Japan’s next Prime Minister has been decided, and as expected, it’s to be Taro Aso, who received more than 95% of the votes by his ruling Liberal Democrat Party. One of the few really interesting Japanese politicians, he worked his way through college at Stanford before his parents called him home to keep him from becoming too “Americanized,” so he went to England to complete his studies instead. He mined diamonds in Sierra Leone, represented Japan in the Olympics in 1976 at Clay Pigeon Shooting, and he’s quite technically minded, having assembled his own PCs from the motherboard up for the past ten years. When discussing Japanese politicians, the word “thoughorbred” often comes up, and this term applies to Aso-san as well: his father was a former cabinet member, his grandfather a former Prime Minister, and he’s the great great grandson of Toshimichi Okubo, one of the most important reformers of the Meiji Restoration of 1868. It’s well known that Aso-san is a fan of Japan’s manga and anime culture, which has helped him attain popularity among younger Japanese, especially among 2channelers and the English anime-related blogosphere. He supposedly reads three volumes of manga a day, sometimes on the Diet floor, and much of the recent recognition of the importance of Japanese popular culture have come from Aso-san, who has said he would like to create an international “Nobel Prize” for manga. His interest in comics — for example, he promoted education about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima using the famous manga story Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen) — has caused the term “Manga Diplomacy” to be coined, and it will be interesting to see how his ability to name all the Lucky Star characters will color his leadership. One of the most refreshing things about Japan is their ability to have elections without contemplating the religion of the candidates in question in the slightest. When I mentioned to my wife that Aso-san happened to be a devout Roman Catholic, a rarity in a Buddhist country like Japan, my wife was surprised to hear it. At no time had the issue even been brought up by the Japanese news media.
This is the picture that “outed” Aso-san as an otaku and won him millions of fans on the Internets. They call him Rozen Aso now.
