Regarding Natsuko Fukue's July 5 article, "Matsumoto rips Tohoku governors": Newly appointed reconstruction minister Ryu Matsumoto (who resigned this post Tuesday because of his reported remarks) needs to understand some things:
It's not about him. It's not about this or that governor keeping him waiting or being polite or impolite to him. It's not about Prime Minister Naoto Kan. It's not about the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, the opposition Liberal Democratic Party or any other party.
Can politicians around the world get it through their thick skulls that politics is not about them? Their one and only purpose is to serve the people; otherwise, they serve no purpose and we don't need them to be incompetent and surly.
We can be incompetent and surly all on our own, thank you.
And we wonder why Japan has been through a dozen prime ministers in two decades. Isn't it obvious?
When the politicians start thinking about the people first, turnout in elections will go up, people will really care who gets elected, and it won't be so easy for some faction to get its dander up over some perceived personal affront and unseat a sitting prime minister just so that it can get its own guy into that brocade seat in the Diet.
Until then, it's like watching "Survivor," the TV show: Who shall we vote off this week?
Meanwhile, real survivors are still suffering, more than 100 days after the earthquake and tsunami.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.