System Failure ---Lesson from "Katrina"

Below is my comment on the TIME article of "4 Places Where the System Broke Down" Page 18　 TIME, September 19, 2005

The war game with terrorists made President Bush and his supporters forget about the rage of Mother Nature. In that sense, the four leaders of the federal and local governments should be to blame for not having coped with Katrina properly.

The important lesson derived from that government failure is that the priority of the US policies should be shifted from the war on terrorism to protecting thousands of people from unexpected megadisasters which are now increasing all over the world due to global warming.

Great natural disaster comes to us when we forget the last one. Government should never forget it.

Koizumi's War on Postal Reform

Below is my comment on the TIME article of "Koizumi’s War " ( Page 48　TIME, September 12, 2005)

It should be noted that the upcoming parliamentary election in Japan will choose 480 members of the lower house and the governing party, not Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi himself even though he seems to lead the election by focusing on the single issue of Postal reform. Japanese people can not elect their Prime Minister under the parliamentary Cabinet system which is completely different from the President system in the U.S. elected directly by the people.

What matters most this time again is whether the Japanese people can eliminate the evils of the powerful bureaucracy that have been the long-time obstacles of the sound economy. The postal reform is only the breakthrough.