Monday, November 19, 2012

Azumi the Enforcer? Who’d a Thunk


Has ex-PM Yukio Hatoyama been doing anything but peeing inside the DPJ tent all year or what? I also thought that Jun Azumi’s appointment as Minister of Finance was a huge reach.

Fast forward. On Sunday, Azumi, now the DPJ’s Acting Director-General—de facto No.2, as DG Azuma Koshiishi, House of Councillors, is the new Mr. Irrelevant going into the House of Representatives election—kicked serious Hatoyama butt with the following statement on national TV:

“Anyone who wants to run as an official candidate from our party must keep our party’s promises no matter who he is.”

And that means the consumption tax hike and TPP, family ranch in Hokkaido or not. My guess is that Hatoyama will fall into line… until the next time that the bladdermouth springs a leak.

Way to go in the meantime though, Azumi. Maybe Noda did know what he was doing after all. (Of course there’s the matter of the other, less fortunate assignments including Ms. Tanaka, whose antics had been well-documented beforehand…)

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