Perspectives

Both politics and the media have recently been wrapped around the little finger of public opinion polls. Individual polls themselves may be objective, but the dramatic increase in the number of these surveys in recent years seems to be leading some to become dependent on them.

I read an article by Kyoto University Associate Professor Takumi Sato -- a sociologist specializing in media theory -- in the June 15 evening edition of the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper with great interest. In it, Sato dubbed this state of being at the mercy of public opinion polls "fast politics."

The "fast" here is taken from "fast food." The hamburger chain McDonald's was founded in 1940. It was five years prior to that that George Gallup established what has now become a major polling organization. U.S. President at the time Franklin Delano Roosevelt used the results of public opinion polls as a shield against dissent from Congress.

Sato says that one of the books that got him thinking about "fast politics" was "Kosoku Shakai to Ningen" (High-speed society and humankind), published by social psychologist Akira Tsujimura in 1980. The book begins with an excerpt from Shuntaro Tanikawa's poem, "Isogu" (To hurry). The following is the poem in its entirety:

Is it all right to be in such a hurry?

Flying by people planting rice

At 200 kilometers per hour

Their hands are not visible to me

I have no time to care about what goes on in their hearts

(That is why I do not attach any adjectives to "hands" or "hearts")

This speed is too fast, it's silly

Even pain, anger, inequality, and despair

Are all just landscapes that pass us by

Is it all right to be in such a hurry?

My body is an express delivery package

My heart is a postmarked stamp

But still, I will not make it in time

No matter how much I hurry, I will not make it in time

These were the observations of a poet who rode the Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train soon after it began operations in the 1960s. Shinkansen and highways constituted symbols of "fast culture" at the time. Today, it would probably be the Internet.

Public opinion polls increased drastically over the last decade due to a shift in polling methods from face-to-face interviews to more convenient phone polls. Politicians, who are now fed data non-stop, shout themselves hoarse on the battlefield, which is no longer the Diet building, but the television studio. They're also busy putting out e-mail magazines and commenting on Twitter.

So has the democratic process been enriched by these developments? It doesn't really feel that way. It doesn't take a poet to wonder whether it's all right that we are in such a rush, as we watch the rapid flow of information. "This speed" is, indeed, "too fast." And everything feels merely like "landscapes that pass us by."

The House of Councillors election campaign is nearing the end, as Prime Minister Naoto Kan, having claimed that he would raise the consumption tax, is now busy trying to mitigate objections by promising to adopt measures that will protect those in need.

A policy of raising the consumption tax for the purpose of rebuilding the nation's finances and improving social services is neither outrageous nor corrupt. And the notion of alleviating the burden of lower income populations is common sense.

Kan, however, has been unable to unite the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). The previous DPJ secretary-general who was supposed to keep his mouth shut for the time being has gone on record to protest the proposed tax hike as a violation of an earlier promise. Kan's attempts to explain additional policies that aim to protect lower income populations have only created an image of unpreparedness.

In any day and age, people resist tax hikes because they distrust public officials and bureaucrats. How does Kan expect to deal with this state of affairs?

Shouting slogans and deftly eluding attacks from opposition parties is not going to help Kan gain people's consent and support. It's whether he can offer words that speak to the people crouched over the ground planting rice seedlings -- not words shouted from bullet trains at top speed. It's about whether he has the zeal to find a way out of "fast politics." That will prove to be the difference between victory and defeat. (By Takao Yamada, Expert Senior Writer)