During the March 19 broadcast of TBS' "Newscaster," comedian Beat Takeshi complained about the work clothes (sagyogi) that Japan's politicians changed into after the earthquake-tsunami of March 11, saying that instead of trying to give the impression that they were working they should go up to the afflicted areas and actually get their hands dirty. However, those getups are not, strictly speaking, work clothes. They could more correctly be described as company uniforms, which is why each party had its own design. In many Japanese firms management wears such attire on the job.

But Takeshi's point is worth mentioning in that the wearing of those uniforms is strictly symbolic. Much of what a politician does can be categorized as public relations, and appearing as if one is addressing an issue is part of the job. Depending on the situation, this strategy can backfire, and as Takeshi's comment illustrates, a lot of the government's spin control has failed miserably. Prime Minister Naoto Kan was castigated last week when he canceled an announced trip to Fukushima because of poor weather. The sojourn was a bad idea in the first place. The people working in the area to help the victims would have only been inconvenienced if they had to babysit the PM for the sake of a solidarity photo op. But the media thought Kan was being cold.

Much has been made of the public's deteriorating confidence in the authorities' handling of the crisis. Every day new information reveals further negligence on the part of Tokyo Electric Power Co., or some lapse in judgment, such as trade minister Banri Kaieda's alleged threat to punish firefighters who refused to work at the reactor. As a result, mistrust increases, generating resistance to any statement that purports to be authoritative. All those nuclear power experts the media trots out to explain what's happening at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant may do more harm than good from the standpoint of reassuring viewers. As pointed out by social economist Ryuichiro Matsubara in the Asahi Shimbun, every time one of them qualifies a point in his explanation with the phrase, "this couldn't have been imagined," he loses credibility. When you say that — and almost everyone does — you sound as if you're making excuses.