Koizumi nurtures a cult of personality ( very, very scary)

[barbaraann]

Koizumi nurtures a cult of personality
Charismatic leader reshaping Japan

By Anthony Faiola, Washington Post | September 11, 2005

TOKYO -- Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan hopped down from a campaign platform in a Tokyo square last week, his trademark gray mane rippling in the wind as he pumped his fists through an evening drizzle. Scores of teenagers, grandfathers, and young mothers gasped, casting aside umbrellas and whipping out cellphone cameras. Electronic clicks and flashes filled the damp air along with a booming chant from a bullhorn:

''KOIzumi! KOIzumi! KOIzumi!"

''That's our prime minister!" exclaimed a drenched 16-year-old boy in a white tank top and jeans who had waited over an hour in the rain to catch a glimpse of the Japanese leader. ''Hang in there!" called out a 70-ish woman, wiggling with star-struck joy and dropping all pretense of Japanese reserve.

''Koizumi's secret is no secret at all," said Isao Iijima, the prime minister's top aide for 34 years. ''Some people call him a samurai, but the truth is that he has done what no other Japanese politician has. He has become a man of the people."
...
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/09/11/koizumi_nurtures_a_cult_of_personality/

The entire article is a must-read. It looks like his main prioirities are looting the huge postal savings system and Japanese social security system. He is not a "man of the people"--the last paragraph points out that he consults only with a tiny circle of insiders.

[barbaraann]

1. Another scary article:

Koizumi tightens grip on power...

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/afx/2005/09/11/afx2217156.html

From the article:
"Koizumi has nurtured a friendship with Bush, who calls him one of his best friends abroad, and describes the alliance with the United States as the core of Japan's diplomacy."

[jim3775]

2. Yet another scary article

The unthinkable: A nuclear-armed Japan
By Frank Barnabie and Shaun Burnie
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/GI09Dh03.html

[barbaraann]

3. The scare-o-meter is pegged.

:scared:

[undergroundpanther]

4. Fuck

Take away the mask and PR. and there is a putrid soul underneath.

[barbaraann]

5. mask, pr, and amazing haircut.

I am stunned that with the Japanese obsession with education, the people were so easily swept along into fascism. Somehow after WWII the Germans learned to resist it and the Japanese didn't, even though both countries have highly educated people.

[ForrestGump]

6. On the bright side, he's a HUGE

Elvis fan. :-)

Even has the same birthday as Elvis (and David Bowie). In fact, in Japan they released a CD of his favorite Elvis songs. Koizumi is a rock star, basically.

And, yeah, a lot of people are going to be nervous. I used to scoff at my mother's fears and predictions, when I was a kid, that Japan will rise again militarily and once again seek to forcefully export its nationalism within that Co-Prosperity Sphere...maybe she had a point, though. But maybe it was just understandable fear of a repeat of one of the planet's darker periods. Besides, Japan has already conquered more through commerce than it ever did through military invasion.

http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/08/16/japan.elvis/

[barbaraann]

7. "Man of the people" marketing?

Like GWB with his ranch and brush clearing?