Thin skinned to a fault? ― 2015/04/29 09:59
A ripple has occurred within the Japanese blogosphere after locally
well-known liberal commentator and Kobe College emeritus professor
Tatsuru Uchida, uploaded his personal translation of "On My Watch --
Confessions of a foreign correspondent after a half-decade of
reporting from Tokyo to his German readers" on his blog. The
Confessions of a foreign correspondent after a half-decade of
reporting from Tokyo to his German readers" on his blog. The
original article was written by ex Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Tokyo correspondent Carsten Germis, and had appeared in Number 1 Shimbun
the monthly journal of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan (to his
discredit Uchida does not quote the source of his translation). As of
writing reTweets stood at 4,928, Facebook Likes 10K and the FCCJ has
uploaded its own Japanese translation of the Germis piece on its website.
The ripple has been sufficiently large for the liberal Asahi Shimbun (with
7M+ plus paid readership the second largest Japanese daily) to weigh in
with an article of its own.
The Germis piece details his and FAZ' multiple encounters with the
apparently increasingly thin skinned administration of Shinzo Abe,
while the Asahi article includes interviews of the two antagonists, the
FAZ and the Japanese consul general in Frankfurt who went to FAZ
to complain about its article on Japan.
A quick question that springs to mind after reading the Germis and
the Asahi articles is why the Japanese consul general went ahead to
the FAZ to verbally lodge his complaint (apparently in perfect
German), when he must have known that his complaint could potentially
appear on FAZ' page and embarrass him and his government.
The overwhelming possibility is that he took action because he was
ordered to do so by his superiors at the Japanese Embassy in Berlin,
who in turn were instructed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs (a very
normal chain of command), who in turn took his cues from the Cabinet
Office, whose head is ultimately the Prime Minister of Japan.
It is however surprising that the Cabinet Office was not aware of the
risks of a direct confrontation with the FAZ. Surely the PR firms in
the Office's employ must have counseled more subtle ways to address
the government's concerns. But the Office must have gone ahead with
the blunt approach anyway. Why?
Was that because when push comes to shove, the incident could be
swept under the rug by a statement by the government to the effect
that this was an unfortunate initiative taken by a minor official which
would henceforth never be repeated (alas the front line guys always
end up as fall guys)?
Takao Toshikawa a journalist who runs a well known local politics
newsletter Inside Line has on several occasions observed that Shinzo
Abe has good personal chemistry with Presidents Putin, Erdogan and
Elbegdorj (Mongolia) all famously sharing an authoritarian streak. If
Abe's own authoritarian streak renders his minions' initiatives to
anticipation and action on the whims of their master only, and makes
them fear seeking permission to speak freely, or if the confrontation
with the FAZ was indeed made on orders from the very top, then
Japan is truly and unfortunately headed for a rather dim future.
On the other hand if it was the bureaucrats' way of telling the PM
that you don't do things this way in the civilized world, that would be
quite a stunt pulled by these faceless men and women -- but that
IMHO is reading too much between the lines.
コメント
トラックバック
このエントリのトラックバックURL: http://mumbaikar.asablo.jp/blog/2015/04/29/7622940/tb
※なお、送られたトラックバックはブログの管理者が確認するまで公開されません。
コメントをどうぞ
※メールアドレスとURLの入力は必須ではありません。 入力されたメールアドレスは記事に反映されず、ブログの管理者のみが参照できます。
※なお、送られたコメントはブログの管理者が確認するまで公開されません。