Readers in Council,
The Japan Times,
5-4, Shibaura 4-chome,
Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0023
I listened to Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s confidence-building speech to the nation on NHK on the one-week anniversary of the great earthquake. It’s important for public reassurance and confidence that we see and hear the Prime Minister often - poor Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano was given the task of grueling daily briefings in front of the cameras. But I thought that Mr. Kan’s remarks contained a gaping hole. Predictably he spoke about the need for the Japanese people to cooperate, to work hard, to persevere and maintain a sense of community, with assurances that everything is and will be done that possibly can be done to resolve the Fukushima nuclear power plant crisis. More than once I heard him use the word “citizens.” But what about us foreigners? Don’t I count? I did not flee the country. I have no intention of it. My family and my life are bound to this nation and this is my home. I’m a tax payer and the Prime Minister is my employee even though I cannot vote. Luckily I live in the relative safety of Tokyo rather than in the midst of the disaster zone along the northeast coast. But I’m standing right here and apparently the Prime Minister doesn’t even see me or other foreigners like me. I am experiencing what every Japanese Tokyoite is experiencing and it irks me that the PM acknowledges citizens without acknowledging my presence and my life as well. I’m standing right here and my prime minister doesn’t recognize me.
Well, maybe it’s a good thing.