Nationalism: a hot issue in the Tokyo gubernatorial election?
Mainichi Shinbun reports that Shiro Asano, DPJ candidate for the Tokyo gubernatorial race, has decided to make challenging Gov. Ishihara’s nationalist views a part of his election campaign. Ishihara has stated that he believes all public school teachers should have to stand and sing the Japanese national anthem, which some of them associate with Japan’s imperialistic past. Asano has a different view:
“When I become governor of Tokyo, I will abolish the policy of coercing teachers to stand and sing the ‘Kimigayo,’ and punishing those who do not,” Asano told a news conference.
The debate comes at a sensitive time in Japan when Abe is pushing for greater patriotism in national schools and a bigger role for the military at home and overseas. The trend has spurred concern in neighboring Asian countries, which see it as a resurgence of Japan’s militaristic past.
Asano said Monday his administration would reverse what he called Ishihara’s legacy of discrimination against “weaker members of society” and his “dictatorial style of governing.”
“Unless somebody stops Ishihara now, I feel that the situation not only in Tokyo but in Japanese politics as a whole may get entirely out of hand,” warned Asano, a former governor of Sendai prefecture in northern Japan.
Asano’s remarks will probably be looked upon with support from many in Japan’s foreign community, especially the English-speaking netizens who frequently complain about Ishihara’s views of foreigners, referring to the governor by the derogatory term “blinky” (which mocks the fact that he always seems to be blinking when he talks). Ishihara is also under attack from a group of French, Canadians, and Japanese who have filed a suit against the Tokyo Government because of official remarks in which he called French a “failed international language” because it cannot “be used to count numbers.” Is Ishihara’s end near, or will voters express their support for his policies, and possibly overlook his occasional controversial statement, by re-electing him yet again?
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I somehow doubt that Ishihara’s support among Tokyoites is due to his nationalist rhetoric. Indeed, I would be curious to know what qualities of his account for his enduring popularity among the locals.
The whole thing about “resurgent nationalism” in Japan reminds me somewhat of the coverage of the Kobe earthquake. Apparently, it was the foreign press at the time that liked to focus on exaggerating the extent of the damages by showing a lot of overhead shots of the city on fire. The local press, as one might expect, were less concerned with sensationalizing the event.
As an aside, I hope the lawsuit filed by French linguists is thrown out for being frivolous. It is insane, in my opinion, that this ever became a legal matter to be contested in a court of law.
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I agree about the lawsuit. If it didn’t get thrown out, it would open the doors for people to sue politicians every time they say something stupid or offensive, and there would be no end to the lawsuits. His comments about French were stupid, but the Tokyo government shouldn’t have to pay compensation to offended people…
Surely anyone who has ever had to try and learn French numbers will agree with the Governor? The system is slightly insane. Ninety is ” quatre-vingt-dix” or “four-twenties-ten”, which is about as bad as Latin and its MCMCLXXIV….
Of course both languages managed to be fairly international in their day, far more so than Japanese has ever managed, so obviously Ishihara is either talking out his ass or is making a joke about the sort of numbering I mentioned in the first paragraph.
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I also agree with Ishihara with the French number system.
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I am Tokyoite, and I don’t think his ” nationalist “rhetoric has something to do with the support for him as a governor of Tokyo. I don’t like many of the words he uttered but I don’t think Tokyoites are interested in his view on French, Micky Mouse, Sangokujin(the word I didn’t know until the journalist picked it up.)
People choose the governor for different reasons, but I guess most people choose the governor judging what s/he can do for Tokyo, the living condition of Tokyoites.
As for me, it is safety, economy, convenience, social welfare of Tokyo and the ability to execute the policy s/he has promised that matter.
As for abolishing the policy of “coercing” teachers to sing national anthem, it might be an interesting topic. But that is mainly for the leftist teacher union.
For my part, Ishihara might become a good provocative commentator, but I am a bit getting sick and tired of Ishihara as being a governor. Regardless, I am not quite happy with other candidates either.
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I would agree with Ponta actually. I don’t think Ishihara;s nationalistic views are enough to bring him down.
My mother in law and my wife are voting for Ishihara for crying out loud.
Asano needs to focus on what he can do for the people of Tokyo. Not how evil Ishihara is.
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