Argues that University of Tokyo elites should lead only with proven stewardship of the national purse, holding MOF heavyweight Kiichi Aichi as the model and warning against lawyer-turned, quick-rise politicians lacking statecraft.
Condemns Nikkei for invoking Tsuru’s postwar rhetoric to seed pro–tax hike sentiment during an ongoing national emergency, arguing the timing and framing are indecent and erode public trust while survivors still struggle.

A blog post from March 27, 2011, in which the author argues that if a Tokyo University graduate is to enter politics, it should be someone like the late Kiichi Aichi, who had extensive experience in state management. The author fiercely criticizes a Nikkei Shimbun editorial for “vulgarity” by attempting to build public opinion for a consumption tax increase in the midst of the Great East Japan Earthquake crisis. The author condemns the editorial’s use of a postwar economic white paper, pointing out Japan’s “political weakness,” while also criticizing the sacrilegious manner in which the source is cited. The post decries the heartlessness of discussing a tax increase while the public is enduring great hardship.

If a Todai graduate is to engage in politics… it should be limited to someone like the late Kiichi Aichi, a senior alumnus of my eternally beloved alma mater. He was at the top of his class at both my school and Todai, and then he devoted himself to managing the nation’s finances at the Ministry of Finance, accumulating more than enough experience and achievements in state management… politics should be handled by a person who has shouldered the nation’s household finances. Over the past year and now, we have been painfully taught what happens when a person who has simply graduated from Todai, become a lawyer and made a lot of money, or studied at a political school, engages in politics without any real purpose. Incidentally, Kiichi Aichi served as a key cabinet member and, unfortunately, died suddenly while he was still accumulating experience as a national politician. At that time, Kakuei Tanaka lamented his death, saying, “A great star has truly fallen.”

What kind of mind and disposition would lay the groundwork for a consumption tax increase at a time like this! March 27, 2011
The series of feature articles on the front page of today’s Nikkei Shimbun showed the “vulgarity” of this newspaper’s editorialists to an extreme degree. I hesitated to publish the full text, thinking many people would prefer quick, bite-sized information on a PC, but today’s front page has headlines like: “Third Miracle, Part 3: Undaunted by the Great Earthquake, Japan is Watched by the World,” and “We Can No Longer Postpone This.”

… (Abbreviated) In the evening of the 23rd, at the Japan office of J.P. Morgan Chase, located in a high-rise building in Marunouchi, Tokyo. Jamie Dimon (55), the CEO who flew in from the U.S. headquarters, encouraged about 400 employees gathered in the hall. “The dedication and moderation of the Japanese people are being praised. The whole world is rooting for Japan.” What the world is re-evaluating through the market are the Japanese companies and the people who work there, who have overcome numerous hardships such as a sudden appreciation of the yen. On the other hand, what the world is concerned about is the weakness of Japan’s politics. At a debate held on the 18th in Washington by the Brookings Institution, Richard Bush, the director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies, pointed out that this earthquake occurred while Japan was already facing numerous difficult issues such as an aging and shrinking population and an expanding government debt. He appealed that “Japan’s danger is that its politicians will eventually return to ‘business as usual.'” The crisis challenges the determination of the people who live in the country, and by extension, the nation as a whole. History will change depending on that determination.

“The cowardly attitude of a government that closes its eyes to an undesirable reality and tries to twist facts in the direction it wants has brought immeasurable calamity upon the people.” This is from the first economic white paper issued in 1947 by the Economic Stabilization Board, which was in charge of drafting the postwar reconstruction plan. Written by economists such as Shigehito Tsuru, this white paper expressed harsh reflection on the past. It then broke down the situation, saying, “the government, corporations, and households are all in the red,” and called on the people to join the process of reconstruction, which included a “temporary period of hardship.” The second miracle, the postwar high-growth period, was ultimately brought about by the power of each and every citizen. If we flinch from a crisis and postpone problems, the situation can only get worse.

… (Abbreviated)

*This is the true nature of the people who have shaped Japan for over 20 years. They are using a document drafted by Shigehito Tsuru and his colleagues to create a new, free world for Japan, a country where hundreds of cities were burned to the ground by incendiary bombs as a result of the worst war in human history, which occurred in the 20th century, the century of war. A Japan that would not surrender, but instead intended to fight off the hated American and British ‘demons’ with bamboo spears, even the women and children… and they are using this very document, even citing Tsuru’s name, to create a flow toward a consumption tax increase, which they themselves have advocated and guided. What a sacrilegious editorial! And to do it now, at this very moment! This is the height of “vulgarity.” The death toll is approaching 40,000, and Fukushima has caused a terror unprecedented in the world… Fukushima has now become a “world word” following Hiroshima and Nagasaki… The situation is still unpredictable… People who do not trust this government are fleeing even from the metropolitan area of Tokyo to Kansai and Kyushu. I haven’t seen it myself, but there must be some very rich people who have fled to other countries. In a situation where radioactive fallout is hell, shelters are hell, and the lack of gasoline and kerosene is hell, the entire nation is patiently enduring, praying every day that the nuclear power plant can somehow be brought under control. What kind of mind and disposition would lay the groundwork for a consumption tax increase at this time?