Thursday, February 28, 2013

#Radioactive Japan: PM Abe Says "Japanese Ag Products Are Popular in the World Among the Wealthy"



In his first policy speech in the Diet as the prime minister on February 28 afternoon, Prime Minister Abe promised he would make Japanese agriculture aggressive and strong so that more rich people in the world buy healthy Japanese produce.

(Like wealthy Thais in Bangkok buying peaches and apples and pears and persimmons from Fukushima?)

Sankei Shinbun has his photo, as he delivers the speech. He looks tired and bloated.

From Sankei Shinbun, part 2 of the policy speech by Abe (2/28/2013):

健康的な日本食は、世界でブームを巻き起こしています。四季の移ろいの中で、きめ細やかに育てられた、日本の農産物。世界で豊かな人が増えれば増えるほど、人気が高まることは間違いありません。そのためにも、「攻めの農業政策」が必要です。日本は瑞穂の国です。息をのむほど美しい棚田の風景、伝統ある文化。若者たちが、こうした美しい故郷(ふるさと)を守り、未来に「希望」を持てる「強い農業」を創ってまいります。

Healthy Japanese cuisine is creating a sensation all over the world. Japanese agricultural products are grown with great care with the change of four seasons. I have no doubt that Japanese agricultural products will be even more popular as the number of wealthy people increases around the world. To prepare for the demand, we need "aggressive agricultural policy". Japan is the Land of Abundant Rice [the term that appears in ancient Japanese mythology]. Breathtaking view of terraced rice paddies, traditional culture. I will build a "strong agriculture" so that the young people can protect the beautiful homeland and have "hopes" for the future.


Creating a sensation... Well where has he been in the past several decades? Doesn't he know "hope" is a dirty word?

Japan had routinely used excessive amount of pesticides on agricultural products even before radioactive iodine and cesium landed on them. But that aside, "aggressive and strong" agriculture, whatever he means, is not what has produced the food that people in the world have come to like. It is mom-and-pop, small-scale farmers.

In the same speech, Abe declared he will restart the nuke plants.

Browsing through his speech, I just realize this prime minister is about half a century too late. He says he wants to make Japan "the world number one", as if this were 1950's, right after the Korean War. How he is going to achieve that with declining population and soaring government deficit, nobody knows. Well, the debt load percentage is definitely the world number one.

(War, anyone?)

8 comments:

John Bernhart said...

Kafkaesque Japan: I just wanted to inform everyone about TEPCO's website. On TEPCO's website, there are two toll free numbers (0120) for people injured by Fukushima to call to submit a claim for compensation. The English is very strange because it says be sure to call the correct number but the two descriptions are indecipherable. I evacuated from Tokyo prefecture. So I called the first number and was told that only residents of Fukushima could call the first number. TEPCO told me to call the second number. So I called the second number and was told that only corporations could call the second number. I explained about the radioactive plume that hit Tokyo on Tuesday, March 15, 2011, and that I had an infant son. Moreover, the Tokyo government issued a warning that infants should not drink Tokyo water, and the US evacuated women and children from bases throughout eastern Japan. So TEPCO says to me, I have no standing because I am not a corporation. TEPCO said my employer should call TEPCO and file a claim on my behalf. So I called my former employer. My former employer said that there is no radiation in Tokyo and that the idea that they should submit a claim on my behalf was unimaginable. TEPCO and corporate Japan sticking together to magically limit radiation to a political border. This is of great importance to me because I have been unemployed since Fukushima and I do not receive any unemployment benefits. I was a college professor, and I have a wife and son. My income for the 2012-13 school year was 209,000 yen. That is for the entire year, not for a month. TEPCO kept saying so sorry, so sorry. My employer had no apology because it was my choice to evacuate when all of their children remained living in Tokyo.

Anonymous said...

Dear John:
There are many like yourself (myself included) who left to protect family given the lack of information from either the Japanese government or (in my case) from the US government.
Anyone who stayed will have a negative attitude towards evacuees.

Anonymous said...

Get the form somehow and file the claim in writing. (If you can't get the original form, get a copy and submit that; otherwise just submit something written by yourself). Costs nothing anyways.
Beppe

Anonymous said...

''I will build a "strong agriculture" so that the young people can protect the beautiful homeland and have "hopes" for the future.''

What a di**head! He should concentrate on food security rather than TPP, if that was the case.
Trouble is this guy is absolutely desperate. I suppose there is very little they can do except lie convincingly.

Anonymous said...

He always looks tired and bloated, like his policies.

Anonymous said...

The guy knows nothing about any of the policies he is speaking of.

A tired old sack of wind ventilated from the Fukushima reactor meltdown.

It reminds me of some of (not all by any means) the kinds of presentations my college students in Japan give, just mindless and clueless second hand propaganda. These people need to put their thinking caps on!

Anonymous said...

This article is poorly written

Anonymous said...

this one time at band camp

Post a Comment