Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara: Love Him Or Hate Him, He’s The Boss
By billywest • May 18th, 2008 • Category: The Latest
Last week, Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara complained about the high cost in tax dollars of keeping two giant pandas at Ueno Zoo. “I couldn’t care less about them,” he said. Upon reading this, you might think that the leader of the largest city in Japan is just a cranky old man. But, this isn’t the first time Mr. Ishihara has made such insensitive comments. In fact, his sometimes cruel statements are usually directed toward human beings and foreign cultures.
Comments About Nigerians
Last year, Ishihara came under fire for his comments about Nigerians in Japan, particularly Roppongi, where there is a large population of foreigners. He complained about the inability of Nigerians to speak English (where he gets his information from, I’ll never know) and said that Japan “should be letting in people who are intelligent.”
Comments About Foreigners As Criminals in Japan
In a speech given in the presence of a group of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, the Tokyo governor talked about foreigner-involved crime in Japan and used a derogatory term that refers to ethnic Chinese and Korean people. There was a public outcry for his resignation, but Ishihara refused to even apologize for the comment.
Nanking And Yasukuni
In an interview with Playboy magazine, he stated that the Rape of Nanking was a “fiction” and supported a film called The Truth About Nanjing, which presented the case that the Nanking Massacre was just propaganda. His visits to Yasukuni Shrine have done nothing to improve his reputation with the Chinese, but he somehow manged to get himself invited to the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, something former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi couldn’t do.
Ishihara And Misogyny
In an interview with a women’s magazine, Shukan Josei, Ishihara made the statement that, “old women who live after they have lost their reproductive function are useless and are committing a sin.” He claimed there was nothing wrong with this since he made the statement not as a politician. He also said that much of the criticism directed toward him regarding the statement was created by “tyrant” old ladies.
On The Positive Side
Regarding U.S.-Japan relations, Ishihara has shown a lot of backbone in taking the stance that Japan is not America’s bitch and that Japan should say, “No” more often to the U.S. He even co-authored a book titled, The Japan That Can Say ‘No.’ For an interesting dialogue with Mr. Ishihara on Japan’s relationship with the United States, read this interesting article.
Also, Ishihara led a campaign to reduce the number of crows in the Tokyo area; A move that our own Spartancus can surely call positive.
Love him or hate him, Shintaro Ishihara has been re-elected as Tokyo’s governor twice. What does this say about the voting public here in Tokyo? Has making such insensitive statements endeared him to the general public, or are voters here able to look past the negative things and objectively see the kind of leader they believe Tokyo needs? What do you think about Mr. Ishihara?
Sources:
Shintaro Ishihara, Wikipedia (Yes, I know, I know… but, this Wikipedia page cites legitimate sources, ok? Check it out for yourself)
Tokyo Governor Ishihara Critiques the U.S.-Japan Alliance, Japan Society, May 17, 2007
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billywest is a resident of South Tokyo and lives on the Toyoko line.
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Right Wing, Racist Bastard!…
Or is he? What do you think of Tokyo’s controversial governor, Shintaro Ishihara? Are you surprised that he’s been elected as governor three times?…
Great article Billy! I had not idea he has said such things….
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What was his brilliant solution for killing off crows? Ship them to America? This guy gets more passes than Bush, that blabbermouth president Chavez down in Venezuela and Iran’s Ahmadinejad combined. But somehow, Ishihara is still respected. Interesting …
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All-out war, baby! Ishihara and his troops rocked up and started the fireworks. When the smoke cleared, around 10,000 of the beasts lay captured or slain, the deceased ones ready to be made into the “crow pies” that the governor had previously suggested.
However, more came in from the countryside to take the places of their fallen bretheren.
If you ask Ishihara about the failure to eliminate the crow problem, he might tell you that today’s crows are possessed by the spirits of the old “tyrant” ladies he spoke so freely about several years ago.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article1083581.ece
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IMHO was invited to the Beijing Olympics ceremony so that he could be slain by a rampaging crowd to closure the ceremony. I don’t think it’s really safe for him to accept the invitation ^^-
I only agree with him about US-Japan relations … but at least he’s not like 99.99999% of the politicians that says something and then apologize ASAP.
I’d wish some politicians here in France would be like him … it would shakes things up a bit.
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The more effective part of Ishihara’s “Crackdown On Crow” was actually a little more prosaic: collect the garbage earlier each day. The unfortunate side effect however was a population of hungry crows, which only served to increase the attacks on food-carrying humans…
I’m surprised you didn’t mention Bank Ishihara (apologies, Shinginko Tokyo Bank). With a hand-picked board of Ishihara cronies, *not one* of whom has any banking experience, they have managed to lend the best part of two and a half billion dollars to bankrupt SMEs (your guess as to how many have y*kuza links, and/or Ishihara links) and are now looking for a Y40bn bailout from the city’s taxpayers. Resignation? Apology? Public outcry? Anybody? Hello..?
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It amazes me that he gets re-elected. Tells me something about the citizens of Tokyo. I assume he has done many good things for Tokyo and accomplished a lot which is why he gets te-elected.
Funny how he makes a comment and says there is nothing wrong with it since he was not making the comment as a politician but as a private citizen. Do politicians have a different concept of there job in Japan then in the United States? In the US, if you are a politician, you are ALWAYS on the job and any comment you make is as a politician.
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Ishihara….couldn’t care less for the guy! It is amazing how he gets re-elected and re-elected. The guy is a retard if you ask me…and so is his oldest son as he demonstrates on TV too often.
Many, many years back when he was first elected as Gov, he was on TV stating why he didn’t like Americans. His reasoning was that when he was in elementary school (yes…elementary) that for no reason and American boy came up to him and punched him in his face. Ever since then, he hated Americans. Him growing up in Zushi, there are high chances that it was an American (probably a military brat) but for all he/we know, it could’ve not been an American. Regardless, this was an old fart Gov. on national TV telling the public his story of when he was a little boy and how the grudge has carried on to his grey-years.
After seeing that on TV, nothing surprises me about him. It’s obvious that anything and anyone else is below him. How anyone can like the guy…is a mystery to me.
Great article billywest!!!
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F___k Ishihara!!!
Elementary School? He can come to Yanai for a free blast to the nose…just in case he forgot what it feels like
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I’ve never given much attention to politics, whether it be Japan or my home country. But I can say one thing about this, and that’s: this dude sounds like a grade A jackass. =)
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It’s kind of unfortunate that the overwhelming majority of what’s written about Ishihara on the internet is basically these same incendiary quotes rehashed over and over.
Seriously, what’s the point? Anyone can look up his Wikipedia entry and find the same information.
At the very least look up the entry on him in Japanese and find some of his other controversial quotes that haven’t yet been translated / entered the blogsphere’s collective knowledge.
If you’re really daring, why not actually read some of his books that have been published in English and try to get some insight into who he is (beyond the Western portrayal of him), and why he’s a hero to basically an entire generation of Japanese men.
That might answer everyone’s question to why he can get away with these kind of quotes, and make people reexamine their image of him as a one-dimensional, anti-American bigot.
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“Seriously, what’s the point? Anyone can look up his Wikipedia entry and find the same information.”
Anyone can, but not everyone will.
“try to get some insight into who he is (beyond the Western portrayal of him)”
Generalizations. There are plenty of Japanese people who wouldn’t portray him in any kind of positive light.
And, Crom, look at the last paragraph of this post:
“Love him or hate him, Shintaro Ishihara has been re-elected as Tokyo’s governor twice. What does this say about the voting public here in Tokyo? Has making such insensitive statements endeared him to the general public, or are voters here able to look past the negative things and objectively see the kind of leader they believe Tokyo needs? What do you think about Mr. Ishihara?”
What’s been put here is a challenge to the reader: decide for yourself whether or not Mr. Ishihara is an effective governor. I’ll admit, the bulk of the post focuses on some of the negative comments he’s made. But, as you can see if you read the post entirely, his showing of backbone to the U.S. was listed as a positive thing.
“Seriously, what’s the point?”
To create awareness where there isn’t any.
What’s your point? Give us a link to your blog so we can see what you’ve written on the subject.
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