Comments on: Prime Minister Taro Aso is rich – should anyone care?

By: stereo

stereo — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:06:45 +0000

Article 77 of Doro-koutsu-hou(Road Traffic Law) says that you need a permit of police when you have a festival, shoot a movie, or do some activities that extremely affect the traffic and that are specified by the local government regulation on the public roads.

Article 18 of Tokyo-to-douro-kisoku-kisoku (Road Traffic Regulation of Tokyo) specifies 9 such regulated activities on public road.
1. Festival and Parade
2. Advertising in eye-catching costume
3. Advertising by running an eye-catching car
4. Movie shooting
5. Broadcasting
6. Street performance
7. Fire exercise
8. Soliciting
9. Robot experiment

The police may argue that the people’s act was a parade. I disagree. It was the police that blocked the traffic, not the people.

By: ponta

ponta — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:23:20 +0000

I guess stereo has a better answer but anyway・・・
Japanese constitution guarantees the freedom of speech in the article 21, but when you organize march and rally in a certain place , you need to inform it to the police so that the police can control the traffic. And it is a report rather than a permit.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 01:46:28 +0000

Well, what the people should be wondering is why they need a permit to demonstrate in the first place. Japan does not have an article proclaiming free speech?

By: stereo

stereo — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:36:57 +0000

Read the article.
“The protesters, who organized the event on the internet, had not applied for a permit, so police blocked them when they attempted to start their march. Three people were arrested – one organizer and two protesters who had assaulted police officers.”

No one was arrested because of demonstration without a permit. They are arrested because of “assaulting police”.

They did not need a permit to begin with. Police harassed the people, and then arrested them citing “assaulting police”. This is a good old folly routine of Japanese public security police.

The final touch is to release the statement like this to make people believe, “Oh, they are arrested due to demonstration without a permit”.

By: Irene

Irene — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:08:27 +0000

It seems they were actually holding a demonstration without a permission, and that’s what has led to the arrest.

By: Gil

Gil — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:20:52 +0000

ダビ,

Lula is not poor. His net worth is around 1 million (in brazilian reais).

By: The Overthinker

The Overthinker — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 03:29:08 +0000

How the hell does the PM of NZ get $8 million? Isn’t that almost the entire GDP?

By: stereo

stereo — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:51:13 +0000

How surprising, so few here has commonsense.
Personal wealth of a politician is a very important factor in voting.

Do you believe a politician who says, “I will work for the best interest of the middle class”, while he himself, his family and relatives and all of his friends are super rich?

By the way, you do not need a “permission” of police to walk to see the house of the prime minister from the public road. The arrest is pretty much politically motivated.

By: ai

ai — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:18:36 +0000

actually, they do. and its all pre-rehearsed.

By: ダビ

ダビ — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:43:04 +0000

Brasil’s President Lula and Sweden’s ex-PM Göran Persson come to mind.

The fact that Aso is rich is not a problem in itself, but the fact that in many countries many politicians are born into fabulous wealth reflects a problem with those societies.

By: Montsan

Montsan — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:57:45 +0000

Again with the black-and-white polls!

As a number of other users have already pointed out, it really depends on how the money was earned as well as other contexts. If the wealth or the manner in which it was gained goes against the stances and proposals of said politician, I would say it matters. If a politician claims to be against, say, the tobacco industry but in fact earned millions of dollars working for a tobacco company prior to their term in office, red flags should be going up like crazy.

By: Irene

Irene — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:59:41 +0000

I don’t. So that’s why I generally don’t trust any politicians.

By: Mister M

Mister M — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:00:00 +0000

Oh really!!!!!!!!!!Who cares about that. Do you know some poor politicians around the world?

By: flonk

flonk — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:47:18 +0000

yeah, uyoku can drive about carte blanche and have their way without any hint of permits…. as soon as you start calling out the rich people for their opulent lifestyles on the back of the working class, then you feel the rich peoples army (police) cracking down….

same BS of the rich ruling and the workers slaving.

By: feitclub

feitclub — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 08:39:59 +0000

The fact that Aso and many other politicians are children and grand-children of other politicians is much more disturbing than their financial status.

By: one

one — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 07:10:17 +0000

I bet the guys in the black trucks don’t go and get permits.

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 07:04:21 +0000

Depends on how much of the money was legitimately earned.

“The protesters, who organized the event on the internet, had not applied for a permit, so police blocked them when they attempted to start their march.”

Requiring a permit to protest is such an odd policy to have operating in a democratic system. It’s basically, “Let’s fight the system as soon as the system tells us it’s OK to do so.”

By: bob

bob — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 06:58:36 +0000

The policies of a corrupt leader who was born into wealth or stole it are very different from the policies of an honest leader who worked their way to where they are and understand the challenges most people face everyday.
How much money a county’s leader has is not the issue. It’s how they got that money. That has everything to do with they way they run their country. George Bush is a fine example of that.

By: tzvete

tzvete — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 06:43:46 +0000

If it is his money that he would spend on expensive hotels and so on,I think it’s ok.It’s his policy that matters,not his wealth,right?