Saturday, September 29, 2007

Sudden Resignation of Premier Abe

Below is my comment on the article of "Fade Away", TIME dated on September 24, 2007.

070924TIMECoverAs your article pointed out, Premier Abe’s sudden resignation pulled a trigger to turn back the clock of Japanese politics to the bad old days of revolving-door cabinet. In the early stage of Prince-like Abe’s appearance following Junichiro Koizumi’s long era, people gave him support not only because he advocated strong leadership to reform the old regime of the country after World War II but he seemed to survive for a longer period to improve and stabilize their ways of living now and in the future.

With a widening gap between Shinzo Abe and the people and his deteriorating health, he had to resign at the worst timing of political struggle with Ichiro Ozawa, the opposition leader of the DPJ.

The important lesson from this incident is that we should select a leader with both strong mind and health and never with the good appearance and high popularity.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

To dye or not to dye, that is the question!

Below is my comment on the article of "The Gray Wars", TIME dated on September 10, 2007.


もしもライス長官の髪が白髪だったら?

Looking at the two pictures of Condi and Nancy Perosi in your article, I was astonished at the clear differences of image between their faces with dyed hair and the ones with gray. Apparently, dyed hair could make women more beautifulenergetic, powerful and younger than they actually are. On the contrary, gray or white hair only gives them the image of aging and weakness.

As long as the women’s desire for beauty and youth exists, to dye or not to dye is not the question of fashion and cosmetics, but of their life and death for real. In this sense, Japanese women are not the exception.