Farcical Japan: More LDP Cosplay, and Governor of Tokyo Says "That's Not What I Meant" to NY Times Article

(UPDATE 4/30/2013) Now the governor wants to correct his remarks, according to Nikkei Shinbun. Nikkei quotes him saying "不適切な発言があり、おわびしないといけない。訂正したい Some of my remarks were inappropriate, and I need to apologize. I want to correct my remarks." Governor Inose his supporters spent all day yesterday criticizing New York Times.

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It was not just Prime Minister Abe. Shigeru Ishiba, Secretary-General of Liberal Democratic Party, and Junko Mihara, LDP Upper House Councilor and former singer/actress, at "NicoNico Chokaigi 2" (photo uploaded by yunomi at Photozou):

Meanwhile, as the news of what he said in New York on his recent trip, Tokyo Governor Inose defends himself saying New York Times didn't report his true intention.

What was his true intention? According to Sankei Shinbun (4/29/2013),

「イスタンブールは個人的にも好きな都市。候補都市を批判する意図はなく、インタビューの文脈と異なる記事が出たことは残念。私の招致にかける熱い思いは変わらない」

"Istanbul is one of my favorite cities. I had no intention of criticizing other candidate cities, and it is regrettable that [my intention in] the interview was taken out of context. I remain enthusiastic about inviting [2020 Summer Olympics to Tokyo]."

Right. As if what he says he thinks matters. The New York Times article is totally in line with what I have read of Inose's past remarks about 2020 Olympics.

Hiroko Tabuchi, New York Times reporter who contributed to the article by (she attended the interview) by Ken Belson, tweets additional information in response to readers:

• She joined the interview at the last moment, and the official interpreter was already there.

• In order to avoid potential reporters' bias [they were both fully capable of translating Japanese into English] on very controversial remarks by Inose, they decided to use the official interpreter's words.

• At no point during the interview, Governor Inose requested any part of the interview to be off-record.

• They both heard what Governor Inose said in Japanese, and they don't think the interpreter said anything different from what Inose said.

Asahi Shinbun reports that the interview was recorded, and the interpreter was hired by Mr. Inose himself.

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