A University of Tokyo Graduate, Fluent in English, Yet Unpopular—What Kind of Intelligence Do Politicians Need?

I was watching YouTube when this politician appeared yet again.

This politician graduated from the University of Tokyo and speaks fluent English. They have held several ministerial posts, and judging by their credentials alone, they are indisputably a member of the elite. Listening to them, it is clear that they think quickly. They respond rapidly to questions, possess extensive knowledge, and are highly capable of handling the work of a politician.

And yet, for some reason, they are not popular.

Perhaps the politician is aware of this, because on YouTube and elsewhere, they have been trying to appear more approachable than before. But this is difficult too. When an intelligent person works hard at playing an “ordinary person,” the effort can somehow make them appear even further removed from ordinary people.

In Japan, there has long been a tendency to describe such a person as “someone who is good at studying but does not understand how people feel.” Some of that may come from resentment or jealousy toward highly educated elites.

But dismissing it on those grounds alone misses half the issue.

Politics Is Not a Job Where You Simply Produce the Correct Answer

On a school exam, you earn points by writing the correct answer. In politics, however, producing the correct answer alone does not make anything happen.

The other side has its own position, pride, and supporters. Even if you are completely right and they are completely wrong, thoroughly defeating them in an argument and blocking every avenue of escape will not make them say, “You are right, so I will comply.” It may instead make them think, “I never want to cooperate with this person.”

In Japan especially, creating an outcome that everyone can accept is valued more highly than winning an argument. In meetings and negotiations, people may spend an hour finding a solution that allows everyone to save face, even when logic alone could settle the matter in ten minutes.

It is not rational. But human beings are not rational creatures to begin with.

People who decide that irrational considerations can therefore be ignored will keep winning in logic while continuing to lose in reality.

Kakuei Tanaka Knew That Human Beings Were Not Rational

The person who comes to mind as the complete opposite is Kakuei Tanaka. He was a politician about half a century ago who, for a time, dominated Japanese politics.

His formal education ended with junior high school, yet he rose all the way to become prime minister. Countless stories have been told about him, but what is striking is his extraordinary understanding of human emotion.

One famous story says that while campaigning, he spotted an elderly woman working in a rice paddy and stepped into the paddy himself to shake her hand.

Naturally, his shoes would be covered in mud.

When the people around him asked whether he really needed to go that far, Tanaka reportedly replied to the effect that the woman would tell her family and relatives that Kakuei Tanaka had come all the way into the rice paddy to shake her hand.

He appeared to be shaking hands with one person, but in reality, he was shaking hands with the dozens of people behind her as well.

Far from merely being down-to-earth, it was frighteningly rational.

There is also a story that when he arrived at a ministry as its new minister, he learned the names of newly recruited young bureaucrats and spoke to them personally. Even a young bureaucrat who had graduated from one of Japan’s finest universities and passed a highly competitive examination would be pleased if a minister knew his name. He would think, “I want to work for this person.”

Human beings may be highly intelligent, but emotionally, we have not evolved that much beyond apes.

Kakuei Tanaka understood that very well.

It Is Difficult to Install a “Man of the People” Persona Later in Life

This is where things become difficult for today’s elite politicians.

They can study policy. They can study English. They can also receive briefings from experts on economics, national security, and law.

But winning people’s hearts is difficult to learn at the age of 50 or 60 by deciding, “My approval rating is low, so I will become more approachable starting next month.”

They try smiling on YouTube. They eat at inexpensive, everyday restaurants. They talk about their hobbies.

None of these things is bad in itself. But the moment they look like KPIs in an “approachability improvement project,” every one of them becomes counterproductive.

Tanaka’s decision to step into the rice paddy was probably calculated too. Yet even when you know it was calculated, it somehow feels deeply human. That is what made him powerful.

A High IQ Does Not Automatically Make People Follow You

Now that international affairs, economics, and technology have all become more complex, there is no doubt that we need intelligent politicians. The ability to understand vast amounts of information, digest experts’ explanations, and make decisions quickly is important for the leader of a country.

But it is a necessary condition, not a sufficient one.

Politicians are not commentators. Nor is their job to say the correct thing and be graded on it. Ultimately, they must move bureaucrats, members of their own party, opposition parties, industries, foreign governments, and tens of millions of voters—human beings who will never behave exactly as they wish.

Logic alone is not enough for that. They need the ability to read what others fear, what they want, how far they are willing to compromise, and whose pride must be preserved before they will act.

Kakuei Tanaka did not go to university.

But when it came to the most troublesome subject of all—human beings—he probably studied harder than anyone.

And unfortunately, that subject is compulsory on the exam called politics.