Published on February 17, 2020.
Based on Osaka University Professor Emeritus Nobuyuki Kaji’s Sankei Shimbun column “Classical Solo Exhibition,” this essay criticizes the abnormal state of the Diet, where debate has been consumed by the pursuit of the Cherry Blossom Viewing Party issue.
It argues that urgent national issues directly affecting the lives of the people—such as Chinese vessels around the Senkaku Islands, a possible China–Taiwan contingency, refugees from the Korean Peninsula, massive deficit-covering government bonds, and the desperate expansion of social security costs—should be discussed first.

2020-02-17
Precisely those urgent and important issues that create anxiety in the lives of the people should be discussed first.
For instance, the issue of how to respond to Chinese vessels that continue to appear around the Senkaku Islands is not being discussed at all, is it?
Professor Emeritus Nobuyuki Kaji of Osaka University writes a serialized column in the Sankei Shimbun under the title Classical Solo Exhibition.
The following is from an essay published today under the title “A Proposal to Foolish Lawmakers.”
The present state of the Diet is abnormal.
Since last autumn, the opposition parties have continued endlessly to ask questions such as whether government officials abused their authority in deciding who would be invited to the government-sponsored Cherry Blossom Viewing Party by seeking their own benefit.
The privatization of the public realm—if limited to that alone—is an important political issue.
However, politics is not concerned with that alone.
Precisely those urgent and important issues that create anxiety in the lives of the people should be discussed first.
For example, as I have stated in this column before, the issue of how to respond to Chinese vessels that continue to appear around the Senkaku Islands is not being discussed at all, is it?
There are no opposition questions pressing the government to raise this issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is soon to visit Japan as a state guest.
Or, for example, if China and Taiwan suddenly entered a state of combat, U.S. forces would naturally sortie from Okinawa to assist Taiwan.
At that time, what position would Japan take?
Has this ever once been debated in the Diet?
National problems are piling up.
In the event of an emergency, there is the problem of hundreds of thousands of refugees rushing in from the Korean Peninsula.
There are enormous deficit-covering government bonds, the desperate expansion of social security costs, and many other difficult problems piled high.
Is it not the duty of Diet members to make at least some effort toward solving such problems?
If they cannot respond to such demands, then at the very least, why not propose a forward-looking reform of the Cherry Blossom Viewing Party?
In other words, the greatest problem of the Cherry Blossom Viewing Party appears to be that the criteria for selecting invitees are unclear, so they should move in the direction of correcting that.
The purpose of the invitation is said to be to honor contributions to the nation and society.
If that is so, are there not countless people who, even without titles, work hard and contribute to society?
For example, there is a disabled man who regularly gets on and off the municipal bus that I always use.
Both his legs are prosthetic, and he commutes while using support crutches.
His daily work, getting on and off at fixed times, is admirable.
For another example, I contact a certain woman and give her accumulated old newspapers, magazines, and the like.
She loads old paper and other items onto a rear cart and transports them by pedaling a bicycle attached to the cart.
She is admirable.
It is precisely such people who should be invited to the Cherry Blossom Viewing Party.
In the Edo period, various domains honored people who had worked diligently for their families.
Records of such facts were published in large numbers as books with titles such as “Biographies of Filial Children of △△” and “Records of Filial Piety and Righteousness of ○○.”
It seems that such works also existed in the early Meiji period.
It is regrettable that, at present, such public commendation is hardly carried out at all.
Is it not something that the national government and local public bodies could do immediately, to invite and honor at the Cherry Blossom Viewing Party people selected from among the many who work for their families despite hardships?
Even if a superior policy is proposed, foolish lawmakers will probably not understand it.
As the Yang Huo chapter of The Analects says, “Only the highest wisdom and the lowest stupidity do not change.”
(Nobuyuki Kaji)