Prime Minister Abe Shinzo answering the questions of Tokunaga Eri
24 April 2013
In case one should ever want to know what the prime minister or anyone else actually said in Diet committee, how the utterance was delivered, the mood in the room (Was there laughter or sharp applause?) and the questions that got the ball rolling, there are the video archives for both Houses:
House of Representatives: http://www.shugiintv.go.jp/jp/index.php
House of Councillors: http://www.webtv.sangiin.go.jp/webtv/index.php
Click on the date, then the committee, the name of the questioner if you want to, and voila! The unfiltered, unedited message from the mouths of the horses themselves.
(Favorite moment: Ishii Hajime, in his first Q&A appearance following his forced resignation as chairman over his overlong stay in the Philippines, reminiscing at the rostrum of his time as chairman: "I remember looking out from the chairman's seat, down at the members and thinking to myself, 'Damn there are some fine looking women on this committee.'")
In addition to the archives, the site offer live feeds. As I am typing this the House of Representatives Environment, Law and Economics Committees are in session and the plenary session broadcast is awaiting a gaveling. Over at the House of Councillors, the Budget Committee interpellation is in progress.
For those wanting to get a handle on the remarks that have been causing heartburn in the region, try the following dates and questioners:
The meaning of Yasukuni
April 10
House of Representatives, Budget Committee
Questions from Nakayama Nariaki (fifth on the list)
Murayama Statement ("What 'an invasion' means has not been established...")
April 23
House of Councillors, Budget Committee
Questions from Maruyama Kazuya (third on the list)
Yasukuni visits by Cabinet members ("We will not be threatened...")
April 24
House of Councillors, Budget Committee
Questions form Tokunaga Eri (sixth on the list)
(wherein one learns Senator Tokunaga gets her sense of the state of the economy from conversations with taxi drivers)
Image courtesy: http://www.webtv.sangiin.go.jp/
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