Last month, a dialogue with the Tetsuo Sato, former Minister of the Environment and current acting Secretariat General of the New Komeito and myself took place on the topic of “Japan Overcoming Crises and Making a Contribution to the Rest of the World ? The Lessons of Our Nuclear Disaster as a Resource for the Common International Good” (in Japanese). This article appeared in New Komeito which is the official monthly journal of the New Komeito Party. This debate took place one month after the earthquake on April 13th. I hope you will forgive me for the delay in posting this information because, frankly, it completely slipped my mind.
The following topics were covered:
- The real face of Japan
- Leadership that is weak at the time of crises
- A blueprint for disaster recovery
- Japan in the world today
I wrote frankly about “political leadership (p. 3) of the current Democratic Party of Japan administration.
In this journal, a dialogue with the Kazuhisa Ogawa, an expert on Japan’s self-defense force, and another with Masayuki Yamanouchi, a historian and a great scholar appeared in the issues before and after mine.
A three-part series was published in the official weekly paper of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan in July. The series was entitled “Contemplating the State of the Nation” and my theme was Social Welfare. The titles of the articles (all in Japanese) are listed below:
- Delayed Adaptation of Japan to Globalization, No Progress in Social Restructuring
- Confronting the Globalization of the Changing World
- Assembling New Power and Wisdom From the Expansive Area of Society
However, when I talked with the editor on the phone and expressed my reservations that these three expansive themes would be extremely difficult to adequately cover over three installments in the available space with the end result being essentially being meaningless, the editor responded that he had gotten the exact same response from a number of people.
I did address these topics broadly over the three installments, and I was able to say what I wanted to say.
The final installation came out today and I, quite by chance, was in the offices of a senior Liberal Democratic Diet member in the afternoon. He took a look at the article and offered up some comments.
The article did contain some rather critical comments in regards to the Liberal Democratic Party which is to be expected.
Today, more than ever, politicians have a huge responsibility in a Japan which is currently in a precarious position.