Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on January 2011
Photo by James Hadfield
How do you feel when you see your husband getting bullied in the Diet?
When you consider the fact that for many, many years he has been on the attacking side, I think it’s only his due now that he’s a member of the ruling party… My husband and I are very similar, in terms of personality. We’re both very good at attacking people. We’re not so good when we’re being attacked.
Mr. Kan is reported to have said that he’ll carry on, even if his support rate drops below 1 percent. How determined is he to continue?
I don’t know about that 1 percent figure. However, I remember speaking with my husband, and saying that there is no such thing as a minus support rate, right? As long as you don’t get into the minus figures, you’re all right. Perhaps I can make such lighthearted comments because my husband and I are both very positive thinkers to begin with… My feeling is that it’s one thing to go down with the ship after you’ve done everything that is possible, but to simply give up because you’re subjected to a great deal of criticism—that’s not something that I can condone.
What do you think would justify his going down with the ship?
I’ve never really talked with my husband about what he would stake his life for—what he would consider to justify an “honorable death.” But I think that I would go back to [a recent] newspaper article saying that Japan right now is at a crossroads: the entire country needs to take a huge directional change. If my husband’s administration could kind of turn the direction that Japan is facing now, even just a little bit—get it going in the right direction, even just taking that first step or getting around that first corner—then I think he would feel that would be worth dying for. What would happen after this directional change would be up to his successor, perhaps.
You and your husband have been married for 40 years. Looking back, if you could relive your life, would you marry Naoto Kan again?
I would not marry him again if I were born again, because I’ve experienced this one life already. I don’t want to simply repeat it again for my next life. I would do something completely different.
Have you ever thought about being a politician yourself?
I’ve never really thought about it, and I don’t ever intend to run for politics. At my age [65], I realize that if I ever had any inclination of that nature, I would have been a politician long ago. Because, after all, I was in an environment where I could have easily become a politician—my own mother was a representative in the local assembly.
Nobuko Kan was speaking at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan.
