蔡成平  环球时报英文版3/11    http://en.huanqiu.com/opinion/commentary/2011-03/632401.html

By Cai Chengping

Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara's abrupt resignation in the wake of a donations scandal has shocked Japan and may be the last straw for Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan's administration. The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) government is now in the middle of a raging political storm.

It's a personal blow for Maehara. His model is Sakamoto Ryoma (1836-67), one of the military heroes of the overthrow of the Tokugawa Shogunate, which began Japan's revolutionary modernization process in the 1860s.

Maehara liked to cast himself as a second Ryoma, overthrowing old systems, but now his image has been tarnished. He is still only in his 40s, and this may only be a short-term move that won't fundamentally hinder his long-term ambitions. But the retaliation from other parties and the specifics of the scandal may hamstring his plans.

Maehara's first name sounds like the Japanese word for "politics," which has been the source of much mockery. This can be the kiss of death for a statesman. But what were the details of the scandal that may have ended his career?

Maehara's supporters have claimed he stumbled politically over a "mere" 250,000 yen ($3,017) in political donations, which has been used to defend the relative incorruptibility of the Japanese system.

But this is misleading. The real reason he was forced to resign was because of the source of the donations, not the amount.

In accordance with the Law to Regulate Money Used for Political Activities, individual donations are limited to 20 million yen annually, as long as the donors are purely Japanese. The problem isn't the size of the gift, but that it came from a "foreigner."

Many countries, including the US, place limits on political donations from non-nationals, but it's rare to have an absolute ban like Japan's.

In this case, the donor was an ordinary Korean woman who lived off a barbecue restaurant and knew Maehara since he was a senior high school student.

They were as close as mother and son. She tried her best to pay Maehara's tuition fees after he lost his father at a very young age.

She had also lived in Japan for more than 20 years and had already adopted a Japanese name for herself. But because of her donation, which she gave to show her respect for a man she's known since his boyhood, Maehara may be sued and even investigated by the police. It's a stark demonstration of the xenophobia of Japanese politics.

Although many people expressed their sympathies over Maehara being forced out of office for such a minor offence, the mainstream opinion is that accepting donations from any foreigner is unacceptable and inexcusable. Instead of questioning the justification behind the complete ban the public has focused on looking for similar cases.

A similar reaction occurred when Japanese politicians Yukio Hatoyama and Ichiro Ozawa tried to give non-Japanese with permanent residency in the nation the right to vote.

From their perspective, it was a simple step that's already been adopted for decades by the US and the majority of the European countries.

But it sparked a wave of bigoted reactions in Japan, including tasteless accusations that "Ozawa has Korean blood" and "Hatoyama is a Communist."

In an increasingly globalized world, the determination to seal off a pure Japan from supposed foreign corruption will help doom Japanese manufacturing and leave the country isolated and inbred.

Japan has already lost a decade of growth. It can't afford to go off-course for longer just to satisfy public xenophobia.

The author is director of the Tokyo-based Asia-Pacific Political and Economic Research Center. [email protected]