Raw Japan

Farewell to photogenic Aso

Japan’s voters may have overwhelmingly rejected Prime Minister Taro Aso at the polls last week, but he and my camera got along just fine.

The 68-year-old makes vigorous gestures with his hands and strong facial expressions. His crooked smirk and his eyes that sometimes seem to be  popping out of his head always gave me a lot of interesting photo choices.

Now the photogenic Aso must pack his bags and hand over the prime ministerial house keys to Yukio  Hatoyama , the leader of the new ruling Democratic Party of Japan.

Hatoyama, once nicknamed “the alien” for his prominent eyes,  is — visually at least — less interesting except for his unruly locks that sometimes blow about in the wind.

The problem for me behind the viewfinder was that Hatoyama was expected  to win by a landslide while Aso was the visual winner.

Surrounded by fluttering Japanese national flags, Aso in shirtsleeves looked vigorous when campaigning and his smile was that of a  winner and his strong hand gestures displayed an eloquence which did not exist in his words.

Shaking hands with the prime minister, sort of

On the last day of Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso’s campaign for last week’s lower house election, I went to cover Aso’s speech in Kamakura to get pictures out as early as possible.

A large crowd of people waited for him to speak, but only a handful of cameraman were at the scene, perhaps reflecting the view that the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was on its way to defeat.

During the election, it was common for politicians to go into crowds of voters to shake hands and as soon as Aso began finishing up his speech, I rushed towards the front row of the crowd with my wide 16mm lens.

Within moments, voters were reaching out their hands and I was practically nose to nose with Aso while angry bodyguards tried to shove me away. I don’t give up easily if there is a chance of a good picture, though.

The next thing I knew, Aso himself suddenly grasped my hands and camera and told me: “You shouldn’t be shooting here. You’ve got to obey the rules. Do you understand?”

It was quite a shock to have Japan’s Prime Minister talking to me like this in front of a large number of people.

Elections, obstructions and duct tape

When you pack scores of journalists into a room and they’re all trying to listen to, photograph, and film one person – like the head of a political party – it’s easy to get blocked by the people and things in front of you.

For a photographer, this is the kiss of death. It means not getting a picture. Next, your phone rings with an angry editor on the other end - a brief conversation is followed by a lengthy period of woe and despair. For this and other reasons, photographers go to great lengths to get a good photo position.

For Sunday’s Democratic Party of Japan election event, the first photographers arrived at 2 a.m. for an event that wasn’t expected to start until almost 8 p.m. – 16 hours later. Well before any big event photographers make a land grab vying for the best possible real-estate.

At popular events, once you’re in position it can be difficult to get out again with all the other photographers around. Waiting is just part of the job. Photographers also usually come armed with rolls of duct tape to mark out territory, stickers to place on chairs and tables, and ladders to see over those pesky tall people.

On the other hand, sometimes a little bit of obstruction can make a very interesting picture. Flags, people, and video cameras can be useful objects to “frame” a picture in order to concentrate the viewer’s eye on the subject.

Punching puppets offer election action

Attack advertising is in its infancy and Japanese election debates are staid affairs between men in suits who take their turns to speak and don’t get angry.

The election on Sunday is a battle between the heavyweight LDP and the up-and-coming Democrats, who have a big lead in the polls, but the only big punches you’ll see thrown are among tiny finger dolls on a puppet stage.

Japan prefers consensus in its politics and has been ruled by the same party for most of the last  half-century, so what can a puppeteer do to appear topical without boring his audience?

Mitsuaki Tsuyuki at the “Lucky Laugh Theatre” in Tokyo has turned to Punch and Judy, reducing Prime Minister Taro Aso and opposition leader Yukio Hatoyama to a couple of bat-swinging midgets a few inches tall.

It seems to be working, as puppet show audiences warm to the election.

“The leaders are really fighting fiercely at this point in time… both here and there,” 63-year-old Sayako Suzuki, who brought her friend to the 500 yen ($5) show.

Others said they agreed the puppet theatrics were pretty realistic, in a country where scandals have robbed politicians of respect.

Japan vote decision a bit of a tough one

If the woman who works in my dentist’s office is anything to go by, some Japanese voters are having a devil of a time deciding how to vote in an election just over a week away.

Pollsters are predicting that the opposition Democrats will win by a landslide, ousting the conservative party that has ruled for nearly all of the past half-century.

Surveys show, though, that at least one in five voters is undecided, while another chunk might change their minds at the last minute.

“I’m really perplexed,” the dental assistant told me as I finished a less-harrowing-than-feared session in the chair this week.

“I really used to like Kakuei Tanaka when I was a kid,” she said, referring to the former Japanese leader credited by many with perfecting the system that kept the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in power with pork-barrel spending, close ties to business and bureaucrats and well-oiled local political machines.

“The LDP used to have an image as being strong,” she said. “Now, I don’t know.”

The decision of voters like her could either take the edge off an expected Democratic Party win or inflate it further, but analysts say the trend looks unlikely to change.

Aso flags LDP conservativism

To some people a national flag is little more than a piece of cloth, while to others it is a sacred symbol that embodies a country’s ideals. It was the latter that Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso apparently tried to score some easy points with this week in the run-up to the Aug. 30 election that voter surveys show his Liberal Democratic Party party is likely to lose.

In a televised debate, Aso accused the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan of defacing the national flag, commonly known locally as the Hinomaru or “sun circle”,  at a gathering for one of its candidates in southern Japan this month.

“My supporters told me that the Democratic Party cut up national flags and attached them to make a flag of the DPJ’s symbol,” Aso said. “I don’t want to believe it. Cutting up the national flag would be a very sad, unforgivable act.”  

Aso, who bows to the flag before speaking at news conferences, has been increasingly appealing to the LDP’s conservative base, saying the Democrats cannot protect the country with its weak security and socialist policies and using the word “conservative” more often in his speeches.

He has also recently criticised the Democrats for not displaying the Japanese flag at its headquarters. He said this was probably because of support from the leftist teachers’ union, a group anathema to conservatives. 

Indeed, seemingly looking to get maximum mileage out of the issue during this week’s debate, Aso commented that: “The most important thing is how much a party leader loves the country.” 

And DPJ chief Yukio Hatoyama took Aso’s comments on the chin: “If anyone had done such a disgraceful thing (tampered with the flag), I would deeply apologise.” 

Little heat in election debate

It might have been a historic moment, but Japan’s first-ever election face-off between the leaders of its two biggest political parties left many cold.

There were no knock-out punches, little soaring rhetoric and the 90 minute debate between Prime Minister Taro Aso (pictured left) and opposition Democratic Party leader Yukio Hatoyama (right) ended awkwardly when Hatoyama approached his rival for a final farewell, only to see Aso turn his back and leave the stage.

“He’s got too much on his mind,” said political commentator Hirotaka Futatsuki, suggesting Aso may not have meant to be rude.

Opinion polls suggest Aso’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is headed for defeat in the Aug. 30 election, ending a half-century of almost unbroken rule by the conservative party.

Japanese party leaders have debated in parliament since the start of a British-style “Question Time” several years back, but until now, election debates have included the heads of smaller parties too, blurring the direct confrontation between rivals for the premiership.

This one-on-one debate was not carried live on broadcast TV, although it could be viewed live on Internet sites and snippets were aired later on TV news programmes.

PM ponders “graceful defeat”

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, his long-ruling party at risk of losing power in this month’s election,  appears to be pondering the problem of how to lose gracefully.

Speaking on the campaign trail near Tokyo this week, Aso quoted a piece of advice given to his grandfather,  Shigeru Yoshida,  by Japan’s last wartime prime minister.

“One must lose gracefully — that’s what Kantaro Suzuki told Shigeru Yoshida,” Japanese media quoted Aso as saying in a speech in front of a memorial for  Suzuki, who was premier at the time of Japan’s defeat in World War Two. 

“A carp, once it’s on the chopping board, doesn’t flinch even when the knife touches it.”

Aso’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is trailing in opinion polls ahead of an Aug. 30 election.  A  loss would end more than half a century of nearly unbroken rule by the business-friendly party.

The 68-year-old Aso, like his rival, opposition Democratic Party leader Yukio Hatoyama, is the rich grandson of a former premier and often refers to his maternal grandfather, Yoshida, who negotiated the peace treaty ending World War Two.

Last year, when he was elected leader of the LDP on Sept. 22 — Yoshida’s birthday — Aso referred to the anniversary, telling party lawmakers: “Standing here, I feel that this is Taro Aso’s destiny.”

Clinton rescue casts spotlight on Japan families’ plight

The tearful homecoming of two U.S. journalists released from a North Korean jail during a lightning visit by former U.S. President Bill Clinton this week left relatives of Japanese abducted by Pyongyang’s agents dissatisfied with their own government’s efforts.

“Why is it that Japan has been taking so long to bring them back, while the United States negotiated a release that quick?” Kyodo news agency quoted Kayoko Arimoto, the mother of a missing abductee as saying this week.

In a surprise move similar to Clinton’s visit, then Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi swooped into Pyongyang in 2002 for a meeting with leader Kim Jong-il, a tactic that netted him a partial success: the return of five of 13 Japanese citizens North Korea admitted to having kidnapped to help train its spies. Pyongyang said the others were dead. But relatives of the eight plus a further four Japan says were also abducted, have refused to give up hope.

Successive prime ministers have vowed to bring the abductees home and Prime Minister Taro Aso visited the site where a 13-year-old girl was abducted in 1977 before kicking off his election campaign in the region this month. The main opposition Democratic Party has said it will also insist on progress on the abductions before it will provide North Korea with aid, if it takes power this month.

Though decades have passed since the kidnappings, suggesting that the missing victims may not have survived their ordeal in North Korea has become taboo.

One victim’s family is suing television commentator Soichiro Tahara for 10 million yen ($100,000) for saying he thought the abductees were dead. A television ethics watchdog has also decided to look into his comments, Kyodo news agency said on Friday.

Scrum at ruling party HQ says it all?

“Why can’t the LDP do this better?”

That’s what many reporters were saying when Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party announced its campaign platform on Friday.

They weren’t talking about the party’s campaign pledges for the Aug. 30 election,  which the LDP could well lose to the rival Democratic Party, ending more than half a century of almost unbroken reign by the LDP.

Instead, they were blasting the LDP’s lack of preparation for a media briefing to present their manifesto ahead of its official unveiling.  For one thing,  the LDP didn’t make enough copies and had to print out more at the last minute.  It also chose rooms at its headquarters that were far too small to fit in all the reporters, forcing many to stand in crowded corners.  And finally, the media briefing started more than an hour later than scheduled.

Getting a copy of the manifesto was like being in a rugby scrum or cramming oneself onto the last train home in Tokyo. 

 When some 100 embargoed copies were gone after a minute or so,  one reporter yelled: “We’ve been waiting here for one hour. You could have counted how many of us were waiting and done something!”