日相夫人出書 麻辣點評菅直人
He lacks dress sense, can't cook to save his life and badly flunked delivering his first policy speech. Meet Japan's new Prime Minister Naoto Kan - as seen by his wife.
These and other domestic insights are revealed in a new book by the woman Kan has called his "opposition in the home", entitled What on Earth will change in Japan after you become prime minister?
Japan's unconventional first lady, Nobuko, pulls few punches in the book about her husband of four decades, who took over in early June as prime minister of the world's No 2 economy.
"I wonder - 'Is it okay that this man is prime minister?' - because I know him well," the 64-year-old muses in the book released this week but written before Kan's party's recent upper house election drubbing.
"Many people in the current political world are lightweights. Things may turn out like this if you choose from among them."
Happy to break with the stereotype of the demure wife, sharp-tongued Nobuko relishes the role of Kan's toughest critic and famously spars with him over everything from household chores to tax reform.
She said that her image of a Japanese prime minister was closer to that of an elder statesman like Yasuhiro Nakasone, now 92, who served as a contemporary of then-US president Ronald Reagan for five years in the 1980s.
"Kan likes to be in the field ... I believe he is best suited to giving directions on the spot in support of somebody else," she said of her husband, a former civil rights activist and most recently Japan's deputy premier.
Kan is a good speaker in the street, she said, but "worse at reading prepared scripts".
"Even as a family member, I could not give him even a passing grade for his delivery of a policy speech, or for the question-and-answer sessions after he became prime minister."
She also revealed Kan has "no interest in fashion at all" and cannot cook even simple meals "because of the bad education by me and his mother".
他缺乏衣着品味，不會給自己做飯，首次施政演說也一塌糊塗。來看看日本新任首相夫人眼中的丈夫菅直人吧。
日前，日本首相夫人菅伸子最新出版了《你做首相，日本究竟會有什麼變化？》一書，曝光了所有這些“家務事”。菅直人稱她爲家裏的“反對派”。
日本新派第一夫人菅伸子在書中毫不客氣地講述了結發40年的丈夫菅直人。菅直人於六月初就任世界第二大經濟體日本的首相。
現年64歲的菅伸子在本週出版的新書中沉思道：“我想知道，這個人能當首相嗎？因爲我太瞭解他了。”她在寫這本書時，菅直人所在的政黨還沒有在最近的參議院選舉中勝出。
“如今政壇很多人都不夠資格，在矬子裏面拔將軍時就會這樣。”
言語尖刻的菅伸子很高興顛覆了首相夫人端莊賢淑的傳統印象，對於“菅直人最尖銳的批評者”這一角色她津津樂道，並以從家務瑣事到稅制改革等所有問題都與首相爭執不休而著稱。
她稱她印象中的日本首相應該像中曾根康弘那樣的政壇元老。現年92歲的中曾根康弘曾在上世紀80年代擔任日本首相長達五年之久，時任美國總統的還是羅納德•里根。
菅伸子在談到丈夫時說：“菅直人喜歡做具體的工作。我覺得他最適合協助別人出謀劃策。” 菅直人曾是一名民權活動家，在就職首相前擔任副首相一職。
菅伸子表示，菅直人在大庭廣衆之下能言善辯，但“不善於照本宣科。”
“就算作爲家人，我也沒辦法給他的政策演說，或者就職後的首相質詢會打及格分數。”
她還透露，菅直人“對時尚完全沒興趣”，“由於我和他的母親沒把他教好”，甚至不會做簡單的飯菜。
Vocabulary:
pull few punches: to act with restraint or hold back the full force or implications of something（毫不客氣，不留情面。pull punches則表示“手下留情”。）
drub: to defeat decisively（打敗，徹底擊敗）
lightweight: a person who is of little influence, importance, or effect（輕重量級選手，不能勝任者）
demure: characterized by shyness and modesty; reserved（端莊的）
spar: to bandy words; dispute（多指在友好氣氛中辯論，爭論）
