Shintaro Ishihara (born 1932) nationalist governor of Tokyo
- About himself: "I’m an existentialist--freedom and passion are the most important things to me. I was horribly disappointed when I learned that Sartre was a Communist."
- On political parties: "A party is a political tool. If it's no longer useful, it should be crumpled up and thrown away."
- On the status of politicians in Japan: "in Japan people avoid going into politics. I was really looked down on in literary circles [when I went into politics]."
- Regarding the famous novelist Yukio Mishima : "Japan is not the same since with him gone, but his politics were a joke."
- About the United States: "Fifty years of subservience to the interest of the United States has deprived the Japanese of a national purpose and engendered a paralyzing identity crisis." [After all, Japan] "is the only non-Caucasian society to have created a modern superpower."
- In response to China's first successful launch of a man in space: "The Chinese are ignorant, so they are overjoyed. That spacecraft was an outdated one. If Japan wanted to do it, we could do it in one year."
- Regarding the bomb-planting of the private residence of Deputy Foreign Minister Hitoshi Tanaka: "A bomb was planted there. I think it was deserved."
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