Published on July 15, 2019.
This article introduces the first installment of Rui Abiru’s new column “Politics: What Can One Say?” in the monthly magazine Sound Argument.
Having observed successive Japanese cabinets at close range for twenty years as a Sankei Shimbun political reporter, Abiru reflects on politicians’ hunger for power, persistence, loyalty, betrayal, and the difficulty of how they conduct themselves after retirement.

July 15, 2019.
Nothing but sighs day after day.
Forgive me for beginning with a personal matter, but this July marks exactly twenty years since I was assigned to the political department of the Sankei Shimbun.
The following is from the first installment of the new serialized column titled “Politics: What Can One Say?” begun in this month’s issue of the monthly magazine Sound Argument by Rui Abiru, one of the few genuine newspaper reporters.
Nothing but sighs day after day.
Forgive me for beginning with a personal matter, but this July marks exactly twenty years since I was assigned to the political department of the Sankei Shimbun.
From the final days of the Ryutaro Hashimoto Cabinet through the cabinets of Keizo Obuchi, Yoshiro Mori, Junichiro Koizumi, Shinzo Abe, Yasuo Fukuda, Taro Aso, Yukio Hatoyama, Naoto Kan, Yoshihiko Noda, and then Abe once again, I have watched them all from relatively close range.
For a salaried newspaper reporter, it is unusual to remain in the same department without a single transfer, but in any case, that is simply how it happened.
During that time, there was the transfer of power from the Liberal Democratic Party to the Democratic Party, and then the LDP’s return to power as well.
I have seen the human dramas of politicians, schemes surrounding power, tenacity, foolishness, loyalty, and betrayal.
I came to know many politicians and bureaucrats, and there were times when I strongly sympathized with them, and not a few times when I was at odds with them.
There were developments I never could have predicted that made me open my eyes wide, and there were also harmoniously expected endings that made me feel relieved.
Politics, by its very nature, is a world that seems to enlarge and emphasize the power-struggle aspect of human society’s activities.
It is not pleasant to see naked desire for power, hunger for influence, and self-display on a daily basis, but that is my work, so it cannot be helped.
My preface has become long.
What I want to say is that I sigh day after day.
“What can one say……”“So this is how it turns out after all”“They are doing the same thing again.”
And what I have been thinking especially often in recent days is that for politicians, “how to conduct themselves after retirement must be difficult.
Even so……”