Letter from Japan
Vote for me!
(This was an experimental column offered to The Japan Times [can’t think why they didn’t take it] and based on the “Dear Bill” column from Private Eye. Originally written in 2001.)
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Dear Frank,
I start with a question: Is new Philippines President Gloria Arroyo the first head of state that you’d be willing to shag?
She’s awfully close. It might take a few beers, but give the Filipinos credit – they’ve got a good-looking girl in charge.
mmmmm….
Of course, it doesn’t really matter who’s in charge over there as the country is such a mess. Up until now, the old maxim “you
get the leader you deserve” appears to be true over there.
That’s why I can’t understand why they were so keen to get rid Of “Elvis” Estrada. Just because he was a fat, greasy-haired, philandering gambler with his hand in the till, it doesn’t mean to say he doesn’t deserve to be president of the Philippines. Seems to be the perfect sort of chap to me. I can’t understand why countries like the Philippines don’t have a law that makes embezzlement legal – perhaps up to a limit of $10 million. They’re going to do it anyway, so the government might as well facilitate it.
Anyway, the old maxim has never let Japan down. Look at what we’ve got now: Yasuhiro Mori.
If he was a fat, greasy-haired, philandering Elvis impersonator things might not be so bad.
All right, so he’s a bit on the bulky side, but he has none of the endearing attributes of the Filipino “Elvis.”
He is, basically, a complete twat.
Perhaps the maxim can be reversed (“The leader gets the people he deserves”), but I know not all the Japanese people are as mind-bogglingly moronic as their leaders.
Of course, most of the leaders are.
In the 14 years I’ve been here, Japan has been run by a string of gutless incompetents with the all moral rectitude of a paedophilic priest.
Most of the leaders have come from the Liberal-Democratic Party, which has maintained power for most of the post-War years. To be a Liberal-Democratic politician you have to be:
a) rich;
b) stupid.
Of course, politicians belonging to the Liberal Democratic Party (I thought the name was a joke until I remembered there is no irony in Japan) have a host of other attributes, including bribe taking, bribe giving, shagging geisha girls (and paying them a monthly retainer), lying, cronyism, bribery, lying, egotism, lying and lying.
Why, you ask, do the voters put up with this?
Up until now, it’s been because they think that the Socialists would upset the gravy train that Japan hoped to ride into the 21st Century.
Ah, I hear you say, but Japan’s economy is a complete mess, only a few steps away from that of the Philippines, but much, much deeper in debt.
That’s true, but the succession of LDP governments in the ’90s used the national piggy bank to create the impression that everything was OK.
More recently, they started borrowing – a lot – sending Japan spiralling into debt and almost certain financial ruin a few years down the road.
Mark my words, Japan is going to be hit by a massive financial collapse, followed by – or, perhaps, preceded by – social collapse.
No, forget the maxim; Japan does not deserve such a fate, but the voters have to start realizing that they’ve been conned by their politicians.
The government will only do something about it when it’s too late (and they’ll do too little then). At that time, the voters will turn against them, but that will be too late, too.
I wish Estrada would come over here and be prime minister; you know exactly where you stand with him. You can budget in a few million dollars for him to rent a few mistresses and gamble away, knowing that the rest will be untouched.
Unfortunately, like the Philippines, Japan has little left to gamble with.
Billy.
P.S. What about that Makiko Tanaka … she’s a spunky woman, don’t you think? Might be alright at 4 a.m., pissed out of your brains.