VOX POPULI: Potentially damaging rift over Futenma issue

While enjoyable to the listener, the ballet score "Le Sacre du Printemps" (The Rite of Spring) by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) is arguably one of the most difficult pieces of music to conduct.

The score is made complex by the successive use of dissonances, instabilities that yearn to be resolved.

Maestro Hiroyuki Iwaki (1932-2006) once made a blunder during this very score while conducting an orchestra in Australia.

According to Iwaki, the most difficult part comes last when both conductor and performer are exhausted by the nonstop chaos. That is where he made a mistake in waving his baton, causing the music to "fall apart."

The audience that filled the concert hall froze in sudden silence. Iwaki was shaken up, but he managed to pick up from where he left off, although he was mortified at his own mistake.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama likens himself to being "the conductor of an orchestra." The difficult issues facing his government are marked by discord.

Exhausted after his visit to Okinawa to offer an apology for failing to keep his word, he now faces discord with Mizuho Fukushima, who heads the Social Democratic Party, a junior partner in his coalition government.

Depending on how Hatoyama conducts his orchestra, his coalition could similarly fall apart.

To the SDP, relocating the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, outside the prefecture is tantamount to its political platform. If it gives in to the government proposal, it would be tantamount to betraying SDP supporters. But if the party left the coalition, it would be reduced to just one of several tiny parties contesting the Upper House election this summer. Apparently, Fukushima is weighing the gains and losses as party leader before announcing her decision.

The prime minister's handling of the baton has been precarious from the day he took office. Also, with regard to the Futenma problem, Cabinet ministers have been making sounds as they please. At one time, a new musical piece called "a plan in mind" attracted attention. Then recently, it came to light that it did not even have a score. How can an orchestra like this expect to get paid for such a poor performance?

In a one-on-one debate between party leaders in March, the prime minister stressed he would stake his life on being able to relocate Futenma's functions outside the prefecture.

Hatoyama called his government a "Cabinet that protects life." But the life he spoke of turned out to have no substance.

Fukushima also spoke the same words Tuesday during her visit to Okinawa. The weight of "life" on which Okinawa pins its hope will soon be clear.

--The Asahi Shimbun, May 27

* * *

Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.