日本第一夫人鳩山幸

日本首相鳩山由紀夫(Yukio Hatoyama)的夫人鳩山幸是日本的民主紀元中幾乎默默無聞的第一夫人的對立面。這位66歲的前劇團演員在日本備受關注，她講述和寫下了她的靈異經歷，如被UFO接到金星，以及同她的丈夫一道吃太陽光獲取能量。她還曾說，她在前生認識湯姆•克魯斯(Tom Cruise)，而且，克魯斯當時是日本人。

Mrs. Hatoyama is the antithesis to the virtually nameless first ladies of Japan's first century of democracy. A 66-year-old former stage actress, she received attention in Japan for talking and writing about her supernatural experiences, such as being whisked away to the Venus in a UFO or eating the rays of the sun, along with her husband, to take in its energy. She once said that in her previous life, she knew Tom Cruise, who she says was then Japanese.

她還與人合寫了一本名為《我遭遇的那些奇異之事》(Mysterious Incidents I Encountered)的書籍，這是一本對名人遇到的靈異經歷的采訪合集。

She has cowritten a book titled 'Mysterious Incidents I Encountered,' a collection of interviews with celebrities about their supernatural experiences.

鳩山幸在接受采訪時并未觸及這些問題，但實事求是地談了她作為日本政治家妻子非同尋常的高調。

Mrs. Hatoyama didn't touch on these issues in her interview but spoke matter-of-factly about her unusually high profile for a Japanese politician's wife.

她說，鳩山由紀夫總是鼓勵我說，這是你的生活，你大可以按你的想法行事。如果有人認為我不同，那可能是因為他們注意到我拋頭露面，與人們能毫不費力地打成一片。

'Hatoyama has always encouraged me, saying, 'It's your life. You do what you want to do,'' she said, referring in a common Japanese form to her husband, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. 'If people think I am different, that may be because they have noticed I go out and mingle with people and blend in without much effort.'

她的自信讓一些傳統主義者感到不快。保守的雜志一直不放過她，批評首相如何被他的妻子“t”，或是取笑她的講話，尤其是那些靈異經歷。

Her assertiveness turns off some traditionalists. Conservative magazines have hounded her, criticizing how the prime minister is being 'pushed around' by his wife or making fun of her comments, particularly those related to her spiritual experiences.

迄今為止，這種批評似乎并沒有影響到她丈夫的事業(yè)?！蹲x賣新聞》(Yomiuri Shimbun)最近的一項民意調查顯示，鳩山由紀夫內閣的支持率為59%，低于上月的63%。下滑的原因主要是由于鳩山由紀夫的政策。

Such criticism so far doesn't seem to have affected her husband's career. A recent poll by the Yomiuri Shimbun daily showed the approval rating for Mr. Hatoyama's cabinet stood at 59%, even after slipping from 63% last month. The decline was attributed to Mr. Hatoyama's policies.

在她的丈夫領導的日本民主黨今年8月贏得歷史性勝利，打破了自民黨幾乎連續(xù)50多年的統治后，鳩山幸本身象x著日本此后發(fā)生的變化。同自民黨領導人的妻子不同，鳩山由紀夫每次出國訪問都有鳩山幸陪同，他們還曾手拉手出現在一個時裝展上。

Mrs. Hatoyama embodies the changes touching Japan after her husband's Democratic Party of Japan won a landslide victory in August, breaking more than 50 years of virtually continuous rule by the Liberal Democratic Party. Mrs. Hatoyama, unlike the wives of LDP leaders, has accompanied the prime minister on every foreign visit and appeared in a fashion show holding hands with him.

雖然她說，她不會與丈夫討論政策，但她的積極形象仍與這個中左翼政黨的政策所構想的婦女形象相一致。日本民主黨曾承諾，將取消對全職太太的優(yōu)惠稅收待遇，并考慮讓已婚婦女保留婚前姓氏。

While she says she doesn't discuss policies with her husband, her active role matches the image of women that the center-left party's policies envision. The DPJ has promised to eliminate a preferential tax treatment for stay-at-home wives, and to consider allowing married women to keep their maiden names.

鳩山幸說，日本女性仍難以在照顧家庭的同時追求事業(yè)。她說，許多社區(qū)都面臨著幼兒園短缺的問題，而使用私人保姆的現象并不普遍。雖然傳統家庭結構的崩潰讓女性更難以依靠家庭成員的幫助，但普遍的想法仍然是照顧年邁父母是女人的事情。

Mrs. Hatoyama says it is still hard for Japanese women to pursue careers while raising families. Many communities face the shortage of day-care centers, and the use of private babysitters isn't widespread, she says. Even as the breakdown of the traditional family structure makes it harder for women to rely on family members for help, 'the perception still is it's a woman's job to take care of the elderly parents.'

鳩山幸反應機敏，可以坦誠地談論自己和家人，她獨特的時尚感經常引起轟動。她最近贏得了日本行業(yè)組織日本牛仔褲協會的年度最佳牛仔褲穿著獎，還有一次展示了自己用從夏威夷購買的咖啡豆包裝袋做成的裙子。

Mrs. Hatoyama has a quick wit and speaks candidly about herself and her family, and regularly creates a buzz with her unique fashion sense. She recently won an annual award from the Japan Jeans Association, a trade group, for being the best dresser in jeans, and once showed off a skirt that she had made herself from a hemp coffee bean bag bought in Hawaii.

鳩山幸稱自己是一名“生活作曲家”，她還模仿瑪莎·斯圖爾特(Martha Stewart)的風格寫過幾本烹飪和在家待客的書。

Calling herself a 'life composer,' she has written several books on cooking and entertaining a la Martha Stewart.

讓許多日本人尤其是女性著迷的鳩山幸與她丈夫的關系。在一個傾向于將工作和家庭分開、男性和女性都在自己社交圈子交往的社會，他們夫婦幾乎所有時間都在一起，這給人們留下了深刻印象。一份報紙計算，在鳩山由紀夫擔任首相后的前13次在外就餐中，有8次都有鳩山幸參加，其中還包括4次與內閣成員一次吃飯的場合。

What fascinates many Japanese, particularly women, is Mrs. Hatoyama's relationship with her husband. In a society where people tend to keep work and family separate, and men and women socialize in their own circles, the Hatoyamas have made an impression by being together virtually all the time. A national daily calculated that Mrs. Hatoyama joined her husband at eight of his first 13 restaurant meals as prime minister, including four occasions with members of his cabinet.

鳩山幸說，她與丈夫這種看來平等的伙伴關系可能源自他們作為年輕夫妻時在加州渡過的那些年。鳩山由紀夫70年代時曾在斯坦福大學學習工程，并獲得了博士學位。而鳩山幸與第一位丈夫離婚后則在大型商場Macy's的珠寶柜臺工作。她的第一任丈夫是舊金山一家日本餐館的廚師。

Mrs. Hatoyama said that the seemingly equal partnership she has with her husband may flow from the years they had spent in California as a young couple. He studied operational engineering at Stanford in the 1970s and received a Ph.D. She worked at the jewelry counter at Macy's after divorcing her first husband who was a chef at a Japanese restaurant in San Francisco.

鳩山幸身著長及膝蓋，下擺像氣球一樣蓬松的裙子坐在首相官邸的休息室中說，多數男人認為在公共場合與太太牽手令人尷尬，但這對鳩山由紀夫來說非常自然。

'Most men think it's embarrassing to hold hands [with his wife] in public, but it comes naturally to Hatoyama,' she said, seated in the lounge of the prime minister's residence, wearing a knee-length skirt puffed up at the hem like a balloon.

與此同時，眾所周知，62歲的鳩山由紀夫會幫助做家務，這在他這一代日本男人中被認為是不同尋常的習慣。鳩山幸說，即便在擔任首相后，她的丈夫也會洗碗。她擔心這會有損她高大丈夫的后背，因為仍保持上世紀20年代裝飾風格的首相官邸的廚柜太低了。

Meanwhile, Mr. Hatoyama, 62, is known to help out with housework, a habit considered unusual among Japanese men of his generation. Mrs. Hatoyama says even after becoming prime minister, her husband still does the dishes. She worries it will hurt her tall husband's back because the kitchen counter in the prime minister's residence -- a 1920s Art Deco building that retains original features -- is very low.