Welcome to Issues in Japan.
Mr. Shintaro Ishihara passed away.
Many people may have felt that an era has come to an end.
This time I would like to share the contents of the article carried on the Sankei Shimbun newspaper.
Mr. Ishihara had three "faces".
One was as a writer who wrote "Season of the Sun" and won the Akutagawa Prize when he was young.
The second was as a critic who keenly observed the times.
The third is as a politician who served as a member of the lower and upper house of the Diet and as the governor of Tokyo for a long time.
Each of these was an outstanding face.
Shintaro, a member of the Diet, who had hoped to become Prime Minister, was frustrated by the factional politics of "strength in numbers" and left the Diet in mid-stride.
His legacy as governor of Tokyo, however, has still had a profound impact on Japanese politics.
In 2012, he announced a plan for the purchase of the Senkaku Islands by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, in addition to implementing strict emission regulations for diesel vehicles ahead of the national government.
Surprised by the governor's action, the then Democratic Party administration had no choice but to nationalize the Senkaku Islands.
Since then, relations between Japan and China have soured further, but it is significant that the governor made the public aware of the importance of the Senkaku Islands issue and the reality of China's attempt to change the status quo with its powerful military power.
As governor of Tokyo, Mr. Ishihara continued to call for the return of the U.S. Forces' Yokota Air Base, and it is to his credit that he was able to return, albeit only partially, the air traffic control zone of Yokota Airspace, which had been monopolized by the U.S. Forces since the end of the war.
Although he left behind great achievements as governor of Tokyo, his greatest regret is that he was unable to realize his life's work, the revision of the Constitution.
At a press conference in 2014, the year he retired from politics, he regretted that he had not changed even a single word of the Constitution.
In the current Diet session, the long-stalled Constitutional Review Committee of the lower house of parliament is about to take action, but some of the opposition parties still refuse to take the revision debate seriously.
Ten years ago, Mr. Ishihara lamented, "Why don't Japanese people think about the most important and fundamental things anymore?"
He also warned that if we continue to maintain the current constitution, which was imposed on us during the occupation, "we may be leading ourselves into ruinous servitude."
At the same time, he appealed, "The people themselves should think of (constitutional reform) as their own matter and force politicians to revise the Constitution.
The people and politicians should heed his wishes.
That’s all for now.
I have shared the contents of the article carried on the Sankei Shimbun newspaper.
Thank you for your interest.
