20　大荒れの後継総裁選び P.46

「いやはや、ひどいですね」「自民党のことかな。まさに大荒れ。宮沢総裁退陣、後継者選び、金丸初公判などがかち合った」「中でも後継者選びをめぐる議員総会の論議は見ものでした」。

「若い議員の発言は激しかった」「執行部が派閥会長や党幹部の話し合いで後継総裁をきめようとするのを、率直明快に批判しました」「談合じゃないかと、公開討論で決めろとか」「執行部のあり方を評して、壇上にＡ級、Ｂ級戦犯がいる、とまでね。宮沢さんはＣ級戦犯だそうです」。

「古い体質の執行部。決断力と指導性に欠けた首相。不満を感じていた若手議員。役者にはこと欠かぬ印象だが、いろんな動きを通じて二つのものが闘っているように見える」。

「二つのもの、ですか」「一つは、ことばだ。理だね。筋でもいい。だれにでもわかる、公開の場で通用することば」「目にみえるところで決めよ、と若手議員が言っているのもそれですね」。

「もう一つはその反対の存在。いわば、密室の力だ。これは、ことばで説明せず、表に出さず、理に訴えるよりも人間関係によるという原理だ」「談合、派閥政治、今回の最初の執行部案……すべてそれですか」。

「その力がどこから出るかというと、結局、金ではないだろうか」「金をどこから集め、それで人を集める。その員数が力になる」「ポストを配分するのも力の源泉だ」「そういう典型が金丸被告ですね」。

「宮沢さんは、ことば派であったかも知れないが、力派に押し切られた」「政治をことばによる闘いの場にする。これが公正な社会の常識でしょう」。

「そういう常識は許せない、と時代遅れの執行部は考えるかも知れないね。『危険思想とは常識を実行に移そうとする思想である』という言葉が昔あったな」「おや、芥川龍之介ですか」「きょうが河童忌、彼の命日さ」。

2021.10.01記す。

　20. THE LDP'S THEATER OF THE ABSURD

"Boy, was it rough!"

"Oh, you're talking about the Liberal Democratic Party. It really was very stormy. The resignation of Kiichi Miyazawa as party president, selection of his successor and the first hearing in the case of former LDP kingpin Shin Kanemaru all fell on the same day.

"The debate in the meeting of LDP Diet members over selecting the next party president was really worth seeing.

"The statements by young Diet members were violent."

"They frankly and clearly criticized the attempt by the party executives to have the next president decided through discussions among the faction chairmen and party executives."

"They charged it was a closed deal. They demanded that the matter be decided through open debate."

"One member even said the party executives there were A class war criminals and that Miyazawa was only a class C war criminal."

"The party executives have outmoded characters. The prime minister lacked resolution and leadership. The young Diet members felt dissatisfied. The impression is that there were many actors, but it seems that two things are fighting through various movements."

"What two things?" "Words reason or logic. It is words that can be understood by everyone and words that muster in public."

"The young members demand that the next president be decided in a place and manner which can be seen by everyone."

"The other thing is an opposite existence, the power of the closed room, if it were. It is the principle of not explaining with words, not bringing the matter out into the open and not appealing to reason, but depending on human relationships."

"Dango, faction-controlled politics and the first proposal by the party executives――these are all what you're talking about."

"As to where that power comes from, isn't it money eventually?" "They collect money from somewhere. They use the money to gather people, and there number becomes power."

"Distribution of Cabinet and party is also the source of power."

"A model of this method is defendant Kanemaru."

"Miyazawa may have belonged to the word faction, but he was overcome by the power faction."

"Make politics a forum for fighting with words――this is the common sense of a just society."

"The old-fashioned party executives may think common sense cannot be condoned." In the old days, there were the following words, "Dangerous thinking is the thinking thattries to implement common sense."

"Oh, you're quoting the writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa."

"Today is the anniversary of his death."

Copy on 2021.10.02

　77 米不足

　菅江真澄は江戸時代中期に生れた不思議な人物だ。三河の出身ながら、東北地方をこよなく愛し、今の秋田県を中心に、七十五歳で死ぬまで農村探求の旅を続けた。なぜか常に黒い頭巾をかぶり、決して頭を見せなかったという。

　絵入りの日記を書き続け、風物や農民の暮らしを克明に記録した。東洋文庫の『菅江真澄遊覧記』にまとめられた綿密な観察と聞き書きは、民族資料としても評価が高い。その真澄は一七八五年の初秋、西津軽の村の道端で、餓死した人々の大量の人骨を見た。

　鍋釜を背負って村を逃げ出す一行にも出会う。人肉を食って生き延びた人々の生々しい証言も拾った。報道の先駆ともいえるような、実証性豊かなこの日記に描き出されたのが、天明の大飢饉だ、数年間にわたって冷害が続き、餓死者は数十万にのぼった。

　今年産の米が空前の凶作になることが確実となった。農水省によると、作況指数は戦後最悪の八〇に落ち込むという。中でも米どころの東北がひどく、青森は三二、平均で六〇台だそうだ。つい先ごろまで「米不足の心配なし」としていた政府は、外国からの緊急輸入を決めた。

　江戸時代ならたちまち飢饉につながるところだろう。食生活が多様化したうえ、いざとならば外国に頼れる現代だからこそ、真澄が見聞きしたような悲惨な光景をみないで済む。食糧ひとつをとっても、いまや国際的な協力なしにはやっていけないことを痛感する。

　青森県の一部では、米穀店などの店頭から米が姿を消す現象が起きたという。今の時代に、米騒動などはごめんである。農水省は国民に的確な情報を流して売り惜しみや買い占めといった現象が起きぬよう、機敏に対応する必要がある。

　国内完全自給政策も見直す必要があるだろう。困った時だけ輸入を認めるのでは、身勝手だといわれても仕方がない。

　Sugae Masumi was an eccentric born in 1754, about the middle of the Edo era (1603-1867), in Mikawa, now Aichi Prefecture, until his death at 75. For some reason, he always wore a black hood, never showing his head.

He wrote a diary with illustrations, recording in detail the scenery and lives of the farmers. His Sugae Masumi travelogue, which contains minutes observations and verbatim notes, has been published by Heibonsha Publishers as one of its Toyo Bunko(Oriental Library) classics. It is highly valued as an ethology document.

In the fall in 1785, Sugae discovered the bones of many who died of starvation along a road in Nishi-Tsugaru, in the western part of now Aomori Prefecture. He met a group of people leaving the village carrying pots and pans.

He jotted down the graphic testimony of people who said they had eaten human flesh to survive. What was described in his richly factual diary, a pioneer effort in reporting, was a disaster known as the great famine of the Tenmei period(1781-1789). Crop damage from cold weather continued for several years, and several hundreds of thousands died of starvation.

It is now certain that this tear's rice crop will be the worst in decades. The Agriculture, Forest and Fisheries Ministry says the rice harvest index will drop to b80 against a normal reading of 100, lowest in the postwar era. The outlook is particularly bleak in the Tohoku area. It is 32 to 84 in six prefectures in Tohoku, the lowest being in Aomori.

The government, which said it wasn't worried about a rice shortage until recently, has now decided that there should be emergency imports of tice.

If this were the Edo era, the poor rice crop would bring starvation. Since our diet has diversified and because we can depend on other countries in emergencies, we don't have to see the tragic scenes that Sugahara saw and heard about. We keenly realize that even in the case of food we cannot survive without international cooperation.

It has been reported that in parts of Aomori Prefecture, rice has disappeared from store shelves. We don't want in this era a recurrence of the rice riots that used to occur repeatedly before World War Ⅱ in Japan. The Agriculture, Forest and Fisheries Ministry should move quicklyto provide people with information that prevents rice distributors from getting away with refusing to sell rice or trying to corner supply in order to drive up prices.

There probably is a need to b reconsider policies aimed at maintaining self-sufficiency in basic foodstuffs. If Japan permits rice imports only when it is in trouble, it will have a hard time escaping charges that it is a selfish.

Copy on 2025.05.26