CORRECTED: FOCUS: Aso's misreading bloopers spark kanji book boom+

TOKYO, Feb. 2 Kyodo -
Prime Minister Taro Aso's support rate keeps plummeting due to public doubts
over his leadership ability and a series of policy flip-flops, but he may
deserve a bit of kudos for brightening up one area of the nation's dismal
economy.
But it is not the cash handout plan which the 68-year-old leader has touted as
one of his key economic stimulus measures that should win him public credit. It
is his repeated misreading of the Chinese ''kanji'' characters in Japanese
texts.
Books introducing how to correctly pronounce Japanese words and phrases written
in kanji are currently all the rage in Japan, and publishers and bookstores
largely attribute this sudden boom to Aso's recent bloopers in reading kanji
during his political speeches.
Since mid-November he has pronounced incorrectly ''mizou'' -- a Japanese word
meaning ''unprecedented'' -- as ''mizoyu,'' and ''teimei'' (sluggish) as
''teimai,'' as well as several other words.
His most recent blunders were made when he delivered a speech in Japanese
before world leaders at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos,
Switzerland, on Jan. 31. He misread ''kiban'' (basis) as ''kihan'' and two
other words in the speech.
''Prime Minister Aso's mistakes have definitely helped spark the boom,'' said
Takeshi Kato, manager of Asahiya Shoten bookstore in Tokyo's Akasaka district,
noting that the books started selling well shortly after reports of the prime
minister's misreadings.
Katsutoshi Tada, an editor of one of the recent blockbuster kanji books, said,
''It seems that customers come for the books out of fear that they might also
be making similar errors, if someone like a national leader has so much trouble
reading.''
Tada is an editor of the book titled ''Yomesode Yomenai Machigaiyasui Kanji''
(Commonly Misread Kanji that Look Easy to Read, but Cannot Be Read Properly).
It was published by Tokyo-based Futami Shobo Publishing Co. in January 2008,
but its sales have climbed steeply since November.
Within the three months up to late January, the book has been reprinted 15
times and has sold roughly 600,000 copies in total, a remarkable record in the
face of a longstanding slump in the publishing industry in general.
The B6-size book ranked top in a weekly list of popular books compiled by major
bookstore chain Bunkyodo Co. for two weeks in a row from Jan. 19, up from sixth
place previously.
It has also remained at the top for three consecutive weeks since the Jan. 19
week in another sales ranking compiled by entertainment business firm Oricon
Inc.
Yo Kamiyama, a sales clerk at Junkudo bookstore in Ikebukuro, said, ''Many
customers come up to me and ask, 'Where is Prime Minister Aso's book?' and it
often turns out they were looking for the one published by Futami Shobo.''
Capitalizing on the boom, the store set up a special section for kanji books
this month. ''I believed there was certainly potential demand for learning
kanji, but kanji books have never sold so well before,'' Kamiyama said.
Asked by reporters about his mistakes, Aso said in November, ''Really? They are
just reading errors, just mistakes.''
But even if they were ''just mistakes,'' Kyodo News polls nonetheless showed
the Aso Cabinet's approval ratings the following month came to as low as 25.5
percent, slipping sharply from the previous month's 40.9 percent.
Yasunori Sone, professor of politics at Keio University, largely attributed the
decline in voter support to Aso's repeated policy flip-flops and refusal to
seek a public mandate by holding a general election despite calls from the
public and the opposition bloc to do so.
But Sone also added, ''His misreadings have devastated the public impression of
him.''
When campaigning for the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election last
September, Aso, who has proudly presented himself as an avid reader of comics
and manga, proved to be popular among the young generation, including comic
fans in the Akihabara electric gadget district.
''It would have been OK for him to pitch himself as a man who knew about what
was popular with young kids as well if only he was a well-educated,
intellectual politician,''' Sone said. ''But by misreading words too many
times, he has completely demeaned this image and become a man who isn't
regarded as really intelligent and who reads too many comics.''
Munekazu Deguchi, the author of ''Yomesode Yomenai Machigaiyasui Kanji,'' said
''If you misread kanji, people will begin to doubt your entire intellectual
level including your knowledge of history, culture and all sorts of other
things.''
''Knowledge of kanji could form the fundamental basis of who you are,'' Deguchi
added, though hesitating to be further critical of a prime minister who has
helped make his book such a huge hit.
==Kyodo
2009-02-03 22:17:12