After trumpeting the glorious news that Japan had an operations research-educated Prime Minister, I suppose I should note that Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is resigning after eight months of rule. With operations research in his arsenal, perhaps he simply fixed everything in those eight months. But that does not appear to be the case (according to CNN):
In his first speech as Japan’s 92nd prime minister, Hatoyama made promises that he would conduct a clean and transparent government, launching a task force to monitor government spending.
But soon afterwards, allegations of illegal campaign financing tarnished his administration’s image. Some of his cabinet members were investigated for corruption.
His approval rating took further hits over his failed promise to move a major U.S. Marine base off Okinawa to ease the burden of the island, which hosts the majority of the United States military presence in Japan. Earlier this month, calling his decision “heartbreaking,” he announced that the base would remain on Okinawa, although relocated to a different part of the island.
C’mon Yukio, it is a facility location problem! We’ve been solving those for decades!
Let’s hope the less-than-stellar past eight months don’t tarnish all of us in operations research who aspire to higher office.
[Thanks to my former doctoral student Ben Peterson who called me out on this issue.]
> C’mon Yukio, it is a facility location problem! We’ve been solving those for decades!
Well, theory/practice gap? 😉
This university down in peninsula (Stanford) is producing a some major failures lately, first that french guy who wrecked Goldman Sachs and now our Japanese prime minister. what are they teaching down there?
But their major problem is their football team, it really sucks!