Financial Times
June 15, 2000
From Ko Unoki
Sir, Yuko Obuchi, as far as we know, has not indicated what her political vision is or what she intends to do as a parliamentarian.
Normally, this should be an issue for voters when selecting a candidate. Yet, as your article indicates (“Former PM’s daughter set to scoop the dynasty vote”, June 14), there is a very good chance she will be elected by the good folk of her constituency for a seat in the national diet anyway, just because she happens to be the late prime minister’s daughter.
If it turns out to be the case that the majority of voters choose her because of her family name, this will indeed show to the world once again that Japanese parliamentary democracy is still nothing more than a primitive tribalism.
Ko Unoki
Senior Fellow,
21st Century Public Policy Institute,
Otemachi Building 3F,
1-6-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku,
Tokyo, 100-0004, Japan
小渕優子氏は、私たちの知る限り、政治的なビジョンや国会議員として何をしようとしているのかが示されていません。
本来なら、有権者が候補者を選ぶ際に問題となるはずのことだ。しかし、貴紙記事（6月14日付「元首相の娘、王朝票を獲得へ」）が示すように、故首相の娘というだけで、選挙区の住民から国会議員に選ばれる可能性は非常に高い。
もし、有権者の多くが家族の名前を理由に彼女を選ぶとしたら、それは日本の議会制民主主義がいまだに原始的な部族主義に過ぎないことを、改めて世界に示すことになるだろう。
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