see through and are disgusted with the red tape mismanagement of the country. But another needs of the times is America's "offshore balancing" strategy. America's huge deficit makes it difficult for Japan to be friendly with China. Friction with the neighbor is conducive to America's interests by way of Japan's increase of the military budget and participation in regional security as well as TPP instead of FTA with China and East Asia community. For good or ill Hashimoto is a child of the age.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The question above is based on "change". Here, by the very fact that he is causing a "different" type and style of "controversy", he will "affect" the political climate and nature of politics in Japan. It may be very little or may become substantial.

The very fact that he is by his rhetoric and actions causing "responses" from not only politicians but the general public that no other politician in Japan has gotten for a while, he has started a process which for now have already "changed" Osaka. Whether his wave in an already rough ocean will "change" the results, only time will tell. But he has already changed the landscape whether people want it or not.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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