ファイナンシャルタイムズの社説（海外の視点と評価）

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20050829-00000163-jij-polの引用記事チェックのため。
　

　【ロンドン29日時事】英紙フィナンシャル・タイムズは29日、日本衆院の選挙戦で対中関係をはじめとする外交問題が無視されていることに苦言を呈する社説を掲載した。
　「日本の小さな世界」と題する社説は、争点を郵政民営化に絞る小泉純一郎首相の巧みな戦略で、選挙戦では外交問題が不在となっていると指摘。石油価格高騰、対中関係、在日米軍再編、テロなど日本にとって重要な外交問題があるにもかかわらず、「小泉首相はこうした問題を有権者が深く考えることを望んでいない」と述べた。
　その上で、郵政完全民営化は2017年のことだが、「それよりずっと前に、この選挙で無視された外交上のジレンマが日本を悩ませることになるだろう」と論じている。　

＜検証結果＞
ほぼFTの記事の趣旨に合致。「テロ」は「テロ対策」の方がよい。「対中関係」は「どうしようもなく悪化した対中関係」なので少なくとも「悪化した対中関係」とする方が親切。
　
やはり、小泉自民党の政策の優先順位に疑問を持たざるを得ないというのが欧州の率直な感想という点は、私個人も感じていること。

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/97d20078-1829-11da-a14b-00000e2511c8.html
　
Japan's small world
Published: August 29 2005 03:00 | Last updated: August 29 2005 03:00

Junichiro Koizumi, the Japanese prime minister, has conducted a skilful campaign since calling a snap election for September 11. Following the rebellion in the ruling Liberal Democratic party over his plans to privatise the post office, he has kept voters' attention relentlessly focused on himself and his attempts to reform the LDP and Japan Post, the world's biggest financial ­institution.

In the staid world of Japanese politics, the methods are new - MrKoizumi has deployed high-profile women candidates, known as "assassins", to challenge the LDP rebels at the polls - and the results spectacular.

His popularity has risen. The opposition Democratic party of Japan, which had seemed poised to launch an era of two-party politics after half a century of almost unbroken LDP government, has struggled to gain media attention. A demand by Katsuya Okada, DPJ leader, for a one-on-one debate with Mr Koizumi on the big issues raised by the election is likely to fall on deaf ears.

This is a pity, because Mr Okada's assertion that this is the most important election since the second world war - because of the chance to break the LDP's monopoly of power - and his complaint about the narrow obsession with postal reform both have merit.

Foreign policy is glaringly absent from the campaign, although Japan faces several pressing international challenges. They include rising oil prices, the unnervingly bad relationship with China, its Asian rival and trade partner, and the negotiations over US military bases with Washington, Tokyo's main ally. Last week, Jean-Louis Bruguière, France's investigator of terrorists, warned that Japan was a likely future target for al-Qaeda.

Two weeks ago, on the 60th anniversary of the end of war, Mr Koizumi moved to defuse the China dispute for the duration of the election campaign. He issued a full if formulaic apology for Japanese aggression and decided not to visit the controversial Yasukuni shrine - which honours war criminals as well other soldiers - while reserving his right to do so later this year.

This was a deft manoeuvre. On economic reform, the DPJ struggles to differentiate itself from the LDP, and in both parties there are reformist and conservative factions. But on foreign policy, Mr Okada and his colleagues have much to say: they want to befriend Asia, stop prime ministerial visits to Yasukuni, put aside what Mr Okada calls Japan's "xenophobic nationalism" and withdraw Japanese troops from the US-led war in Iraq.

Mr Koizumi does not wish voters to consider these matters too deeply. Instead, he wants to dazzle them with his "assassins". Domestic reform is vitally important, but even Mr Koizumi does not envisage full privatisation of Japan Post's financial services until 2017. Long before then, the foreign policy dilemmas ignored in this campaign will come back to haunt Japan.