Izumiyama Sanroku
If your boss suddenly throws his arms around some woman
Politician | 30 March 1896 – 7 July 1981
In all my time of drinking, while I am ashamed to admit I have been known to regularly drink myself into states of unconsciousness, I am also proud to say that I have done so without ever dabbling in harassment—neither the “power” nor the “sexual” variety. Although, come to think of it, I’m not even part of any organization where I had power to abuse or subordinates to harass.
At any rate, while I enjoy getting swacked with the help of booze, I have never been known to swack others with my fists. Furthermore, I do not drunkenly whisper dirty jokes into the ears of random women.
“Of course you don’t,” I hear the salarymen scolding me. “Why are you stating the obvious?” But in the world of politics, there has never been any shortage of shameless speech or behavior. Members of parliament regularly make headlines with their statements about women’s issues, and important cabinet ministers often face allegations of sexual harassment. This is something we have all become accustomed to.
However, surely the only politician to have been drunk at the National Diet—where he was then responsible for sexual harassment on a level that would go down in history books—was former Minister of Finance Izumiyama Sanroku.