Abe more interested in damage control than governing

Regarding the July 9 article “Abe aides worry over damage to LDP from Kawais' indictment,” Prime Minister Abe's camp seems only interested in his image and thus betray their disinterest in the substance and purpose of democratic government. They concern themselves solely with damage controlling their figurehead's reputation as it may threaten the Liberal Democratic Party's decades-old stranglehold on controlling and rerouting Japan's finances into their own or their associates' ill-gotten coffers.

When Abe ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne of the Diet where he has reigned with self-decreed absolute divine power for longer than some emperors, he dazzled the Japanese public with his thin veneer of sincerity. Yet If we look back to the start of this era, his most irksome proclamations have included the assertion that he and only he was righteous enough to lead, something he recently reminded us of when he said in public that it must be the truth if he had said it!

But such self-adulation has made him a laughingstock. We never see the murky figures behind politics who pull the strings on cosmetic leaders like the prime minister, but it is blatantly clear that he himself lacks the ability to either rule or be decisive, as all the terrible problems recently besetting Japan have embarrassingly highlighted.

It still amazes me that he has been there so long but rarely if ever communicates spontaneously. Instead he mouths the words of others from a script, heavily marked with phonic symbols, as he either has trouble understanding what someone else has written for him to say, or his Japanese literacy isn't what it should be.

Either way, when he is gone and the next figure head replaces him, it will simply be more of the same, with Japan's real but invisible leaders ventriloquizing the next political puppet.

The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.