[Photo] The Aoi Festival in Kyoto

In the post war history of Japanese politics, Prime Minister Naoto Kan has been an extremely unique presence. In Japan, the top executive is required to be reasonable, bold and wise whatever happens. But it has been frequently reported that Prime Minister Naoto Kan becomes nervous and exploded with anger in the face of adversity.

Mr. Kan graduated from Tokyo Industrial University with a major in physics. For Prime Ministers in Japan, only a few have studied science courses in university. After graduation, he became a patent attorney and developed an automatic counting machine for the game mahjong and secured the patent.

When he was a college student, campus strife bitterly occurred and he battled against the authority. I imagine that in his mind, bureaucrats were the enemy and therefore, he insisted on a non bureaucratic-led government. However, Mr. Kan after becoming a Prime Minister, currently suffers from controlling bureaucrats.

According to the traditional principles of Japan, an executive should be modest of his ability and achievements and show consideration to others around him. However, Mr. Kan is ultimately opposite to this type of person.

In the Diet session, he is good at offense, but not at defense, and shows poor ability to understand the feelings of other people, since he has not belonged to a major party since he was first elected, then advancing to the highest position. I think that being the leader of the opposition party would suit him well.

We cannot afford to wait until Mr. Kan may become a person who deserves to be Prime Minister.