Retirement is coming soon - Koizumi

Keeping unprecedentedly high approval rate of 48%, Prime Minister Koizumi implied his retirement on the coming September 2006 with his full term of 5 years.

He took part in a Hanami party, which is a gathering with food under cherry blossoms, with a bunch of celebrities and handicapped people.

This is not interesting news, but his speech was. He took up a famous poem from 16th century:

"Chirinubeki tokishiritekoso yononakano hanamohananare hitomohitonare"
(Interpretation:
Only knowing the fugacious time, can flowers in the world be flowers as well as human can be human.)

FYI:
For those who know Japanese culture, this is not Haiku. Haiku is shorter than this kind, Tanka. The tanka consists of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables(When counting Japanese syllables, stick to making a consonant and a vowel one syllable.) while Haiku 5-7-5.

Wmmm. It's not easy to translate poems into other languages. But I hope you know what he means. Anyhow, he says that human being should know when to leave.

His will is very valuable in Japan and you know the reason when looking around the past Prime Ministers in Japan. Almost all of them have clinged to power so that they can lead their easy life, keeping away the investigation on them.

In other words, he insists that he has been clean about money etc. so he doesn't have to be worried about after retirement.

It was very surprising to find out this article from ASAHI newspaper because it is well known to be an alternative press. It sucks up only when the majority is for the government. I don't like ASAHI newspaper.