Spirituality of Yukio Hatoyama as Politician

English translation of an excerpt from a Japanese article: Kyousuke Yamashina’ s blog “Musou Roukan” – June 20, 2012 –

To be honest, I personally like a politician named Yukio Hatoyama.

I got the impression that in the political world filled with evil spirits, he still preserves something like “spotless purity” which a well-bred young girl has.  This kind of purity must be due to the environment where he grew up, but it is impossible to preserve it because of good breeding alone.  He must have had to make a tireless effort, which must be a basis for his spirituality.  Generally speaking, spirituality itself gets impure when anybody gets involved in the environment around him.  However, it is not true with him.  He seems to preserve pure spirituality for a long time.  Independently of how he really appears as a politician, therefore, my interest is inevitably focused on his inner spirituality.

In the Japan’s political world today there is no unique existence other than him.  He is polite, sincere and serious.  People tend to see him playing to the grandstand, though he doesn’t have such intension.

He must get a panoramic view of practical power structure but I can’t feel he is powerful enough to confront it.

This is the biggest difference between Ichiro Ozawa, a strong-arm politician, and him.  Looking back, Hatoyama and Ozawa were good pals.

Yukio Hatoyama, who once had an experience as prime minister and has disclosed his lack of ability as real politician, has only an “influence” as afterglow within the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) but will never stop his own activities. Giving the highest priority to internal party harmony, he has developed his own foreign policies with a personal experience as former prime minister.

As for his personality, I have nothing to mention any more.

He is a scatterbrained and well-bred greenhorn who doesn’t know even the price of pot noodle.  Somehow, I don’t feel like hating him.

He received a doctorate at Stanford University, U.S.A., worked as an assistant for the faculty of engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology and as an associate professor for the faculty of business administration, Senshu University.  He is a graduate in science and engineering.  I had read a little of his thesis before, which was beyond me to understand.  His cleverness is guaranteed.

His carelessness while in the post of prime minister was shown by the fact that he directly faced the Japan’s “evil.”   He was not able to show his potential as prime minister because Ichiro Ozawa had not finished maneuvering subversive activities to pave the way for future. 

Though belatedly, I keenly feel the importance of right order to make things go well.

Speaking about his policies, he made the biggest mistake when he set out “Okinawa,” which he did not have to do so soon.  On the other hand, his weakness in spirituality was shown by the fact that he underestimated the existence of power-oriented politicians who gave top priority to power.

A person who cannot be manipulated by money does not recognize its satanic nature.

Hatoyama should have anticipated that anything unexpected could happen in political landscape because the party has a history of repeated mergers and breaks-up.

He can intuitively take a panoramic view just externally, but he has never experienced the reality of the party nor had to get involved in it.   This is the only weakness as well as the virtue Yukio Hatoyamas as politician has.

As politics is a fierce competition for money, he should take an initiative to deal the cards.  Therefore, he has to understand the greed of money mongers not intellectually but “physically.”

In the coming vote on the passage of the consumption tax increase bill, no doubt Ichiro Ozawa and Yukio Ozawa will vote against it.  But if they should abstain from the vote or fail to appear as usual, they would lose their political life.

Anyway, the fact that Yukio Hatoyama and Ichiro Ozawa have strong will to carry out party reform is nothing new.  I am sure that they will not be crushed so easily and they will continue committing themselves to working for the future of Japan.

Especially Hatoyama is a rare politician who is free from the spell of money.  I earnestly wish him to do his utmost to realize his spirituality in whatever form.