Author | Xiao Xi Zhishui Editor | Jiamu
Just past the Chinese Tanabata Festival, Japan on the other side of the ocean sprinkled a wave of dog food to cheer up: Koizumi Jinjiro and Masami Takikawa officially announced the marriage of Bongko at the official residence of the Japanese prime minister.
To Chinese, the two names may sound unfamiliar, but to the Japanese, the marriage news completely breaks the line between politics and entertainment. The groom is the second son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who has a high popularity among politicians of the same era, and many polls have supported him as the future prime minister, which can be described as the "national god" of Japanese politics; the bride is a famous TV host of mixed Japanese and French descent, who once helped Tokyo win the right to host the 2020 Olympic Games with an emotional speech, and can also be regarded as Japan's "national goddess".
Although the two are no longer golden children in age - the woman is 42 years old and the man is 38 years old, the news of the two being married is still very festive, and it is called the first super flash marriage of the Reiwa era by the Japanese people.
Jinjiro Koizumi and Masami Takikawa announce their marriage
<h1>There are many scandals between male and female protagonists, and it is difficult to distinguish between true and false</h1>
On August 7, after announcing the happy news of their marriage at the Prime Minister's official residence on an unprecedented occasion, the two returned to Koizumi's hometown of Yokosuka and were blessed by the citizens.
Locals made no secret of their shock. The lady of the Yokosuka family's café that supports Koizumi Jinjiro said that when she first learned that the two were lovers, she thought it was a rumor, and laughed and said that "maybe the two people will be rumored to be married after that", but she did not expect to be really said.
Koizumi Said that the two were friends before and began dating last year because they have been receiving media attention, they are extremely secretive about their relationship, and they have never been out together. Masami Takikawa, who is five months pregnant, said that she will continue to work in the future and will not appear as a politician's wife.
As the "LDP face value" in the minds of the Japanese, Koizumi Jinjiro, nicknamed "Jinda", inevitably received a lot of attention, and the gossip media quickly "pickpocketed" the groom's former gossip girlfriend.
This list includes not only his classmates in middle school, the female owner of the café in his hometown, but also celebrities who are active in all walks of life. For example, the Japanese-American mixed Yayevani, who was a member of the Japanese women's rugby team and appeared in public as a bodybuilder and sunny; former Fuji TV host Ayako Kato, a sweet-looking host who is a regular guest of major variety shows; and Komeito Party lawmaker Sasaki Sasuke, but this fresh-looking and capable former lawyer is already married.
Of course, the above several cannot be verified by the man, and the details are also difficult to distinguish between true and false. However, rather than being a list of Koizumi's ex-girlfriends, it is better to look for women who have similar elements to Masami Takikawa: Yayvanesha's mixed blood, Ayako Kato's host identity, and Sasaki's capable style, these three points are pieced together, and these three points are probably the elements that Masami Takikawa loves in the world.
Gossip about Koizumi's emotional history immediately made headlines on Twitter
Koizumi's closest love affair in recent years to Makimi was a few years ago with a former subordinate of his, a woman named "Tomoko". It is rumored that the woman is from a famous place in tohoku, Japan: her grandfather is an industrialist, her father was a skier and still holds an important position in the International Ski Federation, and her mother has experience representing the Liberal Democratic Party. Koizumi Jinjiro comes from a political family, and the other party's origin is naturally the perfect choice as a politician's wife. But in the end, the two still could not come together.
When announcing the marriage this time, Koizumi Jinjiro clearly mentioned his concept of mate selection: "Due to the family environment and my father's affairs, I don't have the idea of getting married. ”
Indeed, his parents divorced shortly after Jinjiro was born, and he and his brother Kotaro followed his father, Junichiro Koizumi. However, due to his father's busy government affairs all day, the responsibility of taking care of him was completed by Michiko, the sister of Junichiro Koizumi. Until the second grade of junior high school, Jinjiro called his aunt "Mom", and after knowing the truth, he always regarded Michiko as a mother to filial piety.
(From left) Junichiro Koizumi, Koizumi Kotaro (eldest son), and Shinjiro Koizumi (second son) at the funeral of Michiko Koizumi in 2016.
In view of this, he naturally does not want to "marry for the sake of marriage" like his father, but to enter marriage on the basis of feelings. This time choosing to get married, he also mentioned that "it is true that decisions are made naturally according to feelings, not through rational thinking."
Rather than a door-to-door political marriage, Jinjiro prefers a mature, stable and intellectually modern woman, and can be understood at first sight for Masami Takikawa, who is 4 years older.
Under the spotlight, Masami Takikawa's gossip news is naturally richer than That of Shinjiro Koizumi. After the announcement of the wedding, the entertainment media turned over the "gossip ex-boyfriends" such as Japanese football star Hidetoshi Nakata, Japanese rugby player Yoshihisa Amano, and even floran Dabadi, the French translator of the former Japanese football team. Of course, the only one who has been hammered and has been in contact for the longest time is the son of conductor Seiji Ozawa and the actor Seiyue Ozawa.
Since December 2009, Ozawa and Masami Takikawa have been repeatedly photographed holding hands on the street, and their relationship has even been recognized by Ozawa. But beginning in 2014, as Masami Takikawa set up the Animal Protection Foundation Christel Vie Ensemble, which was dedicated to raising funds and calling on the Japanese government to reduce the "killing" (i.e., killing) of stray cats and dogs, Ozawa was worried about whether the woman who had buried herself in philanthropy could become a qualified daughter-in-law and opposed the marriage of the two. Against the resistance of their families, the two eventually broke up around 2015.
As a result of this experience, Masami Takikawa also fully considered whether the other party "liked small animals" in the later mate selection process. After the 2011 March 11 earthquake, Masami Takikawa adopted Alice, a Labrador dog in Fukushima Prefecture, which became the impetus for her to set up an animal protection organization.
It just so happens that Koizumi Jinjiro is also a dog lover, and he not only uploads photos of himself and dogs on his blog many times, but also supports Masami Takikawa in setting up a stray cat and dog protection organization. This time back in Yokosuka, the two also led Alice to an interview. Obviously, It is through his love and support for the woman's cause that Koizumi Jinjiro captured the heart of the "National Goddess".
<h1>Added color to Jinjiro's career as a politician</h1>
Hearing this marriage news, many people questioned: Did Masami Takikawa marry someone known as the "future prime minister" and consider whether she also had future political considerations? Of course, this possibility exists, but the main beneficiary of this marriage is likely not the woman, but Koizumi Jinjiro.
In Japanese elections, there are so-called "three elements", that is, "turf" (local contacts and support organizations), "leather bags" (money), and "kanban" (political image), all three are indispensable. But in practice, each politician's strengths are different.
For hereditary politicians, "turf" is the most important, because the fathers will directly transfer the local support organizations and connections that have been in operation for many years to the next generation. Koizumi's great-grandfather, Yujiro, was the Minister of Communications, his grandfather Junya was the head of the Defense Agency, and his father was a former prime minister, a proper four-generation political family, and the traditional advantage is needless to say.
Another major political force alongside hereditary politicians, celebrity politicians, relied on their own advantages as celebrities to form a "Kanban board" and enter the political circles. Some of the more famous ones are Senator Ryoharu Ofa, a model-turned-Democratic Party senator, Sushiro Marukawa, a TV presenter, and Kensaku Morita, governor of Chiba Prefecture, who is an actor. If Masami Takikawa wanted to seek political status for herself, she could "change her job" to become a politician by virtue of her fame, and there was no need to commit herself to others.
This is not the case with Koizumi Jinjiro. Although he is popular among politicians of his age, and his eloquence and level of speech are also first-class, his political resource base comes from the "turf" left by his father. Although he himself worked very hard and was obviously taken care of by the elders of the Liberal Democratic Party, and before he was 40 years old, he successively held important positions such as cabinet minister and administrative secretary, finance minister of the Ministry of Reconstruction, president of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and first deputy secretary general, but his main "kanban" was still "the second son of the Koizumi family" or "the younger brother of the famous actor Koizumi Kotaro".
If this image is not shaken off, Koizumi Jinjiro is not without the possibility of "hurting Nakanaga". Although his father gave him the qualification to become a politician, and the people gave him the expectation of "future prime minister", whether he can become a good politician depends on hard work and even luck.
Looking back, Junichiro Koizumi's contemporary friend, Junichiro Kato (1939-2016), also came from a political family and was very popular in the 1980s, but his political career was greatly affected by the LDP's loss of power in the 1990s. In 2000, in order to compete for prime minister, Kato Seiichi desperately launched a campaign against then-Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, which resulted in both defeats, which instead led to Junichiro Koizumi becoming prime minister the following year.
As he approached, Koizumi had to rethink how to further shape the "Kanban" beyond the "turf" and "leather bag". For him, marriage is undoubtedly the lifeblood to maintain, enhance and even reshape his "Kanban".
Because of this, Koizumi Shinjiro appeared very high-profile when he announced the marriage. He made a special trip to the prime minister's residence to report his marriage to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Abe is said to have asked Jinjiro, "What did your father say?" He replied, "My dad said that a person should be married at least once in their life. ”
The couple then gave interviews outside the mansion. "Standing in this center of political power with Masami Takikawa today, she can make my spirit leave the political battlefield for a short time, can make me dependent and dependent, let me go from a politician to an ordinary person without defense, she is a person who is very important to me." 」 In the center of national power, love is spoken out loud, and Koizumi's confession is probably the most romantic scene in Japanese political history.
Junichiro Koizumi, Masami Takikawa and her dog "Alice"
Marriages between politicians and entertainers are rare in modern Japan, with only one of the hundreds of members of parliament currently married In 2004 by Masazumi Gotoda, a member of the House of Representatives of Tokushima Prefecture's District 1, and actor Makoto Mizuno. The reason is that Japanese political families will carefully consider the impact of marrying public figures so as not to damage their image in the minds of voters, so they often choose family marriages with political backgrounds.
But in the era of mobile Internet, the success of politicians such as Trump symbolizes a great change in the way election votes are gathered, and instead of adhering to the unwritten rule of "not marrying an artist", politicians should know how to follow the trend and reflect a side closer to the commoners. Shinjiro Koizumi's marriage to Masami Takikawa does not mean that he will become prime minister in the future, but it will inevitably broaden his life experience and bring chemistry to his future career as a politician.
It is conceivable that the couple's children will inevitably become the focus of public opinion in the future, and will also help Koizumi Jinjiro Koizumi, president of the Liberal Democratic Party's Ministry of Health and Labor, to promote the policy of "fewer children"; Masami Takikawa, who is eager to continue her work, will also follow the "women's active" plan proposed by Abe to help Japan create a broader "male-female participation" society; Masami Takikawa's outstanding foreign language ability can become a weapon for her husband to face foreign affairs, and may be able to attend the event with the current empress, Masako, who was an English translator for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Showcasing the style of Japanese women on the international stage.
What will the "second son" do in the future? In his own words: "I should not and will not emulate Junichiro Koizumi as a politician, but I hope to be a father like him." ”
*This article is created by the author of the Tree Project [Phoenix WEEKLY], exclusively published in today's headlines, and may not be reproduced without authorization.