negau, "desire", "entreat".
The Prime Minister of Japan today visited Okinawa to pursue a rather difficult political decision. TV news programs followed all his activities and reported his sincere speeches. It seems that the Prime Minister has prepared not only his message, but even his expressions before hand. He used the same word repeatly to different groups of people. The word was 願う, and it was used in ways such as 願いたい, 願わざるをえない, 願えないか, etc.. It was indeed in a rich variation, provided with an astonishment.
This word is a formal term. Here to apply general rules to a polit expression already made it unfamiliar, and further more it was spoken by the Prime Minister. I have to say that the gap between the picture and the voice was rather big.