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Masculinity in the Construction of the Ethical Citizen in Japanese Political Discourse
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superiority of the Diet member, but it was a moral obligation with an ironic twist. Takada-san did not really admire the man he served. In fact I had heard Takada-san complain that this particular Diet member frequently made use of politicians of lower stature without making much of an effort to return the favor. By referring to his campaign work as a sort of vassal-lord relationship, Takada-san highlighted the fact that he expected little from the more powerful politician, but he also gave a bit of a sarcastic tone to the description of his “service.” Failing to curry favor with a potential ally of such tremendous importance would be unwise, and so Takada-san must pretend to serve him as a vassal who serves out of the sheer honor of serving, despite the fact that he felt no such honor.
In the stories he heard from his father, Takada-san was taught the importance of
loyalty, obedience, and deference to getting ahead in the LDP political world. Because Takada-san was hearing these stories as a son, it is perhaps unsurprising that he focused on the importance of hierarchy and submission. Yet even in these other politicians’ campaigns Takada-san learned political practice as a matter of proper performance of one’s place in a hierarchical and constraining network of masculine relations. Political ideals would only be handicaps to overcome in getting the performances right. I watched Takada-san live this truth in small ways again and again. He served tea (literally) in the LDP office of the local assembly and kept his mouth shut while his seniors bickered over which assembly member to put up as speaker. He did not like the choice finally made, but he offered no opinion in party debates. Still, Takada-san did not seem to mind his powerless as a freshman assembly member as much as he was bothered by the fact that the very party members to whom he felt bound by loyalty demonstrated uneven respect for the same norms in other cases. When I met with Takada-san and two of his advisers to hear their election postmortem, they actually tried to argue that Takada-san’s longterm career plan should include ditching the LDP, which they felt was likely to face a continuing erosion in constituency support. Of course, Takada-san offered no real objections to their plans, but after the meeting, Takada-san and I talked the whole conversation over at dinner. He was appalled by their willingness to advise him to undercut his and his father’s party for personal gain, and he grew despondent about the ways in which politics seemed to be dominated by men like them. Takada-san was supposed to build relationships with these men on the basis of personal loyalty, and yet the men were obviously hypocrites, using the traditional structure of loyalty as it best served them.
In fact, Takada-san was generally cynical about the motives of many of his
fellows in public life – other elected officials, local politicos, and interest group leaders. He told tales about their ways of making use of each other and managing to ignore obligations to help others who could not serve them as well. Nearing the end of his first four years in office, Takada-san and I sat down for another extended interview. This time I had told him of my growing interest in the way in which notions of masculinity shaped men’s political behavior, and before we met for the interview he had tried to think about the ways which being men shaped men’s political choices. He began by comparing the pressures he felt at work on himself as an elected official with those he thought would be at work on political women. He explained that, at least in the LDP, being a woman was a substantial barrier to amassing the organizational resources to win office. Whereas Takada-san had wearied of being trotted around to various political bosses and interest organizations, he had needed the opportunities such meetings provided, he said. Through such meetings he was able to draw to his campaign a few men he described as “able to
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superiority of the Diet member, but it was a moral obligation with an ironic twist.
Takada-san did not really admire the man he served. In fact I had heard Takada-san
complain that this particular Diet member frequently made use of politicians of lower
stature without making much of an effort to return the favor. By referring to his
campaign work as a sort of vassal-lord relationship, Takada-san highlighted the fact that
he expected little from the more powerful politician, but he also gave a bit of a sarcastic
tone to the description of his “service.” Failing to curry favor with a potential ally of such
tremendous importance would be unwise, and so Takada-san must pretend to serve him
as a vassal who serves out of the sheer honor of serving, despite the fact that he felt no
such honor.
In the stories he heard from his father, Takada-san was taught the importance of
loyalty, obedience, and deference to getting ahead in the LDP political world. Because
Takada-san was hearing these stories as a son, it is perhaps unsurprising that he focused
on the importance of hierarchy and submission. Yet even in these other politicians’
campaigns Takada-san learned political practice as a matter of proper performance of
one’s place in a hierarchical and constraining network of masculine relations. Political
ideals would only be handicaps to overcome in getting the performances right. I watched
Takada-san live this truth in small ways again and again. He served tea (literally) in the
LDP office of the local assembly and kept his mouth shut while his seniors bickered over
which assembly member to put up as speaker. He did not like the choice finally made, but
he offered no opinion in party debates. Still, Takada-san did not seem to mind his
powerless as a freshman assembly member as much as he was bothered by the fact that
the very party members to whom he felt bound by loyalty demonstrated uneven respect
for the same norms in other cases. When I met with Takada-san and two of his advisers to
hear their election postmortem, they actually tried to argue that Takada-san’s longterm
career plan should include ditching the LDP, which they felt was likely to face a
continuing erosion in constituency support. Of course, Takada-san offered no real
objections to their plans, but after the meeting, Takada-san and I talked the whole
conversation over at dinner. He was appalled by their willingness to advise him to
undercut his and his father’s party for personal gain, and he grew despondent about the
ways in which politics seemed to be dominated by men like them. Takada-san was
supposed to build relationships with these men on the basis of personal loyalty, and yet
the men were obviously hypocrites, using the traditional structure of loyalty as it best
served them.
In fact, Takada-san was generally cynical about the motives of many of his
fellows in public life – other elected officials, local politicos, and interest group leaders.
He told tales about their ways of making use of each other and managing to ignore
obligations to help others who could not serve them as well. Nearing the end of his first
four years in office, Takada-san and I sat down for another extended interview. This time
I had told him of my growing interest in the way in which notions of masculinity shaped
men’s political behavior, and before we met for the interview he had tried to think about
the ways which being men shaped men’s political choices. He began by comparing the
pressures he felt at work on himself as an elected official with those he thought would be
at work on political women. He explained that, at least in the LDP, being a woman was a
substantial barrier to amassing the organizational resources to win office. Whereas
Takada-san had wearied of being trotted around to various political bosses and interest
organizations, he had needed the opportunities such meetings provided, he said. Through
such meetings he was able to draw to his campaign a few men he described as “able to
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