We are entering the realm of the unknown.

Yukio Hatoyama took office as prime minister, and gave his inaugural address on September 16th. “We are entering the realm of the unknown” was a part of his speech.

He promised to reduce bureaucratic meddling in politics, eliminate the practice of wasting tax revenue, and to make the best effort with a sense of responsibility.He did acknowledge “we might fail through a trial and error process”. It was then that he said “We are entering the realm of the unknown.”, and asked for people to be tolerant.

This would be an odd thing to hear, right? This is the Japanese way of speaking. I believe The President of the U.S. would not speak in this way.

Some Japanese people don’t like a person who displays any confidence when beginning something. For example, a Japanese person new to a company would say he or she has no knowledge, needs help, and is not confident even if he or she knows the business well and is confident. If you say you are full of confidence when you are new, you arouse ill feeling.

Despite that, I believe he went too far by saying “we might fail”.

Thank you.

This is the inaugural address in Japanese. Sorry, we don’t have it in English.
http://www.hatoyama.gr.jp/speech/090916.html

This is an article about Yukio Hatoyama.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/world/asia/17japan.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=yukio%20hatoyama&st=cse
Koir, snbzk. Thanks for helping.