Tarō Asō

Tarō Asō (born 20 September 1940) is Minister of Finance, former Prime Minister of Japan from 2008 to 2009.

Quotes

 * Everyone of commoner.
 * At member of the House of Representatives general election campaign (1979).


 * Everyone of plebeian.
 * At member of the House of Representatives general election campaign (1983).


 * One culture, one civilization, one language, and one ethnic group.
 * About Japan, as quoted in "Ghosts of Wartime Japan Haunt Koizumi's Cabinet" (3 November 2005), by Christopher Reed, New America Media.


 * A neighbor with one billion people equipped with nuclear bombs and has expanded its military outlays by double digits for 17 years in a row, and it is unclear as to what this is being used for. It is beginning to be a considerable threat.
 * About China, as quoted in "Japan alarmed by Chinese 'threat'", BBC, 22 December 2005.


 * Luckily, we Japanese have yellow faces.
 * Speech (2007).


 * Do I have to say something?
 * Meeting with Barack Obama (February 2009).

Quotes about Tarō Asō

 * A couple of weeks after that I met Sergei Lavrov at the G8 ministerial in Potsdam, Germany. Frank-Walter Steinmeier was so proud of the beautiful restoration of Cecilienhof Palace, where the Potsdam Conference had been held in 1945 as World War II was drawing to a close. The flags of the victors were displayed in the corners of the conference room—the Stars and Stripes of the United States; the Union Jack of Great Britain; and the hammer and sickle of the Soviet Union—here in the unified Germany. Amazing, I thought. What would Truman think? What would Stalin think? The sentiment of the moment was suddenly disrupted by the comment of my unpredictable friend, the Japanese foreign minister, Taro Aso. “But for a few turns in the war, it could have been the flags of Germany, Italy, and Japan,” he blurted out. Okay, I thought. Time to move on.
 * Condoleezza Rice, No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington (2011), Chap. 42 : Improving the Daily Lives of Palestinians