"The mass media has made quite an effort to turn Shinzo Abe into a likable politician. It obeyed its "master," the former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and the American government and fueled Abe's popularity. But this has resulted in misery. Sure, he's popular, but the media has turned a person without the ability or discernment of a political leader into a prime minister. The ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito combine with the mass media to pile lies upon lies so that the true face of Prime Minister Abe remains hidden."

　An interview with the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, Ichiro Ozawa, ran in the evening edition of the Feb. 28 Mainichi Shimbun, one of Japan's most widely read newspapers. In this article, there's a section called "Criticizing Prime Minister Abe." Ozawa is not the sort of politician to make a habit of badmouthing others. On the contrary, he's the sort to value propriety. Moreover, he was talking about the prime minister and the leader of the top political party in Japan. And yet he called Abe a "very, very ordinary, typical person" and the type whose "words are random and inconsistent." What is going on here? Let's take a closer look at what Ozawa said about Abe:

　"He's a typical Japanese. But even if some of the past prime ministers were typical folk, they had acquired their share of experience; they had a sort of life philosophy based on their own life experiences and their sense of Japan's cultural climate. It's not a matter of age ? the prime minister lacks the political experience. I imagine he's feeling the burden of his responsibilities."

　Compared with Ozawa, former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka speaks frankly and can be severe with her criticism. Here's an excerpt from her conversation with University of Tokyo Professor Kang Sang-jung, which appeared in the April 2007 edition of Gendai magazine under the title "The Inconvenient Truth about the Abe Administration."

　"First of all, the reason Mr. Koizumi recommended Mr. Abe as the next prime minister wasn't because of his superiority. It was because the former Fukuda faction had waited decades to seize power from the former Tanaka and Takeshita factions, and it didn't want to relinquish it. If you look at the way Mr. Abe is bungling state politics, he doesn't have a lot of knowledge or experience, and I think he is secretly troubled by being selected prime minister.
Stated simply, this job is too much for him. And it's not because he was born after the war; it's literally because he doesn't have the ability. It takes a lot of resolve to handle the responsibilities of a prime minister. Just because he's heard in a lot of private discussions that he can win and this is his chance doesn't mean he should take the job. After all, this is an extremely sublime post that is about providing a stable life for our citizens and helping the world find peace."
　"... I once answered a question about Mr. Abe by saying 'he looks like a toddler walking right into the street with adult shoes on.' But he keeps stepping further to the right. It's dangerous ... His feet are already in a pretty dubious position," Tanaka says with a laugh.
　It's about time for the LDP-Komeito coalition to settle the bill for Shinzo Abe, a "child politician" it propped up with a popularity campaign in the media (supported behind closed doors by the American administration and former Prime Minister Koizumi). The time is near. Koizumi's guilt is clear here: He placed in the prime minister's seat a selfish politician with no ambition or statesmanship, a man wanting to be prime minister without earning it.
　The Japanese are trying to deify former Prime Minister Koizumi, but they shouldn't be fooled by the media's machinations. The ridiculous attempt by the media to christen Saint Koizumi has to be ground to a halt.

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