Japan PM's reading blunders spark study spree

[BO-SENSEI]

[Buraku]

I'm pretty fucked with kanji, as a gaijin I found the Chinese characters super cryptic. First when I got this whole hen, stroke, radical business to the writing I found learning them easy. But then I found the more I learned the more confused I got since the characters got more complicated and some started looking very much like each other.
I know about 700 of the most common, I stopped at that point since the learning curve became slower and studying anymore was a big ordeal

Aso's old fashioned but culturally he's a fool, he has no class
his level of study with Japanese language probably like the young generation. They let their electronic dictionary and their spell checkers to write everything for them, or like a kid they spell everything in katakana
and if they saw some calligraphy kanji at shrine they probably would need somebody to translate it for them

I admit I'm fucked with the language, 700 isn't enough for TIJ and any sort of business or life with Japan
if I'm really forced to do something I'll get a friend, a secretary or hire somebody to do it
Aso won't because has too much ego to admit he's unable to read or write proper Japanese

Gaijins have excuses for being illiterate but in a society like Japan I'm guessing it must be embarrassing for a native person to get caught a fool. Then again some people just have thick skin.
Bush used to murder the English language daily and it didn't seem to bother him one bit. One time Bush on tour was yapping in Japan and he confused the terms "Deflation" and "Devaluation" the Yen soared and the DOW dropped 100 points that hour but it didn't bother him one bit.