The following is from the beginning of the subscription-only monthly magazine Themis, which arrived on December 31.
It is a must-read not only for the people of Japan but also for people around the world.
Japan's Prime Minister should not make a mistake in dealing with China
The city council rejected a proposed referendum ordinance for Musashino City in Tokyo on December 21, 2021.
It would have made no distinction between Japanese and foreigners and would have given the right to vote to international students and technical interns who have lived in the city for more than three months.
The vote results would not be legally binding, but the city would respect the results.
When the draft ordinance was submitted, opinions in favor and against it erupted in and outside the city.
The mayor, Reiko Matsushita, argued that the ordinance "embodies diversification." At the same time, Shigeharu Aoyama, a member of the House of Councillors of the Liberal Democratic Party, and others opposed it, saying it would affect national security.
The mayor insisted that she would submit another draft of the ordinance. Still, the heads of local governments and the prime minister, and following politicians, business executives, and other top executives of all kinds of organizations want to achieve something that shows their presence during their tenure.
It is often labeled with the pretext of ambition and challenge, but it is just self-aggrandizement and egotism.
Yukio Hatoyama, the first prime minister of the Democratic Party of Japan, called off the relocation of Futenma Air Base in Okinawa to Henoko and declared that the base should at least be outside the prefecture.
The result was a failure, and he confessed, "I was uninformed about the reality of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty."
The confusion over the Okinawa base issue that followed is not lost on us.
It is a good example of a man who failed because he wanted to surpass the achievements and honors of his predecessors and immediate predecessors.
There is also a suitable model in a neighboring country.
China's President Xi Jinping, North Korea's Kim Jong-un, and Russia's President Vladimir Putin.
They are using their positions of power and authority to the fullest to trivialize or erase their predecessors' legacies and are busy building up their legacies.
The "fingerprints" that the mayor of Musashino is trying to leave behind cannot be underestimated.
There are fears that foreign powers may intervene in the Self-Defense Forces base issue related to national security and the nuclear power generation issue related to the energy crisis.
When Prime Minister Naoto Kan was under pressure over the issue of donations by foreigners living in Japan, the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami occurred.
In his euphoria over the opportunity to prolong his life, he went berserk, causing chaos at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and a premature shutdown of the plant.
The top leaders' self-satisfied beliefs and distorted sense of honor will lead the country and its people astray.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida now has one crucial decision to make.
It is his stance on the Beijing Olympics to be held in China.
After the massacre in Tiananmen Square in 1989, Japan was one of the first countries to send the then Emperor and Empress of Japan to China to help lift the global siege on China.
Prime Minister Kishida's decision is now being watched closely by Japan and the world.
