Ishiharashintarou From A Writer To A Politician

Ishiharashintarou (1932- ), the incumbent mayor of Tokyo, has taken an active part in Japanese political field since 1960s. He was elected as the mayor of Tokyo for twice with the highest votes in 1999 and 2003. Ishiharashintarou is famous for his"toughness"and puts the extreme political proposition into operation. He denies the aggressive war and despises other Asian countries. He dares to say"No"to the U.S.A. and vigorously maintains that the Japanese constitution should be revised and gives enormous publicity to the nationalism. He is a representative of the Japanese right-wingers.Such a right-wing politician has ever been an influential writer in the Japanese literary world during the initial postwar period. He awarded the Prize of Akutagawa Literature due to The Seasons of Sun in1955. From then on he was on the way of the literary creation. In the past decades, Ishiharashintarou kept on writing. He wrote lots of works. The novel The Fossil Forests was awarded for the Prize of the Education Minister in 1971, which established his position in the Japanese literary arena.Through his two social roles--- a writer and a right-wing politician, this paper analyzes the subjective and objective factors that impel his successful changes of identity. We get a conclusion there is a necessity between his successes of literature and participation of politics.This paper consists of Introduction, Text, and Conclusion. There are 3 chapters in Text.The first chapter discusses his literary achievements and literary thoughts.The second chapter analyzes him as a politician. An image of a right-wing nationalist is outlined through summarizing his viewpoint on wars and nations.The third chapter probes the relationship between his literature and politics. Politics is"a way of self-experience besides literature"for him. The"self"that is not satisfied in literature can be compensated in politics. The frustration of the"Anti U.S.-Japan Security Treaty Struggle"strengthened his idea of the"system". The experience in the Vietnam War, was a direct turning point for him. He stepped into the political field as a senator. The militarism that has been received in youth immensely influences on both his literature and politics. The social factors also directly worked on him. Finally all these made him a right-wing nationalist.The appearance of the"Ishiharashintarou phenomenon"has some social inevitability. We can't animadvert on him in a nutshell. But we should investigate him in the environment of the developmental process of the Japanese society. In the situation of the conservative trend of the whole Japanese society, it will have the practical significance to understand him objectively and overall.