Beat Takeshi snaps at DPJ lawmaker over space budget cuts
Comedian and film director Beat Takeshi, 63, vocally opposed recent Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) budget cuts during filming for a TV Asahi special program.
Takeshi, who visited the Tsukuba Space Center at Ibaraki, publicly expressed strong displeasure at the cuts. He was especially critical of DPJ lawmaker Renho Murata who denied the center a grant for supercomputer development.
“We used to appear on game shows together! How can she do something like that?” Takeshi said, referring to Murata who worked as a newscaster on TBS and TV Asahi before being elected to the House of Councillors in 2004. “A country that doesn’t spend money on research is in serious trouble!”
Takeshi was visiting the Tsukuba Space Center for a segment of “Beat Takeshi’s TV Tackle,” which will air on April 5. “I graduated from Meiji University in science and engineering, so I love space and rockets. No cuts! Put another billion yen in the budget!”
source: JapanToday