More and More from Moriya

Michael Merserve has posted to the NBR Japan Forum a translation of a fascinating interview with disgraced former Vice Minister of Defense Moriya Takemasa.

While it is easy to dismiss Moriya as a scandal-besmirched crank, a kettle who needs to paint everyone else black, his descriptions of the venality of Okinawan elected local officials rings remarkably true. It also enrichs the otherwise rather flat image of the Okinawans, who in most accounts of the Futenma-to-Henoko dispute tend to come out sounding like noble savages.