June 22, 2024

The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.

As for Yamamoto Tarō and what the media, journalists, and so-called intellectuals have written and said about his actions, I had long thought that I would someday have to lash out at them, but due to fatigue I had not felt like writing it. This chapter and the essay by the great elder Kaji Nobuyuki, which I will introduce later, express precisely what I want to say.

The Cutting Edge of Populism

Ishihara:
What worries me now is the future of politics.

In the House of Councillors election, Tarō Yamamoto, representative of “Reiwa Shinsengumi,” a man who is on the very cutting edge of populism, took the country by storm.

Kamei:
There’s no need to drag the weak, like people with disabilities, themselves into the Diet.

Able-bodied people can represent them instead.

Ishihara:
That’s what I think too.

He is skillfully using them.

People probably voted for him thinking it was humanitarian, but in fact I think it is very inhuman.

Kamei:
He is putting them on display and using them as tools.

Ishihara:
They say it is groundbreaking that the Diet became barrier-free for the first time, but is that really such an essential issue?

Kamei:
If that’s the case, they should spend the money for people with disabilities all over the country.

Spending money to force the Diet’s activities to be reshaped so that they personally can function there is putting the cart before the horse.

[rest omitted]

Kamei:
Actually, Yamamoto came to see me twice asking me to run on his ticket.

He said he would list me as his number-one pick.

But I turned him down.

Ishihara:
Really.

The idea that Shizuka Kamei would be commanded by Tarō Yamamoto is outrageous.

It is far too presumptuous.

Kamei:
He should make me the general instead (laughs).

It seems he also approached Ichirō Ozawa.

[rest omitted]

Ishihara:
His way of talking is just too familiar and over-familiar.

Skipping a bit.

What on earth is this “The Party to Protect the People from NHK” and its leader Takashi Tachibana supposed to be?

Kamei:
It is a truly strange party (laughs).

Apparently the pretext is that it will “protect the people from NHK,” which collects reception fees.

Ishihara:
So the idea is that because it is a public broadcaster, people should be able to watch it for free.

Kamei:
If that is the case, then the national budget will have to be increased.

Ishihara:
The idea of “abolishing NHK” is completely mistaken.

There are many programs that only NHK can broadcast.

I am impressed by them.

I like watching mountain footage, and there are specialist mountain cameramen who follow dangerous climbs.

They have outstanding skills, and I often think the shots are amazing.

To nurture that kind of excellent staff, you need an organization like NHK that uses public funds.

Kamei:
If we only had commercial broadcasters, you wouldn’t be able to watch television.

Ishihara:
They do nothing but cover stupid topics like celebrity marriages and divorces, drug use, and the Yoshimoto Kōgyō scandals.

Skipping a bit.

Kamei:
Yamamoto and Tachibana are just stirring things up to win popular support.

Come to think of it, there are even rumors that Yamamoto might run in the Tokyo gubernatorial election.

Ishihara:
Is that so.

If things stay as they are, Tokyo will die.

It will become a state of terror in which the bureaucrats no longer function.

Kamei:
That would be terrible.

Ishihara:
Even if knowledge and opinions from the front lines are submitted to the top, the people above do not listen at all.

Even if you bring it to the Liberal Democratic Party, they have already lost their majority, so it is a state of dysfunction.

Kamei:
In the past, Yuriko Koike and Ozawa approached me about returning to politics.

Ozawa urged me to run in a House of Representatives election under the banner of the Party of Hope on the proportional representation list, but I flatly refused.

I said, “At my age, I have no intention of crawling under some woman’s skirt” (laughs).

Ishihara:
It is an outrageous idea that looks down on people.

Kamei:
If it were with you, Mr. Ishihara, I’d be willing to form a new party, but we are too old now.

A Fierce Man

Ishihara:
Kame-chan and I did many things together.

There are no politicians anymore who are willing, like we were, to put their own bodies on the line to break a path open.

Kamei:
I carried that lazybones Ishihara on my shoulders and threw him into the presidential race (laughs).

Back then you were burning with passion.

Ishihara:
It was the same with Seirankai.

Even Keizō Obuchi said, “Let me in.”

I told him, “You’d better not join us” (everyone bursts out laughing).

Like he later joked about himself, calling himself a “ramen shop between skyscrapers,” he was fighting elections in the same district as Nakasone and Fukuda, so he was probably trying hard to leap upward.

But we were a group that had been formed in opposition to money politics, so if someone from the Tanaka faction joined, it wasn’t going to work smoothly.

Ichirō Nakagawa, Michio Watanabe, and Masayuki Fujio all made troubled faces and said, “Obuchi, huh…” (laughs).

If he had joined, it might have been interesting.

Kamei:
Back then Seirankai was like a gathering of roughnecks (laughs).

Ishihara:
That’s not true (laughs).

We even signed in blood.

But four people were so scared of that that they withdrew (everyone bursts out laughing).

Kamei:
There were lots of hot-blooded types.

It would be nice to have at least some politician who is like a minor member of the Seirankai spirit, but I don’t see anyone.

Ishihara:
Takami Eto was a fierce man.

Kamei:
He truly was.

When I tried, together with Masakuni Murakami, to have him take over as chairman of the Shisuikai faction after Murakami, Eto said, “Kamei-kun, I don’t have any money. I can’t do it.”

I told him, “I will take care of all the money, so don’t worry,” and he agreed to become chairman.

In all my dealings with Eto, there was not a single time I had an unpleasant experience.

Ishihara:
He was a man as straightforward as a split piece of bamboo.

Kamei:
He had zero interest in the ladies.

Ishihara:
There was a maglev test track in Miyazaki Prefecture, which was Eto’s constituency.

At the time I was Minister of Transport, and when I went to inspect the site, it was a short section built weaving between pigsties and chicken coops.

I thought, “With such a low-grade test track, you can’t properly test anything,” so I transferred it to Yamanashi Prefecture.

Then Eto flew into a rage.

He said, “You have betrayed me. ‘A wife of humble origins must never be driven out of the house’—you have violated that faithfulness.”

It means that a wife who shared the poverty of your early days cannot be divorced and expelled from the household after you have risen in the world.

I replied, “Eto-chan, think about Japan.

The maglev Shinkansen test track is for an experimental line to connect Tokyo and Osaka.

If it stays in Miyazaki Prefecture, you will never be able to get its true top speed, and it will not serve the nation.

Please look at it from a broader perspective.

The decision has already been made.

You can punch me with your friendship if you like.”

Then Eto said, “All right, I understand!” and he agreed to cooperate.

Kamei:
Yes, he was a refreshing, pleasant man.

Ishihara:
Politicians like Eto have completely disappeared.

This piece will be continued.