English Quiz 139

(English Quiz 139)

1. Meanwhile, in his first four months in office, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has seemed out of touch with the national mood. While Japanese say they're most worried about stagnant wages, a fragile pension system and growing social disparities, Abe has chosen to prioritize plans to revise Japan's pacifist constitution. While parents fret about declining academic standards, Abe's response has been to pass a reform bill that will attempt to make children more patriotic, and may bring back physical punishment to schools. "I'm not sure that constitutional revision should be the No. 1 issue," says Sadakazu Tanigaki, a former Finance Minister who ran against Abe in September's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) presidential election. "There are so many issues that people are more concerned about, like social security or the low birthrate." LDP Diet member Taro Kono is blunter: "Constitutional amendments? Who cares?"

Q: 試翻 "While Japanese say ... Japan's pacifist constitution."

2. In reality, Abe is unlikely to fall so quickly. The LDP holds an unassailable majority in the Diet's lower house, and approval ratings for the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) are even worse than the Prime Minister's. Abe's supporters also argue that he remains relatively popular by the lackluster historical standards of most Japanese leaders, and that he hasn't received enough credit for repairing Japan's often fractious relations with its Asian neighbors. Shoichi Nakagawa, the LDP's powerful policy chief, asserts that the Abe Cabinet takes everyday issues just as seriously as it does ideological ones. "We can do constitutional reform and the economy as well," says Nakagawa. "We aren't ignoring daily matters." But Abe's critics say he's failing to prioritize and lacks the ability to articulate a vision that addresses the issues troubling ordinary Japanese. Instead, Abe seems mired in the past, calling for a return to traditional values, to Japan "the beautiful country," his favorite figure of political speech. "Abe seems to be a modern politician, but he actually has a nostalgic 1950s vision of Japan that doesn't comport with reality today," says Michael Zielenziger, author of the book Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation. Adds Carol Gluck, a professor at Columbia University's Weatherhead East Asian Institute: "His rhetoric plays as a reassurance that things are not going to fall apart. But most people do not agree with him."

Q: 試翻 "Abe seems to be ... comport with reality today."

3. Takenaka says he expects consumer spending to pick up as soon as deflation is finally conquered. In the meantime, Japanese companies are coming under fire for failing to pass more of their profits on to workers—and Japanese politicians are being criticized for crowing about a recovery that has been largely driven by business investment as companies gear up to meet the rising demand for exports to the U.S. and China. "There has never been a recovery dating back to 1945 that is so dependent on capital investment," says Richard Katz, editor of the Oriental Economist Report. Should the U.S. and China falter, he warns, the Japanese economy will have nothing to fall back on, given the weakness of domestic consumer spending. "This is not sustainable," says Katz.

Q: 試翻 "Should the U.S. and China falter, ... says Katz."