When, after Commodore Matthew Perry opened Japan to the world, the Shogun of Japan sent a special emissary to Washington in 1860 to observe the U.S. Congress at work, the appalled official duly reported back: "It's like the Nihonbashi fish market!'' Japan's own Diet, patterned in part after the U.S. Congress, was even more a fish market last week. What should have been a mere formalitythe re-election of pro-Western Nobusuke Kishi, 61, who had resigned as Premier in accordance with the constitution after the last general elections (TIME, June 2)turned into a shambles.
Since his Liberal Democrats had won the...
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