In the Jan. 25 issue of Aera, show-business reporter Yoshiko Matsumoto, writing about the persistence of image, related an anecdote about Seiji Maehara. The land minister was traveling coach on a domestic JAL flight and after the airplane landed he helped other passengers remove their belongings from the overhead compartments.

Maehara is a member of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, and Matsumoto pointed out that such behavior would be considered out-of-character for anyone in the former ruling Liberal Democratic Party, whose more prominent members tend to assert their positions of authority by taking advantage of the trappings of privilege. Matsumoto didn't claim that the DPJ as a party rejects these trappings. She only focused on Maehara as an isolated example of a politician whose personal style diverges from what people expect, but it's probably safe to say that most Japanese citizens, not to mention the media, see the DPJ more in this light.

The glaring exception is Ichiro Ozawa, the DPJ's secretary general. In another anecdote, told by a reporter on the TBS wide show "Hiruobi," Ozawa was traveling by shinkansen from Obihiro to Sapporo with an entourage. Though there were seats available, one of Ozawa's acolytes stood next to his seat the entire trip while the veteran politician held forth on various topics. The acolyte simply listened, nodding his head and briskly saying "hai" ("yes") at appropriate intervals.