#Japan #Earthquake: Prime Minister Kan Has Gone Quiet

Japan's Prime Minister Kan, who used to insist on briefing the Japanese people "directly" by holding his press conference on just about anything after the earthquake, has gone quiet, and the Japanese media is wondering what's going on.

Yomiuri Shinbun (in Japanese; 7:52PM JST 3/23/2011) wonders aloud:

Prime Minister Kan has all but disappeared from the public except when he appears in front of the press to make announcement [without taking questions from the press].

The ostensible reason is that the prime minister is focusing his efforts on resolving the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant crisis, but officials privately complain about the lack of leadership.

Prime Minister Kan's last public appeareance was on March 18, one week from the earthquake/tsunami, to deliver his message to the "Japanese people directly". Since then, there has been no press conference, and he doesn't answer questions in the Diet, saying he is busy.

He is supposedly busy dealing with the Fukushima I Nuke Plant problems. His aides says he's been issuing orders to the joint crisis committee made up of government officials and TEPCO, which has been set up to deal with the nuclear crisis.

It's good that he doesn't "lead" beyond his grandstanding, which however has probably caused unnecessary damage (see this post about how his "visit" to the Nuke Plant may have triggered the bigger disaster than would have happened).

Another one that's been hiding since the disaster struck is TEPCO's president.

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