Citing a column by journalist Takayuki Hikawa in WiLL, this article examines the conduct of Jun Azumi, Noriko Ishigaki, and Shu Watanabe, including disputes over Diet proceedings, a trip-related absence, and what the author regards as contradictions between political rhetoric and action, while also addressing voter responsibility in Miyagi Prefecture.

August 27, 2020
The monthly magazines WiLL and Hanada, released yesterday, are, even more than usual, filled from beginning to end with genuine articles that must be read.
They are essential reading not only for the Japanese people but for people throughout the world.
I will inform people throughout the world about them as much as I can, but Japanese citizens who are able to read printed material, regardless of age or sex, must take 950 yen × 2 to their nearest bookstore and go and purchase them.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that if you do not read the articles packed into these magazines, you are completely ignorant and benighted about the matters at issue.
The following is from a serialized column by journalist Takayuki Hikawa published in WiLL under the title, “Hikawa Political Talks: You Shameless People! Opposition Lawmakers Who Said ‘Open the Diet’ and Then Ran Off to the Ogasawara Islands.”
The reason I am putting this article first is to make the people of Miyagi Prefecture, my home prefecture, aware of it.
The voters of Miyagi’s 5th District, centered on Ishinomaki, who elected Jun Azumi of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan in the House of Representatives election, and the voters who elected Noriko Ishigaki in the House of Councillors election, must read it.
Current students and graduates of Ishinomaki High School and Miyagi Second Girls’ High School must read this article with the utmost seriousness.
That is because they are not merely a disgrace to Miyagi Prefecture, but people who bring harm to the nation of Japan.
You who voted for them are likewise a disgrace to Miyagi Prefecture, unworthy of the traditions of Sendai, the City of Trees and the academic city of Sendai, and are, for Japan, akin to traitors to the country.
The Names of Opposition Lawmakers Whose Sophistry, Irresponsibility, and Insincerity Invite Ridicule While Prime Minister Abe Endures an Grueling Workload
Absent from the Diet Because of a Trip
“Where has Shu Watanabe disappeared to!”
Shortly after 10:30 a.m. on August 5, Jun Azumi’s angry shout echoed through the office of the Constitutional Democratic Party’s Diet Affairs Committee chairman on the second floor of the National Diet Building.
Senior officials of the CDP Diet Affairs Committee hurried out of the room and began searching for the whereabouts of Watanabe, deputy leader of the Democratic Party for the People, who had gone missing.
What on earth had happened?
Fifteen minutes earlier, Azumi, chairman of the CDP’s Diet Affairs Committee, had been standing before television cameras, looking thoroughly pleased with himself as he answered reporters’ questions.
“We demanded that proper deliberations be conducted while the Diet is out of session, and I would like to announce that agreement has been reached on the following points. First, on August 7, a meeting of the directors of the House of Representatives Budget Committee will be held.”
Azumi, nicknamed the “little gangster,” leaned back triumphantly.
He had persistently demanded that the ruling parties convene the Diet, and now proudly displayed the fact that, at last, he had won a certain degree of concession from the ruling parties during talks between the Diet Affairs Committee chairmen.
Because expenditures from the reserve funds appropriated in the second supplementary budget had been decided, it was determined that a meeting of the Budget Committee directors would be held on August 7.
However, senior opposition Diet affairs officials quickly noticed something was wrong and turned pale.
The whereabouts of Shu Watanabe, the opposition’s senior director on the Budget Committee, were unknown.
In fact, several days earlier, Watanabe had engaged in the following casual conversation with members of his office staff.
“I’d like to travel during my long-awaited summer vacation, but it wouldn’t be much fun if I can’t go outside Tokyo.”
Measures against the novel coronavirus were apparently the last thing on his mind.
What he was thinking about was his own summer vacation plans.
A member of his office staff replied jokingly:
“The Ogasawara Islands are technically part of Tokyo, you know.”
Watanabe slapped his knee.
“There’s that option. If I go to Ogasawara, it doesn’t count as leaving Tokyo, does it?”
Even this staff member never imagined that Watanabe, a deputy leader of the party, would take the suggestion seriously.
But Watanabe was serious.
Several days later, in high spirits, he headed for the southern islands approximately one thousand kilometers from central Tokyo.
Sophistry, Irresponsibility, and Insincerity
It was not until the evening of the 5th that senior opposition Diet affairs officials finally managed to contact Watanabe.
However, the only means of transportation connecting the Ogasawara Islands with mainland Tokyo was a regularly scheduled ship operating once a week.
The earliest he could possibly return to the Diet was August 9.
In the end, Azumi secretly ordered that a notice of Watanabe’s absence be submitted for the Budget Committee directors’ meeting.
On the day of the meeting, reporters who noticed Watanabe’s absence asked, “What happened to Mr. Watanabe?”
But because Azumi had imposed a gag order, senior opposition Diet affairs officials had no choice but to cover for him with the strained explanation, “He is in Tokyo, but is absent because of certain circumstances. He has not been infected with the coronavirus.”
Diet staff members were dumbfounded by this unprecedented situation.
“The opposition has repeatedly demanded that the Diet be opened, yet when it is actually opened, an opposition lawmaker is ‘absent because of a trip.’ That is far too irresponsible. In the end, the opposition is only putting on a performance and has no intention of seriously participating in deliberations.”
Azumi had repeatedly thundered to reporters, “If the Go To Travel campaign causes infections to spread into regional areas, the entire Cabinet should resign.”
Then how was he going to explain the fact that a senior opposition lawmaker had deliberately traveled from Tokyo all the way to a remote island for sightseeing?
Watanabe sent Azumi and others an explanatory email stating, “This was not a trip accompanied by a mistress. It was an inspection trip that also included interviews with former village assembly members,” but if his purpose was simply to speak with former village assembly members, would an online meeting not have been sufficient?
The sophistry that because the Ogasawara Islands belong to Tokyo, the trip did not involve crossing a prefectural border.
The irresponsibility of missing the Diet because of a trip.
The insincerity of criticizing the possibility that travel might spread infections, and then, when that criticism boomeranged back upon themselves, attempting to conceal the facts.
It was an incident that vividly illustrated the state of today’s opposition parties.
What today’s opposition says and what it actually does are completely different.
At 1:00 p.m. on August 4, the person Azumi invited to the office of the CDP Diet Affairs Committee chairman was newly elected CDP House of Councillors member Noriko Ishigaki.
With senior Diet affairs officials also present, they were served eel-box lunches from a long-established restaurant, after which a whole cake appeared as a surprise.
It was a birthday party that Azumi had prepared for Ishigaki.
Facing three candles standing on the cake, Ishigaki smiled like a young girl.
“There is the coronavirus issue, but is it all right if I blow them out?”
Azumi replied with a broad smile.
“It’s fine.”
Azumi’s intention to win the favor of a young female lawmaker by using party money and an almost nauseating amount of flattery was obvious, but after Ishigaki left the room, he allegedly uttered an unbelievable remark.
“Ishigaki is completely left-wing, so she isn’t my type. I couldn’t sleep with her even if she asked me to. I’m not left-wing.”
A senior opposition politician casually making a sexually harassing remark despite being inside the supreme organ of state power.
Yukio Edano, leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party, is the same in insisting that he is “not left-wing” while building an extremely close relationship with the Communist Party.
One of Edano’s favorite sayings is, “I am the true mainstream conservative. The Constitutional Democratic Party is a conservative party.”
Although they dislike being labeled “left-wing” more than anyone, they will bow down before the Communist Party if that is what it takes to win an election.
Opportunistic “pseudo-liberals,” worse in character than the left itself, are running rampant.
To be continued.