Here’s an article about Yuka Ogata’s most recent difficulties in the city council. It quite old now but I think it’s fairly detailed and worth a read if you’re unfamiliar with the issue.
If you understand Japanese, I’d like to repeat my invitation to listen to the following interview with Ms. Ogata:
http://www.fmc.or.jp/sound/qic20181014c.mp3
For more about this very interesting (in my view) local internet radio station, see my original post at
https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/2174661142607306?__tn__=-R
The lozengate issues has quieted down a bit, but I’m fairly confident that we haven’t heard the last of it. Since I’ve last written about the issue here, I’ve learned more about what Ms. Ogata was trying to do as a politician when her colleagues shut her down over the use of a cough drop. She was advocating for the establishment of a 議会基本条例 (gikai kihon jorei; a basic law governing council deliberations). Most local governments in Japan now have such a law so Kumamoto is behind the curve. The law would function as a “constitution” for the city council and require more openness (explanations about reasons for decisions instead of just pass-failure pronouncements, etc.). Openness is good for citizens but not so good for politicians who don’t like being in a fish bowl. So, the argument can be made that part of what the flap was REALLY about was shutting down a call for openness that most of the members of the city council were not happy about. I learned about this listening to the radio interview I reintroduced above and also from a couple of personal conversations with Ms. Ogata. Interestingly, even the local Japanese newspaper (the Kumanichi) hasn’t written much about the call for the new law requiring more openness. I’m planning to ask someone I know at the newspaper why they don’t go deeper and explain what is really at stake.
That’s all for now. I’ll try to write again when something new comes up.
– Kirk
