[whiteperil] Sean: The magic number

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Posted by Sean:
The magic number
http://whiteperil.com/posts/1154054862.shtml


   Now that former Minister of Foreign Affairs Yasuo Fukuda has bowed
   out, current Minister of Finance Sadakazu Tanigaki has [1]announced
   his candidacy for LDP president in the election two months from now:

     His campaign platform consists of pledges that his administration
     will (1) normalize relations with neighboring nations, (2) rebuild
     strong ties within the [East Asian] regional community, and (3)
     begin the first stages of fiscal restructuring--his "three
     resolutions." Regarding the current state of Japan-PRC and
     Japan-ROK relations, he criticized Prime Minister Jun'ichiro
     Koizumi's approach to diplomacy, stating, "Relations are abnormal.
     It is undeniable that the reason is the Yasukuni Shrine issue." He
     also emphasized that "in terms of foreign relations, it is
     necessary to conduct ourselves in such a way as not to go stirring
     up domestic politics or nationalist sentiment in foreign
     countries." He called for the establishment of an Asia Hotline that
     heads of state could use at any time to contact one another.

   His fiscal restructuring plan [2]includes a doubling of the
   consumption tax. Great.
   Shinzo Abe is still, of course, the front-runner, and there have been
   no indications that his supporters (or the analysts and talking heads
   who think they're speaking for them) see Tanigaki as a particular
   threat. I do realize that Tanigaki was speaking in a specific context
   and has the specific task of distinguishing himself from Abe in bold
   strokes, but in terms of policy, I always worry when a politician has
   a list of ad hoc prescriptions for dealing with hot-button issues but
   doesn't bother to articulate the set of principles from which he
   derived them. (That means I spend a lot of time being worried.) You
   don't have to agree with all of Koizumi's beliefs to appreciate that
   he has the vision thing in a way the political operators surrounding
   him do not.

References

   1. http://www.nikkei.co.jp/news/past/honbun.cfm?i=AT3S27014%2027072006&g=MH&d=20060727
   2. http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200607270728.html