Notes:
The Revolving Door: Someone is always coming in or going out. Different people all the time. Never ending.
Whoever steps into the new shoes must certainly feel the hand of fate on his shoulder: It means that Fate or Destiny is about to let him know that whatever he does is important.
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What is it with Japan and their prime ministers? Four changes in as many years, that has to be quite a record! Whoever steps into the new shoes must certainly feel the hand of fate on his shoulder. One of the positive things about so many changes, though, is that it makes Japanese politics slightly interesting. A politician called Naoto Kan has won the position of being Japan’s next prime minister. I can already see the headlines in the newspapers: “Yes, we Kan!” Unfortunately I fear that the reply will soon be “No, he Kan’t .”　(by Prof. Simon Smith)
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Notes:
resign 辞職する
instability　不安定
riot (集団による)暴動，騒動
take it in stride 冷静に受け止める
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We have a new Prime Minister in Japan. In more than a few countries of the world, if the prime minister resigned, there would be political, economic, and/or social instability, but not in Japan. There was no major change in the yen exchange rate and no riots in the streets. People seemed to take it in stride, as if it was an everyday occurrence. While it certainly isn’t as common as that, Japan does tend to get a new PM quite often. In fact, since June 3, 1989, when Mr. Uno became PM for a little over two months, there have been 15. Can you name all of them? After Uno was Kaifu, then Miyazawa, Hosokawa, Hata, Murayama, Hashimoto, Obuchi, Mori, Koizumi, Abe, Fukuda, Aso, and Hatoyama. How long do you think Mr. Kan will be PM? Time will tell.(by Prof. Carmella Lieske）
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