Published on July 26, 2019. This essay reflects on Hashimoto Toru’s remarks during a House of Councillors election-night broadcast, raising concerns over his comments on Japan–South Korea relations, Okinawa, Yamamoto Taro, the Osaka Metropolis Plan, and casino-related policy. Referring to Shirakawa Tsukasa’s article in the monthly magazine WiLL, “Known as Hashism: The True Nature of Hashimoto Toru,” it questions whether Hashimoto’s remarks serve Japan’s national interest or instead benefit anti-Japanese states.

July 26, 2019.
His remarks did not serve the national interest.
They were remarks that benefited anti-Japanese states.
In particular, his remarks about Okinawa were so outrageous that they could almost be called beyond words.
Even barbershop gossip has its limits.
Even if they were the remarks of a media geisha, they were beyond the bounds of sanity.
When NHK’s House of Councillors election-night program was broadcasting almost nothing but matters concerning the Kinki region, I changed the channel, and at that moment Hashimoto Toru was questioning Tsujimoto Kiyomi about the fact that Kansai Ready-Mixed Concrete, with which Tsujimoto has deep ties, was a group under investigation and that its representatives and others had been arrested.
Tsujimoto’s eyes at once became vacant, and she repeated vague answers.
Up to that point, I could only applaud.
However, his remarks on the Japan–South Korea issue were completely unacceptable, so I wrote and published my thoughts on that matter, and it drew quite a response.
At that time, I acknowledged the reforms and drive that Hashimoto had shown as governor of Osaka Prefecture and mayor of Osaka City, but the reason I truly began to recognize Ishin as a political party was that I happened to be watching Niconico TV, probably “Toranomon News,” together with a friend, and I had a favorable impression of the way Yoshimura, then mayor, spoke and of his clarity.
However, as I continued watching the election-night program mentioned at the beginning, there was something that made me wonder.
It was because Yamamoto Taro’s eyes and Hashimoto Toru’s eyes looked exactly alike.
I also thought that Hashimoto was a person who required some caution, and that what kind of words and actions he would show from now on would be somewhat problematic.
On that point as well, he immediately proved that my thought had hit the mark.
This was because he unconditionally approved of Yamamoto Taro sending those two people to the National Diet.
China and South Korea are not only countries of “bottomless evil” and “plausible lies,” but also neighboring anti-Japanese states that continue the only two forms in the world of Nazism under the name of anti-Japanese education.
When they are actively carrying out anti-Japanese propaganda activities day and night in the international community, does sending such people to the National Diet as lawmakers serve the national interest?
My concern was confirmed in the article published in the monthly magazine WiLL released today, titled “Known as Hashism: The True Nature of Hashimoto Toru,” by Shirakawa Tsukasa, in which it was shown that his remarks did not serve the national interest, that they were remarks benefiting anti-Japanese states, and that, in particular, his remarks about Okinawa were so outrageous that they could almost be called beyond words.
Even barbershop gossip has its limits.
Even if they were the remarks of a media geisha, they were beyond the bounds of sanity.
I was also convinced that this is why his eyes look exactly like Yamamoto Taro’s.
Hashimoto Toru is not a man who should bear responsibility for the national politics of Japan.
On the contrary, even with regard to the Osaka Metropolis Plan and the casino plan, if Hashimoto Toru’s remarks are allowed to pass, it would be a problem.
The preceding text is omitted.
Suppose that one day the Osaka Metropolis Plan is realized and Kansai is granted a high degree of autonomy.
Given that Mr. Hashimoto is someone who would even use China over the Okinawa issue.
If, at that time, he were in a position to influence “Osaka metropolitan government,” he might accept Chinese money without limit for the sake of regional economic revitalization.
Could Kansai become a hotbed of money laundering by China?
I hope that this is a groundless fear.
The following text is omitted.
If Hashimoto, with those eyes, continues to make remarks that harm the national interest, then we will have no choice but to say NO to entrusting Kansai to him.
I have even begun to harbor the suspicion that, in essence, he may be an abnormal person from the same root as the Asahi Shimbun.
That is because those eyes are not normal eyes at all.
To put it by way of example, they are close to the eyes of a murderer or a criminal.