The Japanese government reflects the Japanese people

While Prime Minister Naoto Kan was struggling to dispel doubts about disclosure on the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in the G8, a lot of politicians were lobbying in Japan to get him to step down as PM. Lamentably, some who are supposed to support him started criticizing him, saying that he should not have done things in that way. Former PM Hatoyama, who is often considered as a troublemaker, says that PM Kan is doing things wrong. The power broker Ozawa is engineering something to get an opportunity to come back to center stage. I am speechless. The Democratic Party of Japan (which is the ruling party, and the party of the three aforementioned members) has been spending time dealing with power games within the party since it took power in September, 2009. Even after the 3/11 crisis, there is no sign that all the members work closely together.

On the other hand, the Liberal Democratic Party, which held power for 54 years until it suffered a major defeat in 2009, seems to be making more effort to recapture power than to overcome the current crisis. It often criticizes the Kan administration, but it hardly offers alternative plans. Despite being largely responsible for our nuclear energy policy, it seems to pretend as if it doesn't have the responsibility. The party still doesn't seem to understand why the public said no to it in 2009.

Throughout Japan, there is a lot of criticism of the government because of growing concerns about the Fukushima plant. However, when I hear it, I can't help but wonder how many people have prepared themselves for bearing the heavy burden of overcoming the crisis. Given our country's outstanding debt and fiscal deficit, I'm sure that we have to be ready for crushing tax burdens and other such phenomena. Personally, I think that unless every single person prepares themselves for the struggle to overcome the crisis, Japan won't have a future.

Many people are complaining about the government, saying that it can't make quick decisions according to the situation and that it often tries to shun its responsibilities, although people prefer doing things"step-by step". I also don't approve of some of the government's responses to the crisis. However, I think that our government reflects us. As I wrote in my previous post, Japanese people are not good at making quick decisions by themselves and taking actions especially when they have to make decisions under unexpected circumstances. In my opinion, unless we all try to change and improve this ability, a capable government won't appear in Japan.