Now You Can Read the Extent of Mr. Yano's Anger

Here, on the Asahi website, if you can read Japanese. But hurry, because online Asahi articles are perishable products.

Asahi adds an interesting angle to earlier media reports of Mr. Yano's 30-minute phone call to Prime Minister Abe in protest of his omission from the new Cabinet. According to Asahi, the prime minister tried to placate Mr. Yano by telling him that he would appoint him the next time around.

Assuming that the substance of the phone call is emanating from Mr. Yano himself – the words of Mr. Yano and Mr. Abe are placed in quotation marks, indicating that the reporter talked to, at a minimum, a reliable source who could speak for Mr. Yano:

a) Making such a promise – not out of character for the conciliatory Mr. Abe – is not the best way to make a show of leadership.

b) Going public with the promise is not the best way to make Mr. Abe keep it.

Did Mr. Yano's anger make him speak too rashly? Or did he not think much of the chances of there being a "next time"? I suppose the former, seasoned, perhaps unconsciously, by the latter; though your guess is as good as mine. In any case, this kind of blood in the water does not bode well for Mr. Abe.