Foreigners in Japan Speak Out About Shinzo Abe’s Resignation
With Japan still in a state of shock over Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s surprise resignation earlier this week, Fuji TV went out on the street to ask foreigners in Japan for their reaction:
The foreigners (some of whom could only speak broken Japanese after living for many years in this country) mostly expressed disbelief at Abe’s actions. One Israeli guy said that the timing of the resignation, only shortly after Abe had formed a new cabinet, was quite unexpected. A German guy pointed out that politicians in his country serve out their elected terms, and a British woman thought it was pretty weak of Abe to quit like he did.
When asked about who the next Prime Minister would be, many of the foreigners mentioned former Foreign Minister Taro Aso, who was once regarded by many as the likely front runner in the fight to take Abe’s place. An American man said that he believed Aso would probably be next in line, but he said that Japan’s next “President” would have a very difficult time trying to stay friendly with Washington with public support for Japanese military operations in Afghanistan/Iraq at such a low level. A South Korean man said that he thought either Tanizaki or Aso would be the next PM.
All of the foreigners seemed to have something good to say about one man: Junichiro Koizumi. They seemed to like his policies and his personalty far better than any of the folks currently running for the spot. A group of lawmakers, including many of the younger LDP members known as the “Koizumi Children” agree with this view, and they tried yesterday to convince their party to call on Koizumi to return and reclaim his former position. Unfortunately, Koizumi has told party leaders that he will definitely not enter the race, throwing his support behind Yasuo Fukuda (who has replaced Aso as the front runner in the eyes of most observers).
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Mr. Taro Aso isn’t liberal(like Mr. Kouichi Kato) nor talented(like Youich Masuzoe). So Mr. Aso is hardly better than Mr. Abe.
Mr. Yasuo Fukuda is supposed to be more moderate or neutral, but he seems to be boring to me. If most LDP members think the lower house election campaign will be tougher with Mr. Aso, then Mr. Fukuda is the favorite.
By the way, I hope Mr. Masuzoe stay as welfare minister for fixing problems of the pension.
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I chose other, but I don’t have anyone particular in mind. I am thinking “anyone other”, preferably another party, as almost uniformly continuous LDP government since WW2 just doesn’t seem right in a democracy! You would think they would vote for the other guys just for a change! (but that’s showing my gaijin colors, isn’t it…)
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The opposition in Japan historically seems to spend more time squabbling among itself rather than mounting a serious challenge. And the LDP has had a very strong base in the rural areas for decades – that is finally weakening as rural areas weaken (population and farming drops). Japan is definitely a democracy – there are other parties – it’s just that they aren’t voted in that much. Reminds me a bit of Mongolia (I think it was) that, after finally getting rid of its communist masters, promptly voted the communist party back in again….
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Oh man this hurts to watch… Not only do the native English speakers have terrible Japanese, but the non-native speakers have better English than the natives do!!!
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So, what’s it like being insane?
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Not sure why Koizumi is on the list here.. he will not be returning anytime soon.
Fukuda seems the logical choice for those hoping Japan will have better relations with its neighbors..
Aso… not so much. He is the uyoku’s preferred candidate.
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Interesting video –
I thought it was pretty funny how they were interviewing most of the foreigners outside of National Azabu in Hiroo, since I guess that is the logical place for foreigners to “hang out” — haha.
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Some pretty bad Japanese out there – that big black guy, in Japan for twenty years? The Israeli guy, here for 17, knew a lot of words, but his accent was pretty heinous. David MacNeill was the best of the Westerners by a long chalk. And note too the announcer’s comments at the end, about how Japan is a country “hard to understand” for dem furriners. Mind you, judging by the fluency of most of these people, he may have a point….
I tend to like Fukuda. As McNeil said, he looks like a nice old dude. Bring back Nakasone! Those eyebrows were Japan’s secret weapon back in the ’80s.
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What is wrong with you people always criticizing others ability to speak a language that is not their first?
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people making fun of other people’s japanese are generally the ones who cant speak Japanese themselves, aint it a damn shame
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The surprising thing is not those that have only been in Japan for a few years, but those that have been for a decade or more. Someone here 15, 17, 20 years should be near-native, logically (like McNeil in this video, or the Korean woman). The supposition ends up being that the poor speakers tend to hang out in gaijin ghettos (this apparently being filmed in Azabu might be a reason), which doesn’t say a lot for ‘internationalism’.
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to be fair, it’s pretty hard to talk about politics in a foreign language unless you have the vocabulary. i love to talk about politics but to be honest i would avoid talking about politics with japanese friends: it’s too thorny an issue. as a result i doubt i will ever get much practice so hope i’m never interview about it for the tv news!
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