Playback ’04] “I Love My Freedom” – A New Reporter Reports on Naoto Kan’s Disappointing Pilgrimage

What did “FRIDAY” report 10, 20, and 30 years ago? In “Playback Friday,” we take a look back at the topics that were hot at the time. This time, we will look back at the “FRIDAY ” article from the August 6, 2004 issue, which was published 20 years ago, “Our new female reporter will accompany you! Naoto Kan’s 200-kilometer Shikoku Pilgrimage,” which appeared in the August 6, 2004 issue.

In 2004, during the spring session of the Diet, the “pension non-payment problem” of then Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Taro Aso and three other members of the Koizumi Cabinet came to light. Naoto Kan, then 57, who had been the representative of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), pursued the issue vigorously, deriding them as the “three non-paying brothers,” was forced to resign as representative when it was revealed that he himself had not paid his pension for a period of time. Two months later, on July 15, Kan suddenly found himself on a “pilgrimage” to 88 sacred sites on the island of Shikoku. Our new reporter closely followed him along the way. We would like to report on his journey to the 88 sacred sites of Shikoku. (Descriptions in parentheses are quoted from previous articles.)

I don’t want to think, “That guy is so ungrateful.

On his website, he wrote, “The past three months have been (omitted) a series of major events. Before doing anything else in the future, I need time to stop and look at myself.”…… A new female reporter for this magazine, 22, who is no stranger to pilgrimages, having visited 88 pilgrimage sites as a student, flew to Shikoku to question Mr. Kan’s true intentions.

At 4:00 p.m. on July 17, Kan arrived at Yakizanji Temple, the twelfth stop on the pilgrimage route. Mr. Suga crossed the most difficult part of the pilgrimage route and arrived at Yakeyama-ji Temple, the twelfth temple on the pilgrimage route. He looked very tired, but the crowd of ladies begged him for autographs and photos without regard to his fatigue. The reporter, who had secretly made reservations at the same inn as Mr. Kan, directly interviewed Mr. Kan after his bath.

–It’s Friday, isn’t it?

Friday?　That’s dangerous (laughs).

–What are you thinking about?

I’m just mindless. I don’t want to think about all kinds of things, like, “I hate that guy.

So there is someone you can’t stand to think about, huh? Hmmm.

The next morning, reporters followed Mr. Kan as he left at 7:00 a.m.. Mr. Kan showed his dandy side by casually handing the reporter a glass of juice. As he walked along the road, houses along the way called out to him , “Mr. Kan, have a cup of tea, ” and he was so popular with the ladies that it was a lie that he had been unpopular with them since the 1998 affair scandal with a former female news anchor. On the way to the venue, when he saw a poster of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), he said something like this.

But it’s tough around here because Mr. Goto (Masazumi) is so strong. His wife (Maki Mizuno) is very popular. Oh, you are not allowed to speak ill of others during the pilgrimage, but I was just praising his wife, hahaha.

Mr. Suga, who is the only one to make a comment and the only one to follow up on it. His pilgrimage to sacred sites was influenced by Ryotaro Shiba’s “Kukai no fukei” (“Scenes from the Landscape of Kukai”). During the pilgrimage, he also heard some inappropriate but political talk.

At the time, Kan reflected on the political situation this way.

How is the new representative Katsuya Okada doing?

Mr. Kan said at the time: “I think he is doing very well. He supported me to the very end.

–After winning the Upper House election, will the next step be a change of government?

“I’ve already made my hand.

–What about your own future?

During the pilgrimage, people say to me, ‘Good luck,’ but they are not talking about me, but about the Democratic Party of Japan.

He plans to walk 200 kilometers to Cape Muroto in 10 days. He also appeared to be relaxed, saying, “If I’m not a representative, I don’t have an SP, and I like the freedom I have.

Kan, who joined the cabinet of Ryutaro Hashimoto’s 1996 coalition government as minister of health and welfare from the New Party Sakigake, has acknowledged the government’s responsibility for the drug-related AIDS problem and apologized for his actions. He also became popular for his performances, such as eating kaiware daikon radish in front of the press during an outbreak of food poisoning caused by pathogenic E. coli O157. When the Democratic Party of Japan was launched in September of the same year, he caused a bit of a boom in the October lower house election in which he served as co-chairman with Yukio Hatoyama. For Kan, who had always had a strong presence in the political arena, his resignation in 2004 may be said to have been the first time he experienced a “rock bottom” period.

In 2004, he made the 236-kilometer pilgrimage from Reizanji Temple in Tokushima Prefecture to Hotsumisaki Temple on Cape Muroto. The pilgrimage was continued seven times in between political activities, culminating in September 2001 with the completion of the 1,200-km walk to the 88th temple. During this time, the DPJ came to power and Kan became prime minister, but he was forced to step down a little over a year later after being criticized for his handling of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the accident at TEPCO’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. What did Kan, who had dreamed of coming to power on his first pilgrimage, see when he completed his pilgrimage?

In November 2011, Kan announced that he would not run for the next lower house election and would retire from politics.