Leaderless Japan一日无君.docVIP

Leaderless Japan一日无君 Leaderless Japan 一“日”无“君” It used to be the envy of the world; now the hope is that things have got so bad that reform is finally possible 它曾羡煞旁人；而如今，它只能期盼着糟糕透顶的局势能使改革终于成为可能。 SINCE 2006 Japan has had no fewer than five prime ministers. Three of them lasted just a year. The feckless Yukio Hatoyama, who stepped down on June 2nd, managed a grand total of 259 days. Particularly dispiriting about Mr Hatoyama’s sudden departure is that his election last August looked as if it marked the start of something new in Japanese politics after decades of rule by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). His government has turned out to be as incompetent, aimless and tainted by scandal as its predecessors. 2006年以来，日本已经有过5位首相，其中的三位仅在任一年。鸠山由纪夫一事无成，他于6月2日宣布辞职，在任共259天。鸠山突如其来的辞职尤为令人沮丧，因为去年8月他在竞选中的胜利本来看似预示着日本政坛的一个新起点，毕竟，在此之前，自由民主党已手握大权数十载。结果，他领导的政府跟往届政府一样无能，一样漫无目的，一样丑闻缠身。 Much of the responsibility for the mess belongs with Mr Hatoyama. The man known as “the alien”, who says the sight of a little bird last weekend gave him the idea to resign, has shown breathtaking lack of leadership. Although support for his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has slumped in opinion polls and the government relied on minor parties, the most glaring liabilities have been over Mr Hatoyama’s own murky financial affairs and his dithering about where to put an American military base. The question for the next prime minister, to be picked in a DPJ vote on June 4th, is whether Mr Hatoyama’s failure means that Japan’s nine-month experiment with two-party democracy has been a misconceived disaster. 鸠山对这一混乱的局面负有很大的责任。他被称为“外星人”，他说上周末他看到一只小鸟，这让他产生了辞职的念头。他在领导才能方面惊人的匮乏已展露无遗。虽然他的日本民主党在民调中的支持率大幅下滑，虽然他的政府还得依靠少数党才能站稳脚跟，但是造成他辞职的最显见的原因并不是这些，而是他自己的财务丑闻，以及他在将美国军事基地迁至何处这一问题上的举棋不定。民??党将于6月4日选出新的首相，而这位继任应当思忖鸠山的失败是否意味着日本历时9个月的两党联合的民主实验是异想天开，实属惨败。 The answer is of interest not just within Japan. Such is the recent merry-go-round of prime ministers that it is easy to assume that whoever runs the show makes no differen