Comments on: Fukuda Wins The Race

By: Pajamas Media » Meet (Yet Another) Japanese Prime Minister

Pajamas Media » Meet (Yet Another) Japanese Prime Minister — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:25:49 +0000

[...] of the 14 he needed to officially start the faction. Just one year ago, the older, more pragmatic Yasuo Fukuda defeated Taro Aso in the LDP Presidential race to succeed [...]

By: Pajamas Media » Yet Another Japanese Prime Minister Bites the Dust

Pajamas Media » Yet Another Japanese Prime Minister Bites the Dust — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 08:10:00 +0000

[...] retrospect, the writing was on the wall. Yasuo Fukuda had been elected President of the LDP, and hence Prime Minister, on the assumption that he would get the party in shape for a general [...]

By: Garrett DeOrio

Garrett DeOrio — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 18:03:54 +0000

Sidney,
I hope you’re right. One of the few good things Shinzo Abe did was improve relations a bit with China and South Korea by visiting them before anywhere else and refraining from visiting Yasukuni.

There is indeed some bad blood between Japan and China, but I think it’s more of a general mistrust than something specifically caused by any specific incident or incidents. In other words, hearing of contaminated Chinese food being shipped to Japan confirms popular Japanese doubts about, even prejudice against China.

For anything related to WWII, most Japanese people seem to just think “enough already,” although the percentage of those who say, in polls, that the Japanese government should issue new apologies is, at times, surprisingly high.

You’re absolutely right, though, that Fukuda is more dovish than his predecessors or opponents. Unfortunately, he has already set up all but three faction heads in Ministerial posts and is beset by such massive domestic issues that it will be hard for him to spend much time on foreign affairs, especially as he’s widely seen as a caretaker Prime Minister, whose main job is to repair the LDP’s image in time for a general election, possibly less than a year away.

By: Sidney Raphael

Sidney Raphael — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:48:31 +0000

What I understand about Fukuda is that he is much friendlier to China than any of his imediate predecessors. Japanese people were beginning to work up a good hate to the Chinese because of 1) anti-Japan/Nanjing riots 2) contaminated Chinese food in the Japanese market and 3) Chinese air pollution wafting over Japan. Fukuda will try to run counter to this trend, which may spill over into the public arena, where anger boils below the surface.

By: Garrett DeOrio

Garrett DeOrio — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:29:02 +0000

Nodakboy,
I had the same conversation with a friend of mine who said Aso’s name was too suggestive to have him be PM.
Check out Trans-Pacific Radio to hear it pronounced by at least three different people (correctly each time.)

To give something of a pronunciation guide, it’s kind of like “Foo-koo-duh,” with the stress just slightly on the second syllable and the “oo” sounds short. The “F,” in Japanese, is kind of between an English “F” and “H.”

If it makes it any easier, his name can be roughly translated as Mr. “Happyfield.”

By: Garrett DeOrio

Garrett DeOrio — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:53:13 +0000

Sorry, Sean, that was a typo. They, of course, gave him his first “Banzai!”

Ken, Japanese media, including News Zero and the Asahi Shimbun ran reports that the Pecos was being refueled by the MSDF and was taking that fuel to the Kitty Hawk. So that’s one American ship. This was reported as a big scandal, that the US Navy tricked the MSDF into refueling, indirectly, the Kitty Hawk. I don’t see what the scandal is, though, considering all parties involved had to have known exactly what was going on.

By: nodakboy

nodakboy — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:10:33 +0000

With this Japanese guy, I think you should provide a pronouncer.
Yah?
So?
Fuk U, Da.
Sounds like an Irish Dadiple complex of the worst degree.

sorry, couldn’t resist.

By: Sean Kinsell

Sean Kinsell — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 03:37:41 +0000

“Yasuo Fukuda was declared the victor, he said his first words as president of the LDP, and received his first party presidential bonsai, in which, in character, the defeated Taro Aso looked more enthusiastic than the victorious Fukuda.”

They gave him a victory potted tree? No wonder he didn’t seem so enthusiastic. : )

By: Ken

Ken — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 11:49:03 +0000

The first is that the anti-terrorism special measures law, which authorizes the Maritime Self-Defense Forces’ running of a gas station (not my words) in the Indian Ocean for the refueling of American refueling ships that then refuel American warships and airplanes involved in the “War on Terror” in Afghanistan, is set to expire on November 1st.

Can you name a single American ship that has been refueled under this plan? I doubt it, since the Japanese are only refueling the Pakistani Navy.