Friday, June 3, 2011
A German magazine is confused about who Japanese Prime Minster is
Our Prime Minister Naoto Kan survived a no-confidence vote yesterday. Three hours before the vote was held in the parliament's lower house, it was expected that he wouldn't be able to survive the vote because many members of his own party had said that they would throw their support against the no-confidence motion. Surprisingly, two hours later, PM Kan announced that he would pass on various responsibilities to the younger generation once he was sure that the bulk of quake recovery work was done. Responding to the announcement, the members who intended to rebel against PM Kan shifted in supporting him. As a result, he survived the no-confidence vote with significant backing from his own party. However, the issue of when he will step down became controversial immediately after he survived the vote. There is still no sign that political battles will be over. Needless to say, the infighting and the no-confidence motion submitted by opposition parties aroused the resentment of people, especially those who are staying at shelters in disaster-struck areas.
Anyway, a few hours ago, I happened to read an article in a newspaper (Please see the link below). The article says that the German magazine ”Die Zeit”created the illustrations of G8 members in France which was held a few days ago, but PM Kan isn't there, and former PM Aso is there instead. It's reported that the magazine carelessly created the illustration of Japanese PM based on an old picture. It shows how frequently Japanese Prime Minister changes. Actually, even for Japanese people, it's not easy to list past prime ministers of Japan in order. Kan, Hatoyama, Aso, Fukuda, Abe, Koizumi......... I can't help but give out a big sigh.
