Very Kind Of Them #28

Last week's resignation of Minister of Economics, Trade and Industry Obuchi Yuko gave me an opportunity to vent some spleen about the overlarge representation the Diet and indeed throughout the elites of East and South Asia of a particular minority: persons who made an excellent choice of uteruses in which to gestate.

To Kirk Spitzer, writing for TIME, my venting was worth quoting, in this way:

Obuchi's portfolio includes authority over the nation's nuclear power plants and her softer image—a young mother, after all—was expected to soothe public anxiety over plans to restart the reactors. Obuchi is the daughter of former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, who ran Japan from July 1998 to April 2000, and had even been touted as a possible successor to Abe somewhere down the road. But the close scrutiny that comes with a Cabinet appointment exposed her as a political lightweight and a product of the LDP machine, says Michael Cucek, a researcher and author of a respected political blog in Tokyo. "She represents someone who vaulted into prominence by the death of a sitting prime minister, taking over the family business without ever knowing much about how the whole machine works," he said.

(Link)

Obuchi's admission at her press conference that she trusted and did not check up on persons working for her whom she had known since childhood and Thursday's raid by prosecutors of the home of former Nakanojo mayor Orita Ken'ichiro and the offices of Obuchi support group (link) seemingly justified a rather testy set of exchanges I fell into on Twitter regarging Obuchi's credentials:

@hobson_c All right. Aside from the brief, unremarkable service as Vice Minister of Finance, Obuchi's other credentials were?
— Michael Thomas Cucek (@MichaelTCucek) October 21, 2014

@hobson_c Obuchi's appoinment to Aso Cabinet was pure electoral tokenism, as that Cabinet was created for a snap election.
— Michael Thomas Cucek (@MichaelTCucek) October 21, 2014

@hobson_c She is going under because of resentment against her selection based upon birth and gender, and a dearth of meritocratic criteria.
— Michael Thomas Cucek (@MichaelTCucek) October 21, 2014

@sonicviz @hobson_c No, but life is unfair like that sometimes.
— Michael Thomas Cucek (@MichaelTCucek) October 21, 2014

@sonicviz @hobson_c After the ordeal she still has wealth, inherited status and a supportive family -- and all that was by chance too.
— Michael Thomas Cucek (@MichaelTCucek) October 21, 2014