The current affairs article can be found here: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-fukushima-diplomat-20110820,0,28751.story
Personally, I feel that Japanese leaders seems to be lacking leadership as they are a bit careless in handling situations from the news article. It was said that Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government did not manage the nuclear coastal plant in Fukushima Daiichi well, causing it to have partial reactor meltdowns after the earthquake and tsunami. After that, they also did not do anything to help solve the crisis as they only took action after Tokyo and Washington launched a joint task force and allowed officials at Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that runs the crippled plant, too much leeway in handling the situation. This is unacceptable because the consequences of having a reactor meltdown is dire, it may lead to deaths and health damage to others due to radiation. They are thus not putting the people in Japan's health at interest. Since they are not willing to care for the citizens, they should not be leaders in the first place. They are bad examples.
Even though Japan did not handle the nuclear crsis well and delayed the relocation of an American military base on Okinawa, Kevin Maher, the former director of the State Department's Japan Office should not have made the insulting comments on public. This will definitely hurt the Japanese' feelings and may hurt bilateral relations, resulting in lesser partnership between both countries in the future. In worst cases, a fight may break out and a war may slowly be starting. Therefore being outspoken may not be a good thing at times, disregarding the feelings of others.
In conclusion, both Japan and Maher are at fault, Japan for being too slow in handling emergency situations and Maher for critisizing Japan about heir leadership publicly.
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