日本第一夫人鸠山幸

日本首相鸠山由纪夫(Yukio Hatoyama)的夫人鸠山幸是日本的民主纪元中几乎默默无闻的第一夫人的对立面。这位66岁的前剧团演员在日本备受关注，她讲述和写下了她的灵异经历，如被UFO接到金星，以及同她的丈夫一道吃太阳光获取能量。她还曾说，她在前生认识汤姆•克鲁斯(Tom Cruise)，而且，克鲁斯当时是日本人。

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.

她还与人合写了一本名为《我遭遇的那些奇异之事》(Mysterious Incidents I Encountered)的书籍，这是一本对名人遇到的灵异经历的采访合集。

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

鸠山幸在接受采访时并未触及这些问题，但实事求是地谈了她作为日本政治家妻子非同寻常的高调。

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.

她说，鸠山由纪夫总是鼓励我说，这是你的生活，你大可以按你的想法行事。如果有人认为我不同，那可能是因为他们注意到我抛头露面，与人们能毫不费力地打成一片。

'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.'

她的自信让一些传统主义者感到不快。保守的杂志一直不放过她，批评首相如何被他的妻子“t”，或是取笑她的讲话，尤其是那些灵异经历。

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.

迄今为止，这种批评似乎并没有影响到她丈夫的事业。《读卖新闻》(Yomiuri Shimbun)最近的一项民意调查显示，鸠山由纪夫内阁的支持率为59%，低于上月的63%。下滑的原因主要是由于鸠山由纪夫的政策。

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.

在她的丈夫领导的日本民主党今年8月赢得历史性胜利，打破了自民党几乎连续50多年的统治后，鸠山幸本身象x着日本此后发生的变化。同自民党领导人的妻子不同，鸠山由纪夫每次出国访问都有鸠山幸陪同，他们还曾手拉手出现在一个时装展上。

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.

虽然她说，她不会与丈夫讨论政策，但她的积极形象仍与这个中左翼政党的政策所构想的妇女形象相一致。日本民主党曾承诺，将取消对全职太太的优惠税收待遇，并考虑让已婚妇女保留婚前姓氏。

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.

鸠山幸说，日本女性仍难以在照顾家庭的同时追求事业。她说，许多社区都面临着幼儿园短缺的问题，而使用私人保姆的现象并不普遍。虽然传统家庭结构的崩溃让女性更难以依靠家庭成员的帮助，但普遍的想法仍然是照顾年迈父母是女人的事情。

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.'

鸠山幸反应机敏，可以坦诚地谈论自己和家人，她独特的时尚感经常引起轰动。她最近赢得了日本行业组织日本牛仔裤协会的年度最佳牛仔裤穿着奖，还有一次展示了自己用从夏威夷购买的咖啡豆包装袋做成的裙子。

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.

鸠山幸称自己是一名“生活作曲家”，她还模仿玛莎·斯图尔特(Martha Stewart)的风格写过几本烹饪和在家待客的书。

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

让许多日本人尤其是女性着迷的鸠山幸与她丈夫的关系。在一个倾向于将工作和家庭分开、男性和女性都在自己社交圈子交往的社会，他们夫妇几乎所有时间都在一起，这给人们留下了深刻印象。一份报纸计算，在鸠山由纪夫担任首相后的前13次在外就餐中，有8次都有鸠山幸参加，其中还包括4次与内阁成员一次吃饭的场合。

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.

鸠山幸说，她与丈夫这种看来平等的伙伴关系可能源自他们作为年轻夫妻时在加州渡过的那些年。鸠山由纪夫70年代时曾在斯坦福大学学习工程，并获得了博士学位。而鸠山幸与第一位丈夫离婚后则在大型商场Macy's的珠宝柜台工作。她的第一任丈夫是旧金山一家日本餐馆的厨师。

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.

鸠山幸身着长及膝盖，下摆像气球一样蓬松的裙子坐在首相官邸的休息室中说，多数男人认为在公共场合与太太牵手令人尴尬，但这对鸠山由纪夫来说非常自然。

'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.

与此同时，众所周知，62岁的鸠山由纪夫会帮助做家务，这在他这一代日本男人中被认为是不同寻常的习惯。鸠山幸说，即便在担任首相后，她的丈夫也会洗碗。她担心这会有损她高大丈夫的后背，因为仍保持上世纪20年代装饰风格的首相官邸的厨柜太低了。

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.