(Asahi TV presenting new ministers and their challenges)
(Fuji TV showing P.M. Hatoyama leaving his home; "Good morning, sir, Prime Minister!")
(And so on...)
[I sometimes wonder how they can avoid mishandling of a matter in a live broadcast if it is so late in the night...]The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper this morning reported an initial approval rating for the new Hatoyama Cabinet: 75%
It is fairly high since it is a record next to Mr. Koziumi's: 87%.
In a survey by other news agency, P.M. Mr. Hatoyama's rating is ranked the third historically but it is still remarkable.
Yet, it is still astounding to recall that former P.M. Mr. Junichiro Koizumi of the LDP was supported by 87% of the Japanese citizens at the start of his regime in early 2001.
Comapred with that fervant expectation that unique politician Mr. Koizumi (in a tie-up with unique Foreign Minister Mrs. Makiko Tanaka) would surely change the government and the nation, Prime Minister Mr. Hatoyama of the DPJ looks like being just short of an overwhelming personal magnet.
So, the LDP, now fallen into the state of the Opposition, must choose a new president who could provide new hope for economic growth and restoration of Japan's traditional value systems for sound conservative voters, while they have two major contenders: veteran Mr. Sadakazu Tanigaki and rising Mr. Taro Kono.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadakazu_Tanigaki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taro_Kono )
Probably, Mr. Kono, devoted son of notable former chairman of the Lower House Mr. Yohei Kono, would give more an impression that the LDP is undergoing reformation than former Finance Minister in the Koizumi Cabinet Mr. Tanigaki, a lawyer-turned lawmaker.
(The last and third LDP presidential election candidate is Mr. Yasutoshi Nishimua, a Lower House member, too.)
Anyway, there are so many potentially able politicians and (ex-)bureaucrats in Tokyo, since I walked around Kasumigaseki Street in the end of August, as you suspected reasonably.
SECTION I: American Religion
Since the era of Columbus around 1500, many Europeans moved to America.
Yet, the most notable move was identified with the Mayflower Compact, the first governing document of Plymouth Colony, signed on the ship Mayflower on November 11, 1620 by 41 of the ship's more than one hundred passengers.
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In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc.
Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini 1620.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower_Compact
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However, there were reportedly 17 male Saints, 14 female Saints, 10 minor Saints, 17 male Strangers, 9 female Strangers, 14 minor Strangers, and 14 male Servants, one female Servants, and six minor Servants on the ship.
Following this contract, Puritans (Saints) and employees (Strangers) of the British colony company, Virginia Company, vowed to cooperate in living and cultivating the new settlement.
In summary, Americans are those who from the beginning needed the God to make a contract with one another.
This is not ignored since it is said that one in every six Americans today is a direct, indirect, remote, or very remote descendant of Pilgrims and others on board Mayflower.
(http://www.geocities.co.jp/SilkRoad-Desert/4105/article/Pilgrim.html)
For example, Secretary Mrs. Hillary Clinton might even say that the God is an instrument for making a contract with other person.
It is also noteworthy that the last samurai regime of Japan was established to eventually close the country around 1620, leading to intensification and further growth of unique Japanese nationality and spiritualism.
Indeed, when American Christians started to prevail toward the West on the new continent till 1860's Civil War, Japan started to close the nation so as to prevent diffusion of Christianity from Western powers till 1860's' civil wars for modernization of the nation.
Truly, what belongs to commonsense in Japan is not part of American commonsense at all, in most cases.
(To be continued...)
(C'est un peu comme une cerise jaune, chère, since it is just the second day for the new prime minister of Japan. Peacefully, have a nice weekend!
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~UD3T-KRYM/902-jasrac/90601-kiiroisakuranbo.htm )
Mat 9:18 While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.
Mat 9:19 And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples.