Renounce Thy Loons Now!

Very much an aside, but does anyone know the backstory to The Washington Post's publication of an editorial denouncing Fujita Yukihisa, an uninfluential and decidedly quirky DPJ member of the House of Councillors whom most Japanese have never heard about? In a blog post, Fujita calls himself the victim of a bait-and-switch interview arranged by the Foreign Press Center (deliciously, he chooses to name names).

From the scale of the conniption fit the Washpo throws, one would think that Fujita was a person of extraordinary significance.

Does this brouhaha have anything to do with Fujita's being a bête noire of the fantabulist right wing over the war reconciliation issues? And if so, what is The Washington Post's interest in all this?

Because the story about the story is becoming a story here.