Japan’s PM yukio hatoyama… melting fast in the summer heat?

If you were the prime minister of a small nation with the world’s second largest GDP,  which, my friends, would be worse?

• A 67% disapproval rating, resulting in you being written off as a ‘lame duck premier’ by the Financial Times? 
• Having a character so weak your predecessor, Yasuhiro Nakasone, describes it as ‘sweet like soft ice cream that melts fast in the summer heat’? (I like ice cream, but I don’t think that’s a compliment. Especially for a guy who comes from a powerful Japanese dynasty not unlike the Kennedys).
  
• Being called ‘despicable and craven’ by the LA Times after displaying virtually no backbone when it comes to upholding campaign promises. In this case, Hatoyama promised to ask the US military to remove their base from Okinawa… only to later bow to Okinawan locals and ask them to pretty much just suck it up. Doesn’t he know they live longer than anyone else in the world? These folks have been sucking it up for years.
  

• Being married to an ex-actress?
• Ok, a crazy ex-actress.  When Miyuki Hatoyama’s not enjoying kimchi in Korea, she often ‘eats the sun for energy’.  She also believes she met Tom Cruise in an a former life.  Tom Cruise. When he was Japanese. And she went to Venus in a UFO. (This woman takes cuckoo to a whole new level. Not even a depraved manga artist could write this stuff).
• Inadvertently supporting the thriving pachinko parlour industry through a misguided baby bonus scheme.  Analysts from Daiwa believe families receiving Hatoyama’s Y13,000 (£96) monthly baby bonus in cash — instead of vouchers — to help with childcare costs are more likely to spend it on gambling, visiting theme parks or buying video games. 
• Having possibly the worst taste in fashion, ever. Seriously, EVER.

I say it’s all bad, and Japan deserves better. Junichiro Koizumi’s time in office was flawed, but at least the dude had style* (and celebrity friends).

Hatoyama masks from h yamamoto, kimchi pic from Korea.net, fashion shots from Huffington Post, Koizumi shots from AP & Google.

*I blame my mother and our 2009 pilgrimage to Graceland for my weakness toward fellow Elvis fans. Koizumi-san shares his birthday with the King, and in 2001 released a charity CD of hand-picked Elvis hits. He was but a poor prime minister with great taste in rock’n’roll.