Posts Tagged: hatoyama

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9
Jun 10

Japan Has a New Prime Minister—After Only 8 Months

Last week was a busy week in Japanese politics news. Former Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio—the very same whose fashion choices and somewhat strange behavior made headlines a few weeks ago—resigned on June 3rd, after winning the election and becoming Prime Minister just last year on September 16th.

Hatoyama was adamant after his approval ratings dropped that he has no intention of resigning. Yet just a few weeks later, he did exactly that. Granted, he didn’t resign over horrible fashion attire, no should anyone have expected him to. (The “his bad fashion shows he’s not in touch with the common Japanese citizen” argument notwithstanding.) The actual reason he gave had to do with his failure to close the U.S. military base on Okinawa, which he promised to do during his campaign. While one could argue that he hadn’t served long enough to enact this change, Hatoyama did sign an unpopular treaty in late May with U.S. President Obama to ensure the continued existence of the U.S. military presence in Okinawa. This was mostly due to increased tensions between Japan and North Korea and Hatoyama’s desire for U.S. aid if need be.

Besides the failure with Okinawa, Hatoyama was also accused of perhaps having knowledge of a money scandal involving a top member of his party, the Democratic Party of Japan (not quite the same as the U.S. party of the same name). Facing summer elections, Hatoyama’s party asked him to step down to increase their chances of performing favorably at the next election.

Hatoyama was replaced by Kan Naoto, Hatoyama’s former deputy. Kan is actually Japan’s seventh prime minister in a decade. Why so many changes? Hatoyama’s not the first to resign by any means; it’s a much more common occurrence in Japan than in countries like America, where only one president has resigned in history. The other part of the reason for so many changes in leadership is that the nation’s prime minister is not directly elected by the Japanese citizens. Instead, Japanese citizens vote for their representatives in the Japanese parliament (the Diet). In turn, the members of the Diet elect the prime minister. The more seats a party has, the more likely that party is going to win the position, for which they usually nominate their elected leader. However, this somewhat disconnected way of electing a prime minister does seem to lead fewer Japanese people to be passionately political than many people in other nations.

Do you think Hatoyama should have resigned as soon as he failed with one campaign promise? Do you think the Japanese system of electing a leader would work in your country? Why or why not?

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21
May 10

Japanese Prime Minister’s Fashion Faux Pas Makes International Headlines

If you didn’t know who Japan’s prime minister was before, you may by now. Last week, international headlines proclaimed that Hatoyama Yukio had worn a bizarre, multi-colored shirt to a barbeque at his home. Perhaps stranger than the fact that this made the news at all, let alone the international news, was that Hatoyama’s fashion faux pas had caused his approval rating to drop significantly, 33% to 24%1 in just one month.

This is not the first time the Japanese prime minister has decided to wear outfits that are a little bizarre. Japanese fashion critics go on to cite a heart-studded collared shirt over which the prime minister wore a pink blazer, mauve coats, and other multi-colored shirts. The prime minister and his wife are also known in the media for some odd behavior, such as a pigeon imitation the prime minister performed during an interview. There have also been interviews with his wife, Hatoyama Miyuki, in which she claims to have been abducted by aliens and taken to Venus twenty years ago. She also says she “eats” energy from the sun and is instructing her husband to do the same.

While some claim the odd behavior and fashion choices are just the eccentricities of an odd couple who never tried to hide who they were prior to Hatoyama’s election last autumn, the fact that this one bad shirt at a bbq was the one odd thing to inspire such a global discussion is actually fairly telling about what really caused the public opinion of Hatoyama to drop so quickly and so steeply. Hatoyama wore this shirt to a bbq hosted at his home that he called “The Real Hato Café,” as it was supposed to offer the public a chance to meet him, mingle with him, and see that he’s just an ordinary person like they are. Wearing such a bizarre shirt to the gathering, says Konishi Don, a Japanese fashion critic, shows that Hatoyama is actually quite out of touch with the rest of the country—at the very moment he was trying to show them that he’s just one of them. Says Konishi, “This shirt comes from the ‘80s or ‘90s. His ideas and philosophy are old. Japan is facing a crisis and we can’t overcome it with a prime minister like this.” 2

Hatoyama responded to the sudden drop in public approval by stating, “I take it seriously that my approval ratings are down significantly. But I’m not going to quit.” 3 Still, perhaps he’ll hire a fashion consultant—although if they’re unhappy with his policies, the public’s opinion is unlikely to go back up without serious political overhaul.

Did you see Hatoyama’s shirt? What did you think of it? Do you think it’s silly that his fashion choices have made international news? Do you agree with the idea that it shows that Hatoyama is out of touch? What do you think of the prime minister and his wife’s other examples of odd behavior?

1, 2, 3 Lah, Kyung. “Japan’s prime minister under fire for fashion choices.” CNN World. 12 May 2010. <http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/05/12/japan.hatoyama.fashion/index.html?eref=rss_world&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_world+%28RSS%3A+World%29>. 17 May 2010.