Sontaku — Currying Favor

by Bill Lee

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Donald Trump have something in common: brewing scandals. Abe’s has to do with possible influence peddling and Trump’s with the Russian interference in the US elections. The common thread between them is that it is difficult to prove actual direct involvement by either of them.

In Japan the Abe scandals center on what is called sontaku seiji (忖度政治). In the dictionary definition of the word, sontaku means “to suppose, to conjecture, to assume.” But in this context, sontaku means to try to curry favor with higher-ups by anticipating what you think they want and acting proactively without waiting for instructions. The fishy and creepy nursery school operator, Yasunori Kagoike, who is at the center of the Moritomo Gakuen scandal, accused bureaucrats of being the cause of the sweetheart land deal that saw him acquire land for a nursery school at a cut rate because they were trying to please, and thus curry favor with, Abe, who supported Kagoike. Sontaku is supposed by Japanese to be a uniquely Japanese (or Chinese, since the word first appears in a Chinese poem) practice, probably because of the suggestion of unspoken communication.

But we can see a good example of sontaku in America. The Trump election team is suspected of being involved in some sort of collusion with the Russians, yet no hard evidence has so far surfaced to substantiate the claim. And none likely will. We can very easily see sontaku at work here as Trump underlings, trying to anticipate Trump’s wishes and thus curry favor with him, contacting the Russians to collude in their election hacking. Trump never ordered them to work with the Russians, so his hands are clean, and he will never be implicated.

By the way, despite liberals’ fantasies, Trump will probably be never impeached. Even if he were, he would never satisfy liberals’ fervent wish to see him reflect on his transgressions, or to show any remorse for his transgressions. It would be a very unsatisfying scene. Trump would likely just shrug, and say, “So I was impeached. Life goes on. Being president wasn’t such a great gig anyway. I’m going to build some golf courses.” Any bets on Trump winning a second term?

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