Seen in Komagome yesterday... on the campaign poster for PM Abe, the kanji - noroi - has been written. Noroi means hex or curse, so "Hex on PM Abe". There was no similar message on the poster below,
Graffiti is pretty unusual in Japan, political graffiti very unusual, to the extent that Anti Abe graffiti in found in railway toilets was being reported in the national news...
Deep angst or is the population becoming less compliant... a combination, or something else.
2 comments:
Does the LDP have a Malcolm Turnbull?
This is a good question and I'm not really sure.
It seems that Abe is surrounded by people who are equally right wing.
A big chunk of LDP MPs are members of Nippon Kaigi which has among its goals restoring state shinto. It's fair to say they don't see a lot to criticize about war time Japan, except that Japan lost...
http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21653676-powerful-if-little-reported-group-claims-it-can-restore-pre-war-order-right-side-up
An exception in the ranks seems to be Seiko Noda. I don't know much about her foreign policy positions but she is radical to the extent that she thinks women shouldn't have to change their name when they marry... It's sad for Japan that this is still radical thinking.
Anyway, Noda tried to challenge Abe for PM when scheduled internal party elections came up a couple of months ago. She couldn't even get 20 members to support her... So Abe retained the PMship by default. Most women in Abe's cabinet believe the law that requires one partner (almost always the woman) to change family names upon marriage should be retained.
I don't see anyone from any party having enough authority and charisma or even wish to make a change in policy direction. And the Japanese public is rather media illiterate and reacts by just switching off... a reasonable option if the stakes weren't so high.
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