To feel 'loopy' is to be like Yukio Hatoyama

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To feel 'loopy' is to be like Yukio Hatoyama

Monday, May 24, 2010

WHEN EAST MEETS WEST

Commentary by Hank F. Miller Jr.

It seems Japan just can't let go of the recent reporting on Japanese TV about Yukio Hatoyama being the "biggest loser" at the recent nuclear summit because he asked for--but did not get--a one--on-one meeting with President Barack Obama.

He was described as hapless and in the view of the Obama administration officials, “increasingly loopy."

The next day, a top aide to Hatoyama criticized the use of "loopy" as “somewhat impolite." In a just world, that might have ended the matter. Alas, Hatoyama stunned members of the Japanese parliament, the Diet, last month when he said that the characterization may have been correct after all."As The Washington Post says, I may have been a foolish prime minister,"Hatoyama said, using a rather mild interpretation of the term.

Next thing you know, "loopy" is all the rage in the Japanese media, the new "in" term, even if it’s meaning is in doubt. An online Poll reportedly found this when it asked: ‘What do you think of the harsh criticism Prime Minister Hatoyama received from the American media during his American visit?"A total of 84.7 percent of the respondents answered," They took the words right out of my mouth."(Even though Hatoyama’s ratings are plummeting, I believe this must have been a small poll.)

By the last weekend in April, T-shirts and other goods had popped up on Web sites with caricatures of Hatoyama highlighting the new hit word “loopy." One T-shirt sells on Amazon in Japan for 2,940 Japanese Yen or nearly $32 U.S.dollars -- almost as much as a Kobe -beef. I saw on Japanese TV a Masayoshi Yamada, a professor emeritus of linguistics at the University of Shimane, who said the "Japanese media showed us two different translations" of the word." One translated it into the Japanese as meaning ‘stupid,' "he wrote, “the other 'ceazy.' "A dictionary of American slang, he added," defines it as ‘stupid, silly or eccentric," which left him and his students "just helpless when we wanted to decide what your 'loopy' usage precisely means."

Dear Professor Yamada:

Thank you for your inquiry. At the outset, we must emphasize that "loopy" is the exact polar opposite of "in the loop, “which means in or very well informed about things, especially the internal decision-making process at the top levels or organizations like the ones in Japan.

Warm Regards from Kitakyushu, City Japan. Enjoy a great spring season, get out and smell the fresh air and the beautiful flowers.

Hank F. Miller Jr.