Japanse premier gedraagt zich te... westers

For three weeks, the man who is expected to save the country stopped wearing suits, preferring instead to appear in public in freshly starched blue overalls. Even today, the hands he used to open widely like a preacher during speeches can often be seen clenched into fists. His smile has disappeared, and the more grimly determined he looks as he gazes into the television cameras, the more anxious his fellow Japanese become about the future.

The opposition and most Japanese media organizations accuse the prime minister of having delivered a pathetic and thoroughly un-Japanese solo "performance," a word so alien to the island people that there is no equivalent in Japanese, except the Japanese version of the English word: "pafoomansu." In a country where everyone learns from an early age to be modest and conform, Kan's performance violated social norms. He was even accused of having hindered efforts to save the nuclear power plant with his helicopter outing. To protect the premier from radiation, the plant's operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), allegedly postponed a steam release from one of the overheated reactors -- far too long, say critics, to prevent the explosion that destroyed the building surrounding Reactor Unit 1 soon afterwards.