Now we know

I wondered just how Japan would react to the apparently shocking news that the US was going to delist North Korea as a terrorist nation. I was especially curious about the fine folks of the right-wing.

Tobias Harris of Observing Japan has a post with the similarly shocking news that a politician has put Japan in its usual position of being a victim. The DPJ's Ichiro Ozawa (is he a right-winger now? Was or wasn't he before? A leftist? Or was he sort of a US-style free-trading Republican? He has been so many things I forget which he is today. I do know he was some sort of ship captain last year.) has reacted by saying that the US never takes Japan's thoughts into account. Mr. Harris takes the view that Ozawa is mainly playing to domestic considerations and that Ozawa's comments were more aimed at the LDP for poor management of the alliance than at the US.

I don't know Ozawa's true intentions, but no doubt he is playing domestic politics. The claim that the US done did poor little Japan all wrong is not a rare thing and it does play well. Ozawa's comments were rather mild.*

1:07AM *I meant Ozawa's comments were mild compared to what can be expected from some of the commentators and columnists and perhaps LDP right-wingers. For a politician of Ozawa's stature and position they weren't so mild.