What with Yasuo Fukuda’s abrupt resignation this weekend, it looks like long-waiting-in-the-wings Taro Aso might finally get a shot, and finally a world power will be run by a big nerd!
He has been shrewd at courting younger voters as a champion of Japan’s pop culture. A former Olympian in clay-target shooting, he professes to be a big fan of Japanese “manga” comic books. During his past two runs for prime minister, he rushed to Akihabara, a Tokyo neighborhood at the center of Japan’s manga and animation culture, to call for support.
Arrrrrrrrgh, I hope not. Aso’s actual political stances on actual issues are shit. Shinzo Abe was considered moderate compared to Aso. Freakin’ Shinzo Abe.
I don’t want a world power run by a big nerd if the big nerd has neanderthalic views on women, blacks, Jews, Chinese, Koreans, and and basically most of the rest of the world that is not a certain limited subset of the population of Japan.
His wikipedia page lists his most infamous soundbytes. And there are a lot of them.
Well, at least true to nerd form, he’s not above pulling a Godwin every now and again.
Looks like he’s got his squad of sumo henchmen to back him up! Might be tricky there, old chum!
Holy underwear, Batman! Those nearly-nude nefarious ne’er-do-wells need numerous knuckles, nerds or not!
I think, if things continue the way they are here, one day, one of our Presidents will declare themselves to be a comic book fan. That..would..rule! :)
I betcha Obama read “Kamandi” and “Legion of Super-Heroes”. I dunno about McCain… maybe he read “Classic Illustrated”.
Barack Obama read comics growing up, mostly Marvel, by his account. His favorite superheroes are Batman and Spider-Man.
Well, we shouldn’t be surprised when he shows up and announced the launch of giant piloted war robots while cosplaying as a character from GUNDAM.
Yeah. What I’ve read of Aso has me quite disappointed. Anime News Network has had good coverage. Despite the name of his party being the Liberal Democratic Party, they’re the conservatives of Japan. He’s made some outrageous statements. In particular his questioning proper evidence for Japanese war crimes like the Chinese and Korean comfort women disturbs me. Imagine Bush questioning the evideince for Japanese internment for the fire bombing of Tokyo. He’s got a conservative and nationalistic streak that sounds like it makes Bush pale by comparison.
Meanwhile, on the issue of comics, he’s one of those who want international ‘manga’ and spreading of the Japanese word to other countries. I say, screw that. We already got enough words for comics in this country. We don’t need such linguistic and economic imperialism, thankyouverymuch.