It’s been a while since I observed any news from this man, which is more a reflection of me being busy as I’m sure not a day passes that Shintaro Ishihara, liberal governor of Tokyo, doesn’t come out with some stunning quip. Here’s another which has got him slapped with a lawsuit by several French speakers here in Tokyo. Here’s a sample:
Ishihara said [on] Oct 19, “I have to say that it should be no surprise that French is disqualified as an international language because French is a language which cannot count numbers.”
There’s a better article at the BBC here.
In context, Ishihara has had some misfortune of late when his right hand enforcer resigned, and recent local elections in Tokyo have cut into his support. That said, he’s a right winger who tells people the kind of things they want to hear, as the UN pointed out in a recent brief, that Japanese politicians are eager to use nationalism and rhetoric to get the vote, and right now, it seems to be what many Japanese like to hear.
Indeed he said that if PM Koizumi stopped his visits to the controversial Yasukuni shrine, the country would fall to pieces! Powerful stuff. However, it was his assertion:
“women living after losing their ability to give birth is a waste and a crime.”
here that shows that he knows how to keep the country together.
As a summary to this post, take a look at this article over at issho.org.
Yup, the man is a loon, yet strangely, morbidly entertaining. Also, there’s more where he came from.