I can't speak for anyone else, but I personally have never trusted a single politician in my life. Especially not the one I used to live next door to. But perhaps this parody of one of the AC Japan PSAs which are playing near constantly will help answer.


「大丈夫？」っていうと、
「大丈夫」っていう。

"Is it alright?" you ask,
"It's alright" they say.

「漏れてない？」っていうと、
「漏れてない」っていう。

"It's not leaking?" you ask,
"It's not leaking" they say.

「安全？」っていうと、
「安全」っていう。

"Is it safe?" you ask,
"It's safe" they say.

そうして、あとでこわくなって、

Then, later, when fear sets in,

「でも本当はちょっと漏れてる？」っていうと、
「ちょっと漏れてる」っていう。

"But, it's really leaking a bit?" you ask,
"It's leaking a bit" they say.

こだまでしょうか。
いいえ、枝野です。

Is it an echo?
No, it's Edano.

The original, is as follows:

「遊ぼう」っていうと
「遊ぼう」っていう。

"Let's play" you say,
"Let's play" they say.

「馬鹿」っていうと
「馬鹿」っていう。

"You're stupid" you say
"You're stupid" they say.

「もう遊ばない」っていうと
「遊ばない」っていう。

"I'm not playing anymore" you say
"Not playing anymore" they say

そうして、あとでさみしくなって、

Then, later, when you become lonely,

「ごめんね」っていうと
「ごめんね」っていう。

"I'm sorry" you say,
"I'm sorry" they say.

こだまでしょうか、
いいえ、誰でも。

Is it an echo?
No, it's everyone.

And this is just one of the PSAs as I say, there are new parodies springing up everyday, some of which are poking fun at the people "in charge" of the situation.

Okay, that:s an end to the light relief. According to our overlords we're meant to be depressed now.

You seem to handle life very cool und fun, but also very realisticely. Basically I think that there is a generation now living on the world that is truly global with very realistic views and kind of universal understanding and much tolerance and pronounced dislike of intransparent, corrupt, political structures. But that's only my interpretation. Could be wrong as well.

Hahahaha, very nice one! Yeah, can't stand those fckn AC ads, don't think I will ever again.

I also can´t speak for everyone else but the general mood is: Shoganai , always. ;)
"You can´t change what happened".
This attitude is very deeply rooted in the Japanese soul.

So instead of (or actually along with) bickering and complaining around, Japanese people always make the best of the situation.
So to keep up your ability to function you have to keep a sense of normal live and have fun.
This almost hedonistic attitude is one of the things i really like about people here.
This does not mean they are shallow, but most of the time they don´t feel like discussing the obvious, since it´s well... obvious. That´s also a thing lot´s of foreigners have problems with.

The question "Do you still trust your government" is wrong from the start.
Most Japanese, maybe never trusted the government, before, already.
They know they are a bunch of selfish and (to some degree at least) corrupt and even incapable politicians. But they don´t really care as long as they don´do any real harm.
E.g. the Mayor of Tokyo really upset people when he called the Tsunami "a punishment from the gods", along with some other stupid actions.
He is ripe to go soon.

Politics and criminal minds are intermixed everywhere in the world. Japan is no exception. The question is how you take on the situation.

But Tepco now really crossed a line, that has really upset Japanese people.

If you really wanted to get tin-foil hat-ish about it (and I'm sure someone, somewhere has)... you could almost say this disaster was "good timing" (in the poorest of taste).

It occurred just as the PM admitted he'd accepted donations from a foreigner (just like one of his cabinet) [for those who don't know, that's a huge fricking "no" over here]. And thanks to the disaster, all mention of that seems to have but vanished.

Then there's that guy (who's name I choose to forget (as hearing it pisses me off something rotten)) who is still refusing to answer questions about how certain donation were used. The guy is obviously corrupt.

But that too, has all but been removed from the public eye. So again, the corruption will continue.

As for Ishihara... Apparently, he's running again, so we're not rid of him. Thus we can expect him to continue his crusade to ban/heavily restrict all manga, anime, games and pretty much anything and everything else which isn't either his rape novels or live action porn.

Oh yeah, 2ch seems to have some real gems of parodies based on that AC ad alone. Asides from the Edano one, the "dekichatta" and "your girlfriend" ones are also pretty amusing (out of parodies not directly poking fun at TEPCO, etc.)

@ Dyscode, what precisely did Tepco do now that is considered crossing the line? The Western news isn't giving much info, or at least I haven't seen it yet.

@ Bansama, no way man! Manga, anime & games is the west's main link to Japan!

to be honest I am not sure of that my self of the EXACTY reason. I don´t think there is one single reason. Tepco has a LONG history of try to hide accidents and failures in their plants.
Adn giving out false information. Maybe it´s that it´s now official that the purposely hired works that had no clue what and atomic power plant is, or radioactivity.
Fukushima might have been just the straw the breaks the camels neck.

But if some incident actually manages to get Japanese people on the street for a demonstration this must be big.
There is/ was no real opposition culture, like in France, US or Germany.
Upholding Public Peace is the utmost priority in Japan, privately and publicly.
So this means something.

When you See Ghost in the Shell and you live in Japan you begin to understand
why "Public Peace Section 9" is named so, do what they do and why they are allowed to do so.

Gotcha. Yeah Ghost in the Shell seems one hell of a drama.

So its a real murky situation, w/TEPCO's lack of credibility and other countries' government's seeking to profit off of Japan when they're at their weakest, all wrapped up together w/nuclear activity. At least that's my take on it.

A magnitude 7.4 quake just hit and Tsunami warnings have been issued. Intensity here was comparable with that of the March 11 quake.

:( i pray for the safety of you all

Just read this on yahoo
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20110407/twl-powerful-quake-hits-japan-tsunami-al-4bdc673.html

Good luck out there, stay safe.

I've just seen the news. It doesn't let up, does it? I hope everyone clears the area in time.

I see the BBC are discussing whether a Tsunami warning or advisories was issued.

The simple answer is, both. A red warning as well as yellow advisories were issued according to NHK. But so far, it doesn't appear that a Tsunami has been generated after all (based on current estimated arrival times).

Poseidon! Leave them the f..k alone! Geez. Hang in there people.

The quake has apparently been downgraded to magnitude 7.1. No one can confirm as yet whether a Tsunami did or did not hit.