David Chart's Blog

Japanese Prime Ministers

I’m sorry it’s been so long since I updated this blog; we went to the UK in the summer, and that ate up a lot of time. I have a bunch of things to post, and I’ve started working on them, so I’ll keep this entry short, just to bring some life back to the blog, and get on with writing more substantial articles.

As you probably know, Yoshihiko Noda has just become the new Prime Minister of Japan. He is the sixth person to hold that post in Mayuki’s lifetime. Mayuki is still three years old.

By way of comparison, there have been eight Prime Ministers of the UK in my lifetime. I am thirteen times Mayuki’s age.

It’s not entirely fair to describe Japan’s political system as “unstable”, but it certainly doesn’t encourage long-lived Prime Ministers. According to a news article I read a few days ago, the longest-serving post-war Japanese Prime Minister did not serve for as long as the average tenure of post-war German Chancellors. I’m just waiting for the Japanese people to take inspiration from the Arab spring and pour onto the streets of Tokyo waving banners saying “We don’t want regime change!” and “We demand that the Prime Minister doesn’t resign!”.

Posted

in

by

David Chart

Tags:

Comments

2 responses to “Japanese Prime Ministers”

  1. Craig Liley avatar
    Craig Liley

    Glad to see you back! I was afraid you’d just gotten tired of blogging.

    I’ve lived through the same number of US presidents that Mayuki has Japanese Prime Ministers, and I’m almost 11 times her age. As it is, I can name all of the presidents I’ve lived through after only having to think for a couple of minutes. I imagine if they changed as frequently as they seem to in Japan, I’d never be able to remember them all without looking it up. Apparently it’s a job you don’t go into expecting to make a long-term career out of.

    Anyways, welcome back. I look forward to reading more from you in the coming weeks!

    Craig L

  2. David Chart avatar
    David Chart

    I have readers?

    In any case, barring being hit by a bus or similar, I won’t stop blogging without posting a message saying I’m going to. I’ll also try to avoid any more two month hiatuses… I did manage to keep updating my Japanese blog every day, though, so I’ll just blame the stresses of running blogs in two languages simultaneously.

    Thanks for the comment; more posts soon, I hope.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.