Japan’s Obama wannabe
KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images An otherwise bland Asahi Shimbun article from Friday raises the interesting possibility that a victory by Barack Obama could put some wind beneath the wings of Ichiro Ozawa, the Japanese opposition leader (picture at right). Ozawa heads the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which is more or less the Washington Generals of ...
KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images
An otherwise bland Asahi Shimbun article from Friday raises the interesting possibility that a victory by Barack Obama could put some wind beneath the wings of Ichiro Ozawa, the Japanese opposition leader (picture at right).
Ozawa heads the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which is more or less the Washington Generals of Japanese politics — doomed to lose out year after year to the dominant Liberal Democratic Party. But given all the recent governmental upheaval, the DPJ’s legislative gains, and the continued low popularity ratings for new Prime Minister Taro Aso (left), Ozawa clearly sees an opening.
Which leads Robert Dujarric, a professor at Temple University’s Japan campus, to speculate to the Tokyo-based newspaper that Aso must be worrying that Japanese voters are thinking that change is possible for them, too: “If Obama, why not Ozawa?”
At 66, Ozawa is not exactly a spring chicken. And he may even be less popular than Aso — Newsweek‘s Christian Caryl describes the opposition leader as “known for muddled speeches and a penchant for intrigue.”
Still, he seems to be embracing a new style of politics and reaching out to young voters: going on an Internet talk show, alluding to past unrequited love, and dishing about his favorite type of tofu. Ozawa probably won’t be able to convince too many people that he’s some sort of Obama clone. But for a country where politicians have long been intolerably boring and opaque, win or lose, it’s a welcome change.
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