Blinky Ishihara wins third term

The citizens of Tokyo have reelected the open, unapologetic bigot, racist, mysgonist, and right wing nutjob Shintaro Ishihara as Tokyo governor again. Naturally, we cannot say that the voters of Tokyo share any of his beliefs. This is, after all, Japan where up is down, left is right, black is white. And the Japanese are pure. Just like we cannot hold citizen's of a democracy responsible for Abe's remarks that the sex slave issue is pretty much a bunch of lies, we cannot say they are responsible for reelecting a bigot. The apologists will explain why. Here's a hint: "It's because Ishihara is a man of action and will do something, so therefor, the rest is not important." This does not mean that any of his supporters are of like ilk. Nooooo. There is no racism in Japan because there are no racist Japanese. Don't you understand?

That fact is, obviously the voters do not think that Ishihara's words and beliefs are unacceptable enough to kick him out of office. Several years ago, Makiko Tanaka, (former LDP member and cabinet official, as well as the daughter of one of Japan's most powerful prime ministers and the man who pretty much created the LDP and government of today) said that it would be a bad idea for the Prime Minister to be directly elected by the public because people would vote for a dictator if he was a "strong leader." I have seen no evidence that she was wrong.