The 'Ozawa Girls': Politics Meets Porn In Japan

GlobalPost:

NAGOYA, Japan -- When Kayoko Isogai got the call from high-ranking officials at the Democratic Party of Japan asking her to stand for a seat in the national parliament, she was shocked.

It was just two weeks before the Aug. 30 election; she had spent most of the previous five years unemployed and taking care of her terminally ill parents; and she had no political or governing experience whatsoever.

Read the whole story: GlobalPost

Comments

[Ping]

The Headline is just to attract attention to a poorly written story. Of all of the Asian countries Japan actually has a thriving pornography industry, that produces movies that rival San Fernando Valley. And since none of the women that David Nakagawa wrote about actually worked as Porn actresses, or AV Joyu as they are called, I give this story the bait and switch, lameness award for the day.

[chewie2008]

true.the headline could have come straight from the tabloids.

[KarateKid]

Now we know the Sarah Palin appeal.

[Zen0469]

Yup. Same cynical underlying rationale as that used by the Japanese example in this story!

[ImissBush]

political whores??

watta concept!!

[KIVPossum]

Sounds like congress.

[Hirnlego]

bingo!

[ImissBush]

something they can getta supermajority on

[Ping]

The Japanese people have become tired of cronyism politics administered by the elite. This is a reaction to the years of incompetent corrupt policies of the ruling male elite that was the LDP. That was Hatoyama's mantra, returning the Government to serve the people and not corporations. It is an idea that will be crossing the Pacific and coming here soon.

[RobinSeattle]

I expected that the media establishment in Japan, which has strong ties to the LDP (especially Tsuneo Watanabe, who runs the Yomiuri Shimbun, and intimate of discredited former PM Yasuhiro Nakasone, and the folks at the far right rag the Mainichi Shimbun).

The LDP for generations has had an array of former athletes and celebrities run for office. For example, there was talk for a while that former Yakult catcher Atsuya Furuta would stand for election, as he had been wooed by the LDP, but he ultimately declined. Furuta, to my knowledge, has never been politically involved and was sought out because of his personal popularity.

Shigeo Nagashima, Japan's Mr. Baseball and arguably the most popular man in Japan, had also gotten some overtures from the LDP after he had made inane statements like, "if the Socialist Party wins in thw Diet, professional baseball will cease to exist." Unfortunately, all the brains in the Nagashima family, and Shigeo has admitted to this openly, belonged to his wife, who spoke several languages and who went to college in the U.S. So he wisely stayed with baseball matters.

So the media criticism of these women is motivated by strictly political concerns and the sexism that still pervades Japaneses society and it needs to be seen in that light.

[Khirad]

Informative post, thank you.

[sjones66]

See, Sarah Pain is an inspiration world wide to basing female politicians on their looks. That's how they "progress" America forward-- sharin' our faux-feminism with the entire globe!

[davidwayneosedach]

Women in politics in Japan? This is a big surprise!

[RobinSeattle]

No it's not., Women have been active in Japanese politics since the Meiji Restoration (1868) in some form or another (many of them even going to jail for their beliefs). They got the right to vote after WWII and have held seats in the Diet for at least 60 years, one even heading up the Japanese Socialist Party.

[skymuffin]

Sounds like what the GOP is doing: picking by appearances, with no regard to substance. A sort of human shield to cover up the fact that that they are mainly white, rural, and male.

[Seral]

Maybe it is better to make the comparisons after seeing what they do in their country.

But, as a note, what they do is completely normal, and it is being done in most of the civilized countries, including most of Europe if not all. As long as they have good intentions in mind, then it should be okay.

One final note, DP in the last elections did almost the same. The only difference was that the candidates being picked were with substance. But, the result was partly based on their appearances. If the Republicans would have picked a female candidate with substance they would be doing the exact same thing. Unfortunately such a candidate wouldn't do good as a puppet, hence why they failed to find one.