History Lessons?

Japan's political leadership has been in a mess for years. The prime minister of the 3rd largest country changes every single year or less. So, I supposed no political events would surprise me until recent news reported Yukio Hatoyama, a former premier, asked Naoto Kan, his successor, to resign the job. This is pretty surpring given what Hatoyama had done during his term in the office.

Looks like there is some kind of seniority system among premiership. Or Hatoyama must be a terminator for himself and/or someone else. In "Terminator" the movie, however, the robot comes from the future. Unfortunately this Japanese came from the past. Okay, we'd better suppose he's just an alien as he is called so.

When Hatoyama quit his job as prime minister a year ago, I assumed hopefully that he might become a Jimmy Carter, one of the greatest ex-Presidents of the U.S.A. That was only a possibility, though. It was neither my expectation nor hope. Still, his recent initiative is not the case at all.

While a predecessor criticizes a current premier and asks him to resign in Japan, the opposite case applies in Korea. In this peninsula country, a predecessor is criticized and punished by a current president. Remember what Kim Young Sam did to Jeon Doo Hwan? The ex-President deserved it, but it also looked used as a scapegoat to hike successor's approval rate. And this isn't the only case.

To summarize, Japanese tend to forget history while Korean criticize (and scapegoat) one. I only hope this is my hasty generalization, and many events are exceptional.

The two countries have been discussing to make their relationship future-oriented. Yet, they've got to make their own country's politics future-oriented in the first place.