New Post (160) : What’s all the fuss in Japan about ?
1. Japan's centre-left government suffered a blow Sunday when its foreign minister resigned for taking money from an ethnic Korean who is not a citizen, drawing fire from the conservative opposition.
He, had been seen as a likely successor to the Prime Minister, who has struggled in the face of support ratings below 20 percent and a split parliament that has threatened to derail his reform agenda.
The ambitious foreign minister came under pressure last week when he admitted he had accepted the equivalent of several hundred dollars in campaign donations in recent years from a Japanese-born woman of Korean ethnicity.
Under Japanese law, it is illegal for politicians to accept donations from a foreign national and the scandal has been all the more damaging to the foreign minister, who as foreign minister had taken a hawkish and strongly patriotic stance.
He had been the most vocal cabinet minister in recent diplomatic battles Japan has fought with China and Russia over disputed territories, legacies of Japan's troubled wartime history with its neighbours.
After days of braving angry protests from conservative politicians in the Diet legislature and on TV talk shows, he on Sunday evening met the Prime Minister to resign, then announced his decision in a televised press conference.
That’s said…
2. Common people and crooked politicians (& businessmen) alike---in the top 50% (& more) countries on the various oft quoted lists of the world’s most corrupt countries are wondering---What’s all the fuss about ? […numbed by Billions and Trillions of dollars of corruption in their own countries]
3. The Japanese may have “over-reacted”. (and then maybe not) (since it’s the principle and not the measly $600 amount involved that counts). All said---Zero tolerance is a good rule. An aspiration. …………..That will change nothing. ……….The “actual” big fish will swim as usual.
4. Forcing his resignation is a farce. ($600 - buys no influence.)
This is comic hypocrisy. .........Let's get real folks.
Charlie Brown
