Word: scandalize
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...What has been the most underreported scandal in Washington this year? -Andrew Goldstein, brooklyn, n.y.I don't know that there is anything this year, but I thought the press was irresponsible in its coverage of the lead-up to and the early prosecution of the Iraq war. It gave enormous deference to Bush at a time when it should have been asking the tough questions. Too often when we watch the news, we are not getting the news. We are getting Paris Hilton and a lot of fluff...
...have led Abe to take too light a hand with his ministerial team. Despite promises that he would centralize power in the Prime Minister's office, bureaucrats have recovered some of the influence they'd lost under Koizumi's reform-minded administration. Abe's own ministers have fallen into scandal after scandal. By July 8 even one of Abe's substitute ministers-Agriculture Minister Norihiko Akagi, named to replace the late Matsuoka-was mired in a fresh campaign-funding scandal. "He's just not any good at picking his team," says Jun Iio, a professor at the National Graduate Institute...
...single accounts with individual identification numbers. In the process up to 50 million names were mistakenly recorded, making it difficult to match payments with people. Though the mistakes occurred under a different administration, and almost all accounts should eventually be joined to their owners, the DPJ used the pension scandal to hammer Abe, who seemed slow to realize its importance. The strategy played to the fears of a Japanese public worried about the viability of their pensions given the country's aging, declining population. Abe belatedly pushed through bills to reform the inefficient SIA, but the pension scandal seemed...
...beat the LDP at the polls with depressing regularity. "[DPJ leader Ichiro] Ozawa has been singularly good at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory," says Richard Katz, editor of the Oriental Economist newsletter. Though the DPJ has gained a slight edge on the LDP since the pension scandal broke, its own approval ratings rarely break 25%, and most Japanese say they're simply fed up with both parties. Even if the DPJ does manage to seize the Upper House-Ozawa has promised to resign if his party falters-they'll be faced with the tougher question of what...
...emerging young underclass, Japan faces existential challenges, but you wouldn't know that from the tone of the campaigns. Real debates-such as whether to raise the consumption tax to reduce public debt-are postponed until after the election, while the media feeds on the latest political scandal. "It's like the campaign is happening on another planet," says Akihiko Matsutani, a pension expert with GRIPS. "These discussions need to take place...