美女大臣莲舫能否撼动日本政坛？

Minister of State for Government Revitalization may not be the hippest of job titles.
日本内阁的行政改革担当大臣或许不是最新潮的职位名称。

But the appointment of Renho to a senior ministerial position suggests that incoming Prime Minister Naoto Kan is serious about change. And with the Democratic Party of Japan's poll ratings still weak ahead of key July elections and controversy hanging over the relocation of a U.S. Marines base in Okinawa, not to mention billowing national debt, he'll need all the help he can get.
但任命莲舫(Renho)担任这一部长级职务显示出日本新首相菅直人(Naoto Kan)对行政改革颇为认真。7月的关键大选之前，日本民主党在民意调查中的支持率仍很低，再加上对悬而未决的美国驻冲绳海军基地搬迁事宜的论战，更别提日本的巨额国债，都让菅直人需要尽可能获得一切能得到的帮助。

First off, Renho--who goes only by one name--is 42, a relative whippersnapper in graying Japan. Even more unusually by the standards of Japanese politics, she's female. What's more, she's of mixed Taiwanese-Japanese descent, rather than a traditional local political dynasty, and media-savvy as a former TV presenter. And just for the record, a long time ago, she used to be a swimsuit model.
首先，莲舫今年42岁，在日益老龄化的日本是个相对年轻的政客。按照日本的政治标准，更不同寻常的是：她是女性。更甚之，她是台日后裔，而非出身于日本传统政治豪门。她曾担任电视主播，因此深谙传媒之道，并且值得一提的是，她很久前曾当过泳装模特。

But the first-term Upper House lawmaker is no novelty act. She's tasked with taking on Japan's entrenched bureaucracy in an effort to cut wasteful spending and regain control over the levers of policymaking. As chastened bureaucrats know to their cost, she's already cut her teeth on that score. In fact, it was as chair of a Hatoyama administration committee that began investigating wasteful public spending last year that she won plaudits and her political spurs for grilling some of the country's most senior civil servants over their pork-barrel projects on live TV.
但这个初进参议院未满一个任期的议员可不是哗众取宠之人。她的任务是改革日本根深蒂固的官僚体制以努力减少浪费性支出并让政治家重新获得决策权。当历经磨练的官僚们吃了苦头之后，他们就会知道莲舫已经在这方面积累了经验。事实上，去年作为鸠山由纪夫(Hatoyama)政府负责调查浪费性公开支出的委员会负责人，她在电视直播中对日本部分最资深公务员的自肥项目严加拷问，此举为其赢得了赞誉和政治动力。

'The inclusion of Ren Ho in this cabinet is the perfect symbol for its approach,' says Tobias Harris of Observing Japan. 'She's certainly charismatic, and will keep public attention on the task that remains central to the DPJ's program: strengthening political leadership at the expense of the bureaucracy.'
Observing Japan网站的哈里斯(Tobias Harris)说，让莲舫入阁是日本新内阁行事方针的完美体现。她当然富有感召力，并将保持公众对日本民主党中心任务的关注，即以改革官僚体制为代价强化政治领导力。

In yet another departure from the norm in Japanese politics, she maintains an active Youtube channel--three posts since being named to her new job--as well as a regular Twitter feed with over 122,000 followers. There she relays at will her thoughts on policy, being the mother of twins and the contents of her lunchbox (pasta and stir-fried chicken today).
另一处有违日本政治标准的地方在于：她仍然是个活跃的Youtube用户，自被提名以来发布了三个帖子，并且她定期在Twitter上发布言论，粉丝超过122,000人。她在网络世界中随心所欲地公开自己在政策方面的想法、作为两个孩子的母亲的心得以及自己便当的内容（今天中午带的是意大利面和炒鸡）。

It's a long way from her early days as a model and the face of audio company Clarion in 1988. But Renho's drive has always been apparent: the Aoyama Gakuin University law faculty graduate moved on to become a regular on Japanese variety TV shows and then a news anchor. Here she is delivering a TV Asahi report on a fresh-faced Ichiro Suzuki (this was in 1994, before his move to the Seattle Mariners, so adopt brace position for 90s fashion stylings).
很早之前，莲舫曾当过模特，并于1988年担任了日本音响公司歌乐公司(Clarion)的形象代表。但一路走来，莲舫的动力始终清晰可见：毕业于日本青山学院大学(Aoyama Gakuin University)法律系，之后经常在各种电视节目中露面，后来成为新闻主播。她曾在朝日电视(TV Asahi)的节目中报道了新露面的铃木一郎(Ichiro Suzuki)（当时是1994年，铃木一郎还未加入西雅图水手队，因此勇于接受上世纪90年代的时尚造型）。

Like any politician, Renho has had her detractors. After cancelling funding for a 'supercomputer' development project, saying there was nothing wrong with Japan not leading the field in the industry, the knives came out in some quarters. 'I don't want to say this, but she is not originally Japanese,' conservative Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Takeo Hiranuma said in response. Born to a Taiwanese father and Japanese mother, Renho adopted Japanese citizenship in 1985.
像所有政治人物一样，莲舫也曾遭人诋毁。她取消超级计算机发展项目资金时说，日本不在这一行业领域居领先地位并没有错，因此受到多方攻击。保守派日本自民党议员平沼赳夫(Takeo Hiranuma)回应道，“我不想这么说，但她本来就不是日本人”。莲舫的父亲是台湾人，母亲是日本人，她于1985年加入日本籍。

But Renho has plenty of fans in other areas. Yuya Uchida, Japan's answer to Rod Stewart and self-appointed authority on all things 'rock & roll', was quoted in the Sankei Shimbun daily as saying she has 'the spirit of rock and roll'. In fact, Mr. Uchida is so enamored with Renho that in April he presented her with a bouquet of pink roses after turning up to watch her make the bureaucrats squirm.
但莲舫在其它领域有大量粉丝。日本《产经新闻》(Sankei Shimbun)曾报道，日本的洛•史都华(Rod Stewart)、自命为摇滚权威的内田裕也(Yuya Uchida)说，莲舫有“摇滚的灵魂”。事实上，内田裕也非常迷恋莲舫，今年4月，他曾到现场观看莲舫对官僚们的质询，并向她献上了一束粉红色的玫瑰花。