A rice remark cost Japan’s agriculture minister his job amid a price crisis that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s government is grappling with.
Japan’s Agriculture Minister Taku Eto announced his resignation on Wednesday following backlash over an inappropriate comment about rice.
Eto came under fire earlier this week after stating that he had “never had to buy rice” because supporters gave it to him, a remark that sparked public outrage amid a national rice shortage and soaring prices.
Rice is a staple food in Japan, and Eto’s comment struck a nerve in a country where retail rice prices have doubled since last year.
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I had read the headline three times before I realized there was no rice giraffe involved.
But I thought a nice giraffe was pretty reasonable.
Refreshing to see shame still mean something, eh?
Shame culture vs guilt culture
I prefer guilt over shame, but these days I’d take any of them over nothing.
I think as time goes on, we’ll find that Japanese culture is not nearly as compatible with the West as we once thought.
Accountability to their constituents. Principles. Consequences.
This is the way.
Decades of politicians being shamed into resigning over a single sentence, rather than policy or outcomes, has left my country with politicians who speak in riddles so bland they never commit or say anything.
Still better than politicians who don’t resign over anything but still speak in riddles and never commit to anything good.
Are those our choices?
It certainly seems so. Particularly in a western “liberal” democracy.
