Newsletter No. 497
News-Analysis
January 26, 2007

 

KYUMA’S FOLLY -- TAKE TWO

It must be tough keeping your mouth shut when you are a sensible man surrounded by a bunch of senseless colleagues. Perhaps that explains why Japan’s first Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma just stepped in it again.

During a news conference in Tokyo on the 24th, he said that President Bush’s decision “based on an assumption that weapons of mass destruction existed [in Iraq] was a mistake.” Such a statement should be simply regarded as common sense by now; but in the convoluted world of contemporary Japanese politics, common sense is dangerously uncommon. Clearly, there’s something wrong with Kyuma -- the old boy just can’t stay “on message” when it comes to Iraq.

Photo: Kyuma at his January 24th news conference
Source: Itsuo Inoue / AP

His quote bounced out into the international media under major headlines such as: JAPAN CRITICIZES U.S. OVER IRAQ WAR!

That’s all rather overdramatic. It has been obvious for a long time that Kyuma’s views on Iraq -- while in fact being far more sound than most of his LDP colleagues -- represent only a minor, isolated fringe within the LDP establishment.

Inevitably, Kyuma has come under pressure once again to retract his comments. Most of that pressure has certainly been applied behind the scenes by his colleagues, but some taste of it has also leaked into the public sphere. For example, as Hitoshi Urabe at Glocom Platform wrote yesterday: “If political beliefs are expressed too liberally during the tenure of being ministers, it could give a confusing message to the Diet and the people. Ministers thus need be careful… Mr. Kyuma may have wanted to appeal to those condemning Mr. Bush's Iraq policies, as there are many among the supporters of the LDP who feel the same way. He may win his personal support from such groups of people, but he may also be undermining the support for the LDP by contradicting with Prime Minister Abe, who is, after all, also the president of the LDP.”

According to AP, Defense Minister Kyuma went to visit Prime Minister Abe on the very evening that he made his comments, presumably to try to smooth things over. He also met this morning with Foreign Minister Aso.

As a result, Kyuma spoke to reporters today, saying, “I did not say it was a mistake, but I thought at the time (the U.S.) should have been more cautious… Instead of being in the past tense, the comment came out very strongly. Perhaps it's the difference between Japanese and English.”

Yep! When all else fails, blame it on the translation!

A good try, Minister Kyuma! But I think that we all know by now two key things about you:

1 -- You are one of the few LDP leaders who has a clue about Iraq

2 -- You don’t know how to keep your mouth shut in public

That may make Fumio Kyuma a bad LDP politician -- but it also makes him a rather decent man.