On April 16, opposition lawmaker Hiroyuki Konishi was walking by the Upper House members’ office building in Tokyo when he encountered a man jogging. The man recognized Konishi and started talking to him. His manner soon turned belligerent. An officer in the Self-Defense Forces, he objected to what he felt was the politician's negative opinion of the SDF, saying that Konishi's work as a lawmaker was "disgusting" and that he was an "enemy of the people." The tirade reportedly went on for as long as 30 minutes.
As a result of Konshi’s allegations, several media outlets said the officer's use of this phrase was reminiscent of the strident nationalism that informed the May 15 Incident of 1932, when naval officers were involved in an attempted a coup d'etat and killed the prime minister — a key development in the rise of Japanese militarism prior to World War II.
The main difference now, these media point out, is that Japan's Self-Defense Forces, which they are careful not to label as being a "military," are under civilian control in accordance with the Constitution. Konishi is an elected representative, but as media critic Chiki Ogiue pointed out on his radio show, the officer's outburst would seem to imply that it was he who presumed to be speaking for the Japanese people, thus rendering civilian control meaningless.