Ernest Schaal wrote:

> My automatic reply used to be that Japanese as a whole do not believe that
> lunacy, but I am less certain about that now, based on the popularity of
> some of the politicians espousing that lunacy, such as the current Tokyo
> governor.

On the other hand, I was at a large festival in downtown Tokyo a couple of
years ago, not long after he spouted all that stuff about foreigners being
likely to start looting and rioting in the aftermanth of an earthquake, and
the Japanese organisers of the festival were at pains to stand up and
declare unequivocably to the crowd (mostly local people) that *he* was the
problem, not the foreigners he was railing against.

Still, the observation raises interesting questions. Do people support
Ishihara because of his racist views, or because he is good governor?
Certainly, a bit of googling turns up a lot of opposition to Ishihara, much
of it by Japanese academics and students, but is this indicative of a
greater degree of political awareness in Japanese society these days, with
more people coming down on one side or other of the fence, or are people
still largely unaware of - or unconcerned by - the issues?

--
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com