In this essay I'd like to introduce the philosophy of one Japanese politician who has the second highest rank in the government. His name is Yoshitada Konoike, Secretary of State. Secretary of State is appointed by the prime minister, Junnichiro Koizumi. As you know, Koizumi is at the forefront of reformists. But even the forefront reformist can happen to appoint the person like Konoike as a government executive offical. You can understand how desperate political situation Japan is put in by reading this essay.

Today mass media reported sensaitionally Konoike's statement at a press conference regarding the juvenile crimes. Konoike said mass media should focus on the parents of juvenile criminals rather than those of casualties. He even said the faces of criminals' parents should be broadcasted on the television and that we should send the parents to the guillotine with their criminal sons or daughters! He wants not only the criminals themselves but also their parents to be punished by death.

Japanese have been already civilized so highly that we can discuss whether or not we should abolish the capital sentence. Nearly 80 countries have already abolished it regarding every sort of crime. also in Japan we have many death penalty abolitionists. Nevertheless, Secretary of State of Japan says in public that the criminals' parents should be punished by death. How can he make such an utterance in one of the most civilized countries in the world?

But if you read the contents of Konoike's official web site (http://www.kounoike-web.com/), you can easily find the fact that the current Japanese government includes some extreme-rightists who are more extremely right than the Italian prime minister now fighting with German Chancellor.

In his official web site, Konoike describes his philosophy point by point. I'd like to introduce these points in the following paragraphes. In the first point, he says that Japanese judicial system doesn't work at all because even the guru of notorious cult group called Aum isn't punished by death yet. His passion for the death sentence seems to be extremely strong.

In the second point, he blames the teachers who belong to Japan Teachers' Union, one of the strong leftist groups for underestimating the importance of distinguishing right from wrong. He insists that there were beautiful things in Japan until the end of World War II and that we should teach our children the beautiful characters of Japanese culture. He adds that liberalism and democracy always have to be accompanied with strong discipline, respects for older people and devotion to parents. His philosophy is based on the very old fashioned and stark Conucianism. By maintaining that the older people are better than the younger by nature, he completely neglects the individuality and independency of each person. His mind still lives in the Middle Age feudalism.

In the third point, he clearly declares his disapproval of deregulation. He insists that, if we deregulate everything, the background of Japanese culture will be devastated. He wrongly thinks that the economic effectiveness is incompatible with Japanese culture. His logic is desperately weak.

In the fourth point, he distinctively protests against the leftists. He writes that the natural surroundings are our assets we inherited from our ancestors and that the movement of environment protection should not be biased by the leftists. I don't know why he had to connect the environmental issues with anti-leftist argument. I imagine he simply doesn't like the leftist and nothing more than this.

In the fifth point, he declares that he goes to Yasukuni Shrine which is very famous for enshrining the spirits of war criminals. Every time Japanese government officials visit Yasukuni Shrine, Chinese and Korean governments issue strong accusations against Japanese government because the central crime Japanese war criminals committed is to kill many Chinese and Koreans. Konoike clearly shows his adoration for all Japanese who died in World War II, including war criminals who killed hundreds of Chinese and Koreans.

I skip the sixth point because it simply says Liberal DemocraticParty should eliminate people's anxiety for the future. That's too natural.

In the seventh point, he maintains that we have to make every young people adore gods and Buddha through the early childhood education. By saying this, he denies the politico-religious separation and insists that the educational system should brainwash children. For him, the respect for gods and Buddha is much more important than the individual logical thinking. All the same he still lives in the era before Meiji period civilization.

In the eighth point, of course he writes that he wants to change the self-defence force into a real armed force. However, we should focus on the reason why he insists on that. He says it is in order not to make children confused. I have to admit this is very weak argument.

In the ninth point, he says that women with no babies don't pay back their debt to the society. According to his philosophy, living in the society means borrowing from the society and we have to pay back the debt throughout our lives. He completely neglects women's freedom to decide whether they have a baby or not. For him, every woman must have at least one baby. It is natural that Japanese birth rate keep going down these decades. He will never be able to understand the low birth rate comes from Japanese sexist environment based on such a philosophy as his.

I can continue this objection endlessly. But to tell the truth, I've got tired of Konoike's anachronism. For example, he writes that the public benefit is more important than the individual liberty and that the weak can be saved only when the strong survive (this is an obvious contradiction). In a word, his ideal political framework is that before the end of World War II. The individual liberty should be minimized and the strong men should rule Japan.

I can imagine that Yukichi Fukuzawa, most famous illuminator in the Meiji period, would be able to argue away Konoike easily. However, I cannot deny the fact that we have such an anachronistic politician in this post-industrial Japanese society. We should not forget there are still hundreds of thousands of Japanese who vote for this kind of politician. It's our own fault.

As you saw, ordinary Japanese electorates still don't understand the importance of the very basic concepts which form the foundation of the liberal society, such as individual liberty. If they really understand it, they never voted for the politicians like Konoike. I dare say that most Japanese are still living in the feudalism. It's natural that it is very difficult for ordinary Japanese to understand appropriately the sophisticated Western management methodologies. I'm afraid that Westerners can't be too disappointed by Japanese backwardness. What a shame, our Secretary of State.