Japanese editorial excerpts -3-

Japan Policy & Politics, July 22, 2003

TOKYO, July 17 Kyodo

Selected editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

ETO LACKS THE COMPASSION HE PRAISES SO LOUDLY (IHT/Asahi as translated from the Japanese-language Asahi Shimbun's editorial published July 16)

Takami Eto is a 78-year-old politician whose recently published book from Kodansha, '''Shin-no Akuyaku' ga Nihon wo Sukuu'' (''A real bad guy'' saves Japan), opens with the author's recollections of his childhood.

One of his classmates was an ethnic Korean resident in Japan. Everybody was friends, and there was no such thing as discrimination. The author's family was hardly well-to-do. But whenever someone gave them sweet botamochi rice dumplings, the author delivered some of them to his Korean classmate's home because that family had even less.

As the book unfolds, Eto bemoans the ''law of the jungle'' nature of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration, asking, ''What has become of the virtue of compassion?''

We want to ask the author himself-Liberal Democratic Party Diet member Takami Eto-the same question.

In a recent convention at the Fukui chapter of the LDP, Eto denounced all foreigners staying in Japan illegally as ''a bunch of degenerates who do nothing but steal and murder.''

Certainly the influx of illegal aliens is a problem. But Eto's way of describing it could not be any further from the spirit of compassion.

Nor, it seems, does Eto have any sympathy for Japan's neighbors. On Japan's annexation of Korea, he told his audience, ''The treaty was signed by both parties and endorsed unconditionally by the United Nations. How could this be considered `colonial domination' 90 years later?''

In 1995, Eto was director general of what was then the Management and Coordination Agency when he got himself into trouble by stating that Japan did some good for Korea during the colonial era.

Eto later apologized for his ''incorrect and smug view'' and resigned his post. Considering his subsequent track record for similar remarks, however, it is clear he has not really repented.

In 1998, Japan and South Korea issued a joint pledge to work together for a bright future. The two nations shared the hosting of the 2002 Soccer World Cup. The last thing we need is some offensive politician sticking his foot in his mouth and ruining those efforts.

Eto is an apparent godsend for television. Late last year, one commercial outlet aired a special program glorifying Eto as an outspoken, unabashed crusader for whatever issue he wants to bring to the attention of the world of politics.

In late May, Taro Aso, chairman of the LDP Policy Research Council, asserted that the people of Korea themselves asked to be identified by Japanese names during the colonial period. We are utterly mortified by the coarseness and insensitivity of such remarks coming from our nation's political leaders.

As Eto himself declares in his book, ''Politicians must not say what they cannot take responsibility for.''

(July 17)