It's easy to believe that once a person becomes a politician, he tends to lose touch with everyday reality as it's lived by the majority of citizens since he's usually too busy looking after his own interests. Nevertheless, a recent remark by Tsutomu Takebe, the secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, was so glaring in its cluelessness that it deserves special attention.
On Nov. 2, Takebe complained that television news reports of the Niigata earthquake didn't show victims expressing their appreciation to LDP officials when they visited the area. Obviously, Takebe considered the visit little more than a failed photo op.
The central government, of course, dispatched rescue teams and the Self-Defense Forces, and plans to pass a supplementary budget for reconstruction efforts in the future, but it hasn't done much to alleviate problems that the quake victims are suffering right now. Some will argue that this isn't the central government's responsibility, and the LDP, Takebe in particular, is always talking about "moral hazards," which in this case means people expecting too much from their government. The fact is, Japanese people never expect help from the government.