Yesterday a student of mind breathlessly recounted for me how her husband spent 7 hours Friday night trying to order World Cup tickets over the internet, and how finally at 4am Saturday morning he somehow managed to squeeze 2 tickets from FIFA’s painfully inadequate servers for the England-Denmark match in Niigata later that same day. Just one story out of many showing how Japan has embraced the World Cup.
But as often happens with sports, there are those who take things too far. No, I’m not talking about hooligans, or those rebellious Japanese youths who have jumped into Osaka’s Dottombori river after the national teams’ recent wins. Rather, I’m troubled about this bit of priority disorder from Japan’s Diet (ruling legislative body). Recently there was an arrest warrant issued for Diet member Muneo Suzuki for allegedly accepting a bribe from a constituent. But because Diet members have immunity from arrest by default, the police have to get permission from the House of Representatives in order to carry through the arrest. The above-linked story carries the disturbing claim that the Representatives’ vote on the matter will be postponed until tomorrow so as to not interfere with this afternoon’s World Cup match between Japan and Turkey.
There’s nothing wrong with jumping in the lake or river after a win. They’re happy. 8)
-comment person