He is doing his best. He would have gone along with our request for a female journalist. But he is a mean small-minded person, and he couldn't accept that we preferred a woman to him. Our request was a challenge to his position as section chief. He is an insecure man.
Most authoritarians are.
What you say may be true in other countries, but this is Japan. We Japanese have a different system. Diana walked to the window and looked out at the park a hundred feet below, at the tiny human figures going about their lives, unaware that in the room high above them, the Princess of Wales was looking at them, wondering about their lives. She spoke over her shoulder to Kaori, who was still pushing the morning newspapers around, like an angry bear with a bee's nest. Being God must be a wonderful job.