Politics DPP leader confesses to extramarital affair

[thomas]

From kingmaker to adulterer: while I agree that such issues are basically private, I feel that politicians should be held to higher standards. What do you think?


In a surprising turn of events, Tamaki Yuichiro, leader of the Democratic Party for the People (DPP), admitted on Monday morning to having an extramarital affair after a tabloid published photos of him and the woman involved. During an impromptu press conference, Tamaki stated that the report's contents were primarily accurate and expressed profound apologies to his family and the many people across the country who had trusted him. He mentioned that he had confessed everything to his wife and son, who had strongly rebuked him. Tamaki's acknowledgement came just hours after Flash, a tabloid magazine, posted photos on its website showing him, wearing a hoodie, and a younger woman leaving a wine bar in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on the night of 30 October. Reporters from the magazine had previously observed Tamaki and the woman, later identified as Koizumi Miyuki, a tourism ambassador from Takamatsu in Kagawa Prefecture, on multiple occasions. Koizumi had denied being in an intimate relationship with Tamaki, who represents the Kagawa Prefecture No. 2 electoral district, which includes Takamatsu.

The scandal broke just as lawmakers were due to elect a new prime minister after last month's general election. While reporters bombarded Tamaki with questions over the affair, he maintained that he had the full support of his party and would remain its leader. Following the DPP meeting, the party's secretary-general, Kazuya Shimba, said there were no calls for Tamaki to reconsider his position. "Without Tamaki, the DPP wouldn't exist. If we lose in the Upper House (election next summer), our recent Lower House election increase will have been for nothing. It's the opinion of many DPP Upper House members that the party should begin again, with Tamaki at the centre," Shimba said.

Head of key opposition DPP admits affair ahead of parliament vote for PM

Yuichiro Tamaki admitted to the affair after a tabloid reported on the relationship, jeopardizing his future in the party and any tie-ups with the LDP and Komeito.

www.japantimes.co.jp

DPFP chief Yuichiro Tamaki apologizes after affair with ex-gravure idol - TokyoReporter

DPFP chief Yuichiro Tamaki apologizes after affair with ex-gravure idol

www.tokyoreporter.com

 

[Lothor]

The US has just voted in a felon, fascist and misogynist, so an extramarital affair seems like small beer. Demanding that our politicians have standards is so twentieth century!

 

[Grandpa Frank]

Seems like a lot of people and states liked Trump. Be interesting where he takes the US and the world in the next 4 years. Hopefully Japan/US relationship will stay good.

 

[mdchachi]

The US has just voted in a felon, fascist and misogynist, so an extramarital affair seems like small beer. Demanding that our politicians have standards is so twentieth century!

You forgot serial adulterer -- multiple extramarital affairs.

 

[thomas]

Demanding that our politicians have standards is so twentieth century!

Forgive me, I was born in the 1960s.

At the risk of sounding naïve, I apply the same high professional and moral standards to anyone in public service, politics, law enforcement, education, law, or medicine... you name it.

 

[Lothor]

Forgive me, I was born in the 1960s.

At the risk of sounding naïve, I apply the same high professional and moral standards to anyone in public service, politics, law enforcement, education, law, or medicine... you name it.

Thomas - I think so too, but we're in a real minority.

GF - I've been reading some of the analysis of why the Republicans won the election, and it's not so much that Trump is particularly liked by the wider population, but the perception of most Americans was that they were doing very badly under the Democrats. Even though the stats for the US economy are reasonably healthy, so much of the wealth has been hoovered up by the wealthy, a problem that the Democrats failed to tackle, that many people thought they'd be better off under a Republican government. I think that the UK is in a similar position to the US in 2021, a very unequal society that has just voted for a centrist government unlikely to change much. There is a real risk that the UK will vote for a far-right government at the next election.

 

[mdchachi]

Thomas - I think so too, but we're in a real minority.

GF - I've been reading some of the analysis of why the Republicans won the election, and it's not so much that Trump is particularly liked by the wider population, but the perception of most Americans was that they were doing very badly under the Democrats. Even though the stats for the US economy are reasonably healthy, so much of the wealth has been hoovered up by the wealthy, a problem that the Democrats failed to tackle, that many people thought they'd be better off under a Republican government. I think that the UK is in a similar position to the US in 2021, a very unequal society that has just voted for a centrist government unlikely to change much. There is a real risk that the UK will vote for a far-right government at the next election.

Bottom line is that people are willfully ignorant and can't think critically. And people are not better off than they were four years ago. So they inexplicably think a failed businessman and failed former President can somehow make it better. The xenophobia and misogyny is just icing on the top.

 

[johnnyG]

 

[Lothor]

View attachment 121315

True, but most people haven't been experiencing it and have been struggling with higher food, fuel and health costs. That's not the fault of the Democrats, but they allowed four years of business as usual in America's hypercapitalist economy, which is why people haven't felt any better and voted Republican. Bernie Sanders' analysis was spot on there.

However, it's beyond me how electing an even more business-friendly party that threatens to send the people who do most of the work feeding the country back to their home countries is going to help.

 

[johnnyG]

I suppose so...

But the all the spending during the covid recovery prevented what could have been a deep recession. There were some serious bailouts--rent, jobs, and so on, all of which might have gone kaput.

The covid spending saved that, and is in part responsible for some of the subsequent inflation. Certainly not all of it, since it was structural and worldwide, and blinkered americans just don't see that part of it.

The price of eggs has to do with bird flu and the major culling of factory farmed chickens (capitalism), not anything the administration has done.

The price of gas spiked (but so did many other things), but the price of gas now is, adjusting for inflation over all those decades, almost the same as it was in the 60s, before the arab oil shocks. And it's not US policy or pumping/drilling that's doing that, it's that chinese demand is way down, and that is what is holding down oil prices. (along with israel not having trashed iranian oil depots, which they apparently could easily have done)

I would welcome trump's policies, implemented in full, such that folks who voted for him get hurt, and hurt really bad. And hurt bad enough so that they cannot blame the dems, or some conspiracy, hurt so that the only conclusion is that trumpism did it (< an unrealistic wish, they'll always find a way to blame someone else).

Nope, that 's not a solution that I would wish on the US, but sometimes people just need to be whacked upside the head.

 

[salyavin]

Forgive me, I was born in the 1960s.

At the risk of sounding naïve, I apply the same high professional and moral standards to anyone in public service, politics, law enforcement, education, law, or medicine... you name it.

Japan also seems to give a punishment for some entertainers as well, I think I like that as many people are influenced by them. In the west entertainers are often to do drugs, have affairs etc.

 

[Lothor]

Japan also seems to give a punishment for some entertainers as well, I think I like that as many people are influenced by them. In the west entertainers are often to do drugs, have affairs etc.

The entertainment business, media, big business and government are so close here that the deal is if you want to be an entertainer, you behave yourself, smile at the appropriate times, pitch in when a TV programme or a government campaign is short of well-known faces, and never say anything that might be construed as criticism of the system.

 

[johnnyG]

Googling I find that the average price/gallon of gas was $0.34 in 1968, and $0.53 in 1974.

Plug those numbers into the calculator at amortization.org and it shows that in 2024, $0.34 > $3.08, and $0.53 > $3.52.

So the price/gallon during those years ranged, in today's dollars, from $3.08 to $3.52.

Googling again, the average price/gallon in the US today is $3.09 (source)

The average price for regular gasoline in the United States stood at 3.09 U.S. dollars per gallon on November 11, 2024. This compared to a diesel price of 3.56 U.S. dollars per gallon.

And that page also states:

Real price surge of 2022 and 2023 still below 2011 to 2014 prices
When looking at the real price of gasoline over time, U.S. drivers had to pay notably more in the years between 2011 and 2014. The surge in prices noted throughout 2022 and partly for 2023, which followed supply constraints, was still lower in terms of real U.S. dollars.

So the price/gallon today is almost exactly the same as in 1968, and cheaper than it was in 1974.

And even during the price surge of a couple years ago, gas was cheaper than it had been about ten years earlier--and cheaper than both those times now. And that leaves aside the better mileage and safety of today's cars--remember those gas-guzzlers and muscle cars of the later '60s and early '70s? Also, thankfully, lead is no longer an additive.


My conclusion: americans are whiners and complainers, not economists.

 

[musicisgood]

Also, thankfully, lead is no longer an additive.

I wonder if that is the reason people today are acting quite unusual from the norm.

 

[salyavin]

I wonder if that is the reason people today are acting quite unusual from the norm.

Half of Americans Exposed to Harmful Levels of Lead as Children

e360.yale.edu

It would apply to myself and those older but for young people today I do not believe they were exposed.

 

[thomas]

The DPP decided yesterday to suspend its leader, Yuichiro Tamaki, for three months following a media report about an extramarital affair.

Tamaki said he accepted the decision made by the Democratic Party for the People, which quadrupled its seats to 28 in the 465-member House of Representatives in the 27 October general election. But he ruled out stepping down as party chief. During the suspension period until 3 March next year, Motohisa Furukawa, the acting president, will take over for Tamaki, who has recently been involved in policy negotiations with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Some analysts said the suspension could hit the opposition party's popularity, in turn complicating the situation for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's LDP, which is now leading a minority government with its ally the Komeito party after the coalition lost its majority in the lower house.

Head of influential Japan opposition party suspended over affair

A small but increasingly influential Japanese opposition party decided Wednesday to suspend its leader, Yuichiro Tamaki, for three months following a media report about an extramarital affair.

english.kyodonews.net

Tamaki suspended for three months as DPP leader following affair

An internal committee judged Tamaki’s conduct as having contravened the party’s ethics regulations and damaged its honor and trust.

www.japantimes.co.jp