Published on January 16, 2020.
The author criticizes NHK and the Asahi Shimbun for repeatedly using the slogan “Learn from Germany” as a way to attack Japan.
Citing an essay by Mina Mitsui in the monthly magazine Sound Argument, he highlights Germany’s political instability after Merkel, the weak popularity of CDU successor AKK, and the uncertain future of German politics.

January 16, 2020
When I asked a German political scientist I know, who is a CDU supporter, he dismissed her flatly: “It is absolutely impossible to imagine such a provincial politician becoming chancellor.
Other than basking in Merkel’s reflected glory, does she have any merit at all?”
NHK, which on January 5 broadcast an outrageous anti-Trump report in its feature titled “U.S. Presidential Election: The Democratic Candidate Drawing Attention Is the Youngest, at 37,” has long followed the Asahi Shimbun and others in criticizing Japan by saying such things as “Learn from Germany.”
The following painstaking essay teaches us that it is you who must learn from Germany, and certainly not the Japanese people.
The following is from an essay by Mina Mitsui, Paris bureau chief of the Sankei Shimbun, published under the title “German Politics After Merkel” in this month’s special feature of the monthly magazine Sound Argument, “World Outlook 2020: Points to Watch!”
Foreword omitted
A Shaky Germany
What we must pay attention to here is the political situation in Germany.
Behind Germany’s strong economy lay an outstanding degree of political stability.
In the seventy years since the founding of West Germany, the country has been led by eight chancellors, from Adenauer to Merkel.
High growth existed because of stable government, and the EU existed because of a rock-solid Germany.
Recently, however, dark clouds have begun to gather.
Chancellor Merkel announced that she would “step down at the end of her term in 2021,” and drew up a scenario in which she would hand power to Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the defense minister and successor party leader of the Christian Democratic Union, commonly known as AKK.
However, AKK’s popularity has been extremely poor.
AKK comes from Saarland, a state along the French border, and served as its state premier for seven years.
She has a sense of humor and is a good speaker.
However, after effectively being designated as Merkel’s successor, she has been unable to show her own individuality, to the point that she has been called “Mini-Merkel.”
When criticism of the chancellor grows, she is hit by the backlash.
In the 2019 state parliamentary elections, the CDU continued to suffer crushing defeats.
AKK’s approval rating languished at 19 percent in an autumn opinion poll.
Saarland is a former coal-mining area and has the second-smallest population among Germany’s sixteen states.
When I asked a German political scientist I know, who is a CDU supporter, he dismissed her flatly: “It is absolutely impossible to imagine such a provincial politician becoming chancellor.
Other than basking in Merkel’s reflected glory, does she have any merit at all?”
Remainder omitted