"Manifesto" is the buzzword of Japan's political season. Each party must have one. Newspaper headlines squeeze it in.
Policies and ideas, the lofty sounding foreign word implies, will now determine the outcome of elections, instead of pork-barrel politics.
But in this corner of rural Japan, where public works and the heavily protected konnyaku yam are the main motors of the economy, the manifesto is as alien a concept as its promise of political transformation.
"The word manifesto has already been used around here for a long time," said Toru Ikehara, 70, the president of a construction company bearing his name and that of a construction association. He took a form out of a drawer. "Here," he said, "this is the manifesto for construction scrap disposal. You pull down a house, state in detail what waste went where, so as to take responsibility for the disposal."
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2003/11/06/2003074786Then Japan will be ready for another Fascist Government modeled after the Bush Crime Family