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Topic: Japan's gaffe-prone politicians grab headlines (Read 227 times)

Rhune
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Japan's gaffe-prone politicians grab headlines
« on: Jul 14^th, 2003, 1:04pm »

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Japan's gaffe-prone politicians grab headlines
Mon Jul 14, 5:45 AM ET

By Linda Sieg

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese politicians are giving their Italian counterparts a run for their money in terms of embarrassing gaffes, with a series of remarks that have offended women, parents and Asian neighbours -- all in the space of a few days.

The bloopers -- including an apologia for rapists and a defence of Japan's wartime actions -- caused a media furore, but in the end may well do little harm at the polls.

"The only ones who are worse are the current Italian government, and they aren't career politicians and have very little experience," said Steven Reed, a political science professor at Chuo University in Tokyo.

European media have had a field day with a feud sparked when Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi likened a German politician to a Nazi concentration camp guard and revived when an Italian minister described Germans as "hyper-nationalistic blondes".

Japan's own latest fuss occurred over the weekend, when ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) politician Takami Eto, 78, was quoted by Kyodo news agency as saying that China's assertion that 300,000 people died in the 1937 Nanjing Massacre was a lie.

Eto, 78, also criticised past Japanese prime ministers for apologising for Japan's "war of aggression" in the 1930s and 1940s and making it appear Japan was in the wrong.

The remarks were nothing new for the elderly chief of a small LDP faction, who had to resign a cabinet post in 1995 over similar comments. But they prompted a sharp rebuke from China and an expression of deep disappointment from South Korea.

WAY TO WIN VOTES?

On Friday, a Japanese cabinet minister came under fire for saying the parents of a 12-year-old boy who police say confessed to killing a four-year-old in a crime that has shocked the nation should be "dragged around town and decapitated".

Opposition parties and lawyers lambasted Yoshitada Konoike for both his insensitivity and for using the crude expression, a reference to the feudal Japanese method of punishing criminals.

But the lawmaker's office in his western Japan constituency said he had received a flood of supportive emails.

Earlier this month LDP lawmakers outraged many women voters and female parliamentarians by defending gang rapists and suggesting women were inviting rape by dressing provocatively.

First, LDP lawmaker Seiichi Ota said perpetrators of gang rape were "vigorous" and "close to normal", then top government spokesman Yasuo Fukuda allegedly told reporters in an off-the-record briefing that scantily clad women who were raped were "asking for it".

Ota apologised and Fukuda said he had never defended rape.

Gaffe-prone former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori (news - web sites) also found himself in hot water for suggesting that only women who bear children should be eligible for pensions.

Foot-in-mouth is a frequent malady among Japanese politicians, and those in government posts have had to resign in the past for offending diplomatic sensibilities, as Eto's own case shows. Offending women voters could also be a mistake.

But apparent gaffes can actually pay off at the polls.

"A lot of times something that sounds stupid to the media is a good way to win votes," said Chuo University's Reed.

Many Japanese don't have very high expectations for their politicians anyway. "When elections roll around, it seems there aren't candidates who really appeal, so many voters have just given up," said hotel employee 23-year-old Chiharu Minato at a coffee shop in central Tokyo.

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