Why I Criticize Councilor Tomomi Inada｜Yoichi Shimada
I heard she plans to file a "criminal complaint for insult" against me.
To sum up my dissatisfaction with Tomomi Inada, a member of the House of Representatives (LDP, Fukui Ward 1), I would say that she is only interested in bills that further the interests of leftist activists, has shown only a cursory interest in foreign and security issues despite being a former defense minister, and plays the role of a poster child for the Ministry of Finance, which is determined to raise taxes while ignoring economic development.
According to sources, Ms. Inada is now moving to file criminal charges against me for insulting her.
Or her actions may have been influenced by the following article in the 2023 mid-summer issue of Hokuriku Seikai, a quarterly magazine very attentive to Fukui's political and economic circles and featuring advertisements from leading companies and local public organizations.
People used by the far left are wrong if they are "approved by the Liberal Democratic Party."
Even within the prefectural federation, voices saying it should replace are growing daily.
Professor Yoichi Shimada of Fukui Prefectural University, known as one of Fukui's leading conservative commentators and the spearhead of the "anti-Inada" movement, has been approached by the Ishin. If this class runs against her, Inada cannot win now.
Apart from election-related issues, I have certainly been harsh in criticizing Senator Inada's political stance.
However, I have never used any abuse against her.
She can file charges, but it will only further damage her reputation.
In the history of Japanese politics, no other politician has so far betrayed the expectations of conservatives as Ms. Inada.
Regarding the degree to which she has fallen, she is the unrivaled "Queen of the Fall.
Let us summarize what is wrong with Ms. Inada.
The "great benefactors" who gave birth to Tomomi Inada, a member of the House of Representatives, and elevated her to a position far beyond her abilities are her strictly conservative father and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, both now deceased.
Inada's father, Yasuo Tsubakihara, was a high school teacher and principal in Fukui and Kyoto and was well-known in the Kansai region as a conservative activist.
Many years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Inada, Katsuhiko Takaike, a lawyer who serves as the chairman of the Inada's supporters, and I once had dinner together. After a few drinks, Ms. Inada said, "I hate my father. He's too picky about a lot of things."
At the time, we all accepted it as a joke and ended with a bitter smile, but after watching Ms. Inada unhinged around the time of his father's death in 2016, I began to wonder if she was expressing her true feelings.
2016 was the year that Prime Minister Abe appointed Inada as Minister of Defense, and the following year, 2017, the circumstances that led to her resignation due to a combination of light behavior, blunders, and inadequate answers that did not seem appropriate for someone in charge of national defense are fresh in our memories.
The question is often asked, "Why did Tomomi Inada apostasy?" However, it should be seen that she initially had no "principles."
The rather frivolous woman was only temporarily straightened by her father's harsh whips.
Prime Minister Abe did not give up on Inada after that and tried to put her back on a normal track, but to no avail.
If Abe could not do it, no one else could.
In the August 2023 issue of the monthly magazine "Hanada," journalist Noriyuki Yamaguchi quotes Prime Minister Abe as follows:
Inada, who was heavily bashed when she was Defense Minister and called Abe's friend, must have switched sides, thinking that the media would lift her if she steered the country toward policies that would please the left wing.
Inada must be very comfortable being praised by the Asahi and Tokyo newspapers.
It's a real shame that Inada has become such a disappointment.
I heard Mr. Abe, in a small group discussion, express a troubled look about Mr. Inada and say, "When I told him to choose one of the two positions in the LDP, either 'chairman of the special mission committee on sexual minorities' or 'chairman of the railroad research committee for the maintenance bullet train and other railroad projects,' Inada chose the latter.
I heard Abe say, "We are not in a situation to worry about LGBT for the time being since Inada was removed, and we have created a mechanism to discuss the issue again from scratch.
A few months earlier, I published a book titled "America Demolished" (Business, Inc.), in which I discussed the situation in the U.S. regarding LGBT issues while also touching on developments in Japan. It included a section titled "Tomomi Inada Runs Amok on LGBT Bill." Mr. Abe was aware of this and sent a tweet recommending my book. That was probably one of his warnings to Inada.
Rep. Seiichi Eto thundered out Inada.
The LGBT rights bill has failed once before, in June 2021. A bipartisan consensus draft (the substance of the discrimination was not defined), which included the phrase "discrimination will not be tolerated," put together by the LGBT parliamentary group led by Inada and Chinami Nishimura (Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan), was eventually shelved because conservatives in the LDP opposed it, saying they were unsure how far it would go to create reverse discrimination.
At that time, Inada was said to have cried violently.
Noriyuki Yamaguchi writes (Hanada, August 2023).
There is no doubt that Ms. Inada cried in front of Mr. Abe, saying, "I can't stand my reputation now that I have reached an agreement with the opposition parties."
We have multiple witnesses on this matter.
Ms. Inada also cried and appealed to Keiji Furuya and others, but Seiichi Eto, a member of the Diet, told her that "tears shed for the country are beautiful, but what the hell are those tears?" he thundered out.
Inada herself wrote, "The opposition to me by conservatives was strong, and Mr. Abe was at the center of the opposition" ("Identity," December 1, 2022).
In October 2021, four months after the failure of the LGBT rights bill, a general election was held following the dissolution of the House of Representatives by new Prime Minister Kishida.
At the time, Mr. Yamaguchi Noriyuki had the following conversation with former Prime Minister Abe (Hanada, June 2023).
[Inada] finally told me that she understood the issues regarding the LGBT bill," he said. Furthermore, Inada has said she will never be involved in the LGBT bill again!
In response, Mr. Yamaguchi said, "Isn't she going to pretend to understand and ask for some favor?" Yamaguchi said he was skeptical. The next day, Abe called again.
Yamaguchi's hunch was right on the money. Inada says, 'Because of the LGBT issue, the supporters' association in my hometown, Fukui, is in a state of collapse. Please help me. So I called four representatives and executives of local conservative groups to ask for their support, just as Inada had said.
"If Ms. Inada went so far as to ask Mr. Abe for support, then, as expected, she can no longer betray you."
"Everything is going to be all right."
But it was not okay at all. Readers will know that while former Prime Minister Abe was deadly wounded and weighed down, Inada actively worked with opposition parties and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Emanuel and others to pass an LGBT rights bill.
Corroborating Testimony
As for Mr. Abe's phone call to a person in Fukui for the purpose Mr. Yamaguchi describes, the recipient (a friend of mine, let's say Mr. A) corroborated his story.
The following is an e-mail exchange between Mr. A and myself.
During the general election two years ago, Ms. Tomomi Inada visited former Prime Minister Abe and said, "I am being campaigned against by the conservative faction. She appealed for help, and on the spot, Mr. Abe called four of her original supporters in Fukui, including those related to the Tomomi group, and asked them if they would support Inada because she was sorry for what she had done and promised not to do LGBT anymore.
A journalist I know stated that he heard directly from Mr. Abe, and I was wondering if Mr. A might have received a call from Mr. Abe as well.
The answer came immediately.
[Mr. A] I did indeed receive a phone call from former Prime Minister Abe! It was something to that effect.
He is not a person to talk irresponsibly.
Ms. Inada should have been honest with Prime Minister Abe and her supporters in Fukui. "I will continue to push for the realization of the LGBT rights law. If I did so, I would appreciate your support."
From Senator Inada's Twitter
Inada issued the following tweet two years ago (June 5, 2021).
Last night, 32 years after the Tiananmen Square incident, Bohemian Rhapsody aired for the first time on TV. The homosexual part was removed and released in China. Japan is different from China. Japan is a country that guarantees freedom of speech and values freedom, democracy, and diversity. The passage of the LGBT Understanding Promotion Act will send a message to the world about Japan's values.
Surprisingly, this is the only message from the former Minister of Defense, mindful of the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, when the Chinese authorities inflicted a bloody crackdown on the liberal democracy movement.
Does she not see the tyranny of the Chinese Communist Party, which cannot be compared to the cutting of homosexual scenes in movies?
Inada's tweet is extremely shameful as belonging to a Japanese politician.
Moreover, as Inada admits, homosexual scenes in movies are not subject to any cuts in Japan, a statement that even serves as collateral evidence that there is no need for a law to promote LGBT understanding.
Tweets like these make one question Ms. Inada's sense of relative importance and intellectual integrity.
As for Inada's "gender identity," which she considers a golden rule, all identities can change at different times and under other circumstances and even be intentionally false.
Inada is an excellent example of this, as she still identifies as a "conservative" even though she has become a spokesperson for leftist activists.
No matter how much Ms. Inada insists that gender identity can be trusted and will not change, it is not persuasive.
She should resign from the Diet and become an LGBT lawyer.
The term "spokesperson for leftist activists" is not an exaggeration.
There are other examples.
Yoshiko Sakurai pointed out that the Legislative Council's Family Law Subcommittee, an advisory body to the Minister of Justice, is moving in the direction of "going against the international community and making permanent the abnormal state of sole custody," with the background that "discussions at the Legislative Council are being led by human rights groups, including Ms. Chiiko Akaishi, president of the NPO "single mothers' forum. He also harshly criticized the attitude of lawmakers who invited leftist activists into the LDP, saying, "Tomomi Inada, Masako Mori, and others who brought Akaishi and others into the core of the government, as a result, have a heavy responsibility to prevent the Legislative Council from running amok" (Shukan Shincho, June 16, 2022 issue).
Inada is also a spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance.
In this respect, too, she goes against Abe's teachings.
Of all the LDP factions, Kōchikai, to whom Kishida is attached, is the closest to the Ministry of Finance.
The finance bureaucrats probably think, "Let's realize or lay the groundwork for all tax increases while our protégé Kishida is prime minister.''
Prime Minister Kishida, surrounded by the Ministry of Finance's personal connections, lacks the recognition that stable growth is a steady source of revenue.
The responsibility of politics lies in formulating and implementing a growth strategy.
Tax increases stifle growth.
Mr. Kishida often says, directly from the Ministry of Finance, that "government bonds cannot be taken as a responsibility to future generations." Still, if economic growth generates a natural increase in revenue every year, government bonds can be redeemed.
If he is not confident of this, he should resign.
Inada is currently leading the charge on "raising taxes on child care" and on raising taxes on defense; she said, "We should not avoid the option of raising taxes for the people to think about their security.
Ms. Inada has been successfully brainwashed by the Ministry of Finance, which believes that politicians who call for tax increases are courageous politicians.
At the same time, she says, ordinary people will only take defense seriously if they hurt it with new tax increases.
Her idea that she made a fool of the people also affects her.
If she wants to work on "human rights issues" from the standpoint of progressives, she should resign from the Diet and work as an LGBT lawyer 24 hours a day.
