Word: ozawa
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...have always demanded conformity and intense rote learning. But the system has become an extreme, decadent version of what it used to be. And not only do children suffer on account of the schools and cram courses, but they may not even be learning what they ought to. Ichiro Ozawa, the leader of the main opposition party, argues that the educational system is at the heart of Japan's difficulties because it simply forces children to memorize and solve math problems. That may have been sufficient when Japan needed nothing but obedient, selfless workers, but it does not nurture...
...much for the miraculous Japan, with its uncanny, clockwork economy and culture. Ichiro Ozawa now believes it's time to close the postwar chapter. He argues that Japan's highly regulated society inhibits the cultivation of talent at home and friendship abroad that Japan needs if it is to thrive in the future. He calls for a "third opening," a change in Japan as momentous as the Meiji revolution, which opened the nation to the world...
...This is really an enormous task," Ozawa says. "This is more than reform. What we need is close to a revolution. What's demanded is a change of Japanese consciousness, and whether or not we succeed is up to the people." But what would bring about revolution? It is the Japanese way to face adversity with a simple appeal to gaman, which translates more or less as "hang tough and don't complain." Perhaps anguish over Japan's decay will push people beyond gaman and put wind at the back of radicals like Ozawa and other reformers. Failing that, Japan...
...sooner had the new Prime Minister been installed in office than Ichiro Ozawa, the leader of the opposition New Frontier Party, denounced the ruling coalition as an "illicit cohabitation" and demanded an election for a new Diet, Japan's parliament. The motion was denied, but elections will have to be held by the summer of 1997, although some analysts expect them as soon as this April. How much and how fast Japan transforms itself will be determined by the victor. But regardless of who wins, the campaign will be unlike any Japan has ever seen...
...plain. For all that time, the process of choosing heads of government has been largely a behind-the-scenes game conducted by LDP bosses more preoccupied with their own power-sharing arrangements than with addressing the needs of ordinary voters. That system was rattled in 1993, when Ozawa, an LDP renegade, engineered the election of Japan's first nonconservative Prime Minister post-1948. But since then, the LDP has regained its influence, and politics has returned to form. Now there is a chance for a real election between two parties with distinct candidates. "This is very good for Japan," says...