POLITICIANS AND CARTOON CHARACTERS
or
Whatever Happened to Journalistic Integrity?

I just read this otherwise professionally written article on Horie, the young Japanese internetpreneur who's shaking up so many aspects of the Japanese establishment and was sent by Koizumi as an 'assassin' candidate to run against one of the old guard opponents of the 'Lion King's' pet project, postal privatization.

The writer seems to be at some remove from Japan itself, as is so often the case in articles about Japan. He mentions that Horie says and does his own thing, meeting business execs without wearing a tie; doesn't mention that, more shockingly, Horie also often doesn't wear socks.

Most egregiously, though, the writer says that Horie's nickname 'Horiemon' is the conflation of Horie and Pokemon, which everyone who's been here for more than a minute or two in the last month knows is in fact the combination of Horie and Doraemon, for several reasons having to do with the latter's rolypolyness and bottomless bag of tricks (which often backfire).

Moreover, anyone who professes to be in the know about Japan would certainly know that Pokemon is not a character, but a species...

Unconscionable; and alienating all those Doraemonists, to say nothing of the ruthless Pokemonistas...