Japan's new first lady: "I went to Venus with Aliens"

[Syt]

The Times: Japan's new First Lady Miyuki Hatoyama: 'I went to Venus in a UFO'

Japan's new Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, faces formidable foreign policy challenges in dealing with an expansionist China, a nuclear armed North Korea and a sinister Russia. But he need have no concerns about establishing friendly relations with the planet Venus — his own wife is a friend of the Venusians, having travelled there in a UFO in the 1970s.

The distinctions of 66-year-old Miyuki Hatoyama do not end there. As well a being a musical actress, cookery writer, clothesmaker and television personality, she is also a friend of the actor Tom Cruise, whom she knew in a past life when he was temporarily incarnated as a Japanese. She would be regarded as bit of a fruitcake anywhere in the world — in Japan's staid political culture, she is unique.

To his credit, Mr Hatoyama, who will formally become Prime Minister in a fortnight's time after a landslide election victory last Sunday, does not appear in the least embarrassed by his wife's eccentricities, and nor do his fellow citizens. She falls into the category of public figure known as "tarento", or "talent" — televisual artists or entertainers who are expected and encouraged to be more unpredictable, flamboyant, and vividly coloured than the rest of us.

She began her career in a unique Japanese institution — the Takarazuka Revue, an troupe of female singers and dancers who perform romantic musicals to packed audiences of middle-aged Japanese women. She was living in California, as the wife of a Japanese restaurateur, when she met the young Mr Hatoyama, who was studying engineering at Stanford University.

Their marriage in the US, after her divorce, was mildly scandalous for the scion of a political family like Mr Hatoyama. "Most men choose a partner from among single women," as he said proudly. "But I chose from among all womankind."

Since then she has established herself as a lifestyle consultant, or "life composer", and the author of several books, including Welcome to the Hatoyama Restaurant, Welcome to the Hatoyama Home, Miyuki Hatoyama's Spiritual Food and Miyuki Hatoyama's Have a Nice Time. It was in a book of interviews with prominent people, entitled Most Bizarre Things I've Encountered, that she revealed her extra-terrestrial jaunt which occurred during her first marriage.

"While my body was sleeping, I think my spirit flew on a triangular-shaped UFO to Venus," she said. "It was an extremely beautiful place and was very green." Her first husband suggested that it was probably just a dream — but Mr Hatoyama, she insisted, would not be so dismissive. "My current husband has a different way of thinking," she said. "He would surely say, 'Oh, that's great!'"

Since it became likely, earlier this year, that Mr Hatoyama and his Democratic Party of Japan were likely to form Japan's next government, she has been extensively interviewed on the daytime "Wide Shows" aimed at Japanese housewives. It was during one of these that she spoke of her past-life friendship with Cruise and her ambition to make a film with him.

"He was Japanese in his past life, and we were together so when I see him, I will say, 'Hi. It's been a long time,' and he will immediately understand," she said. "This film will change your values. I will win the Oscar for sure. About seven years ago, my husband Yukio said to me, 'Yeah, yeah, that's a nice dream . . .', but these days, he encourages me and he sits at his computer translating the script into English even though he is tired after work."

In the same interview she described how, as part of her health regimen, she "eats the sun" every morning for breakfast. She closed her eyes and mimed the act of removing bite-sized pieces from Earth's star. "Yum, yum, yum," she said, placing the imaginary solar morsels in her mouth. "I get energy from it. My husband also does this."

I wonder if the trip to Venus involved any tentacle rape. Also, I think she'd be a perfect mate to Kim Jong-Il.

[Viking]

Previous life?

I bet the japanese electorate might be wishing they had stuck with the LDP...

[Neil]

Japan has all sorts of wacky cults with a much stronger presence than you see in the rest of the civilized world.  I think it has something to do with their polyglot religious culture.

[MadImmortalMan]

Oh boy.

[Caliga]

Let's get her divorced from the Japanese PM and get her paired up with Meester Berlusconi.

[Razgovory]

Japan has all sorts of wacky cults with a much stronger presence than you see in the rest of the civilized world.  I think it has something to do with their polyglot religious culture.

Or their lack of a decent religion.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Let's get her divorced from the Japanese PM and get her paired up with Meester Berlusconi.

Probably work well with any of our major Hollywood Scientologists. 

[Neil]

Japan has all sorts of wacky cults with a much stronger presence than you see in the rest of the civilized world.  I think it has something to do with their polyglot religious culture.

Or their lack of a decent religion.

They have pretty much all the majors, except for Islam.

[saskganesh]

why goto Venus, when the aliens are already here?

clearly, she's a fraud.

[Josquius]

In the same interview she described how, as part of her health regimen, she "eats the sun" every morning for breakfast. She closed her eyes and mimed the act of removing bite-sized pieces from Earth's star. "Yum, yum, yum," she said, placing the imaginary solar morsels in her mouth. "I get energy from it. My husband also does this."

This reads like the onion or somesuch.
Nom nom nom

[Syt]

I for one enjoy watching how an increasing number of country leaders and associates seem to go batshit crazy. Putin's shirtless Siberian vacations, Kim Jong-Il, Gaddhafi with his rock star attitude, mafia don Berlusconi, Sarkozy, now the Japanese first lady.

[Lucidor]

Japan has all sorts of wacky cults with a much stronger presence than you see in the rest of the civilized world.  I think it has something to do with their polyglot religious culture.

They are weird because they speak many languages? 

[The Brain]

Still better than Hillary or I-killed-Michael-Douglas-because-I-could.

[Neil]

Japan has all sorts of wacky cults with a much stronger presence than you see in the rest of the civilized world.  I think it has something to do with their polyglot religious culture.

They are weird because they speak many languages? 

They speak many religions.  The word was modified by the two that came after it.  Not an orthodox usage of the word, but acceptable.

Don't fuck with me.  I know English, despite the fact that I was educated in French.

[The Brain]

I propose that Neil change his name to Feil.