Curly says goodbye
[22 Sep 2006]
It has been interesting to read Koizumi’s weekly emails. His last one has:
In my policy speech immediately after my appointment as Prime Minister, I stated, “The top priority that I must address is to rebuild our economy and reconstruct our society as one full of pride and confidence. Moreover, Japan must fulfill a constructive role as a member of the global community.”
Generally a successful prime ministership, then. But if he’d only regarded the relationship with his close neighbours as more important than his desire to pray at a shrine…
23 Sep 2006 at 3:41 am [Comment permalink]
didn’t Abe also say that he will continue to visit the shrine… and he seems to be trying to make Japan more assertive.. I think the neighbours will miss Koizumi.
Korean bloggers are already celebrating “more blogging material”
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2006/09/22/yeah-well-good-luck-with-that/
23 Sep 2006 at 8:09 am [Comment permalink]
Abe has been clever enough so far not to say if he will visit the shrine. But yes, he will be more asserive in trying to make Japan a “normal” country again – with its own (real) military, and able to make more of its own (nationalist) decisions.
But at least he has made noises about trying to imporve relations with the close neighbours – it will be interesting to see how that will go, as the ppl in Korea said.