Thursday, October 19, 2006

Appointment announcement

MOFA premature Old Boy (he quit before retirement age), saxophone hipster and good friend Miyake Kunihiko has been appointed to a most intriguing new Kantei post:

Wife of premier given diplomacy, fashion advisers
Yomiuri Shimbun

Former Foreign Ministry bureaucrat Kunihiko Miyake has been appointed to a newly established position in the Cabinet Secretariat to act as an adviser to Akie Abe, the wife of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Miyake will assist Abe in areas such as diplomatic activities, with his role mainly consisting of counseling the prime minister's wife on etiquette and the art of conversation when foreign dignitaries come to the residence for dinner and other social occasions, and also to arrange her schedule when she joins her husband on overseas trips.

The prime minister pushed strongly for the establishment of this part-time post, which was created on his direct orders.
Well, it seems the role of the wife is going to be pushed to the forefront in the Abe Era... not that such an option existed in the Koizumi Era (First Concubine?).

Is is it modernity...or tradition that is in the ascendant?

How long will it be before the women's weeklies start finding a "pawā kappuru genshō" to chatter and tut-tut about?

No comments: