"Kokoro kara owabi mōshi-agemasu" (「心からお詫び申し上げます」 "I apologize from my heart"). The hearts of Japanese politicians must be bottomless indeed, for all the apologies that seem to ferment there. Their mouths, meanwhile, are on automatic pilot, sowing shitsugen (失言, gaffe, slip of the tongue) after shitsugen — or, if you prefer a more delicate term, futekisetsu hatsugen (不適切発言, inappropriate utterance). You can't help thinking sometimes that newspapers would be a much thinner without them.

The word 失言 will immediately call to mind the latest in a long, long line of political names associated with it: Yoshio Hachiro. He is particularly unfortunate in that his tenure as keizai-sangyōshō (経済産業省, minister of economy, trade and industry) was so short (nine days) there is little else to remember him by: 失言, お詫び (apology), exit.

Two off-the-cuff remarks to a kishadan (記者団, press scrum) echoed round the world and sealed his fate. He had just completed a shisatsu (視察, observational tour) of the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and environs and said, "Shūhen chōson no shigaichi wa hitokko hitori inai masa ni shi no machi to iu katachi datta" (「周辺町村の市街地は人っ子一人いないまさに死の町という形だった」 "In the central areas of the nearby villages and towns there is not a soul around. They are real cities of death"). The second remark was intended playfully. The actual words were reported differently in different media, but the gist was, "Hōshanō wo tsukechau zo!" (「放射能をつけちゃうぞ！」"I'll nuke you!")