CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- It is beyond the parameters of this column to plunge into the murky waters of Japanese domestic politics. But the case of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori -- and the ways this case has generally been reported in the foreign media -- calls for some scrutiny, especially since it automatically affects Japan's broader global image.
It should be clarified from the beginning that what follows should not be construed as an effort to absolve the beleaguered Japanese leader. In fact, if I were Japanese, I would side with the majority of citizens who have registered their disapproval in a whole series of polls. But at the same time, I would try to focus on the main reasons for disillusionment, avoiding the easy sensationalism that has characterized the foreign media's coverage of Mori.
International public opinion has followed, mainly through the dispatches of foreign correspondents, and with considerable bemusement, the sinking trajectory of a Japanese politician prone to continuous slips of the tongue. The leitmotif in most of this reporting centered around Mori's enthusiasm for rugby (with the implied corollary of intellectual mediocrity), the pilgrimages he made as a student to red-light districts in Tokyo, and his ignorance of the magic of the Internet. Personally, I have never had any interest whatever in rugby; but why should a mere hobby be the cause of so much ridicule? As for the 1958 story of juvenile temptations, it is totally irrelevant to a leader's performance in the top job more than 40 years later; I would even go a little further and blame Mori for fighting the revelation in court instead of completely ignoring it. As for the last point, it is not technical knowledge of computers, but other qualities, that are expected from a leader at this level.