It is probably safe to call Hiraoka Hideo's victory in Yamaguchi-2 resounding.He received 116,348 votes, approximately 13,000 more votes than he received in 2005 when he lost to Fukuda Yoshihiko and 7,000 more votes than his previous high (109,647), which he received running for reelection in 2003. He received 22,000 votes than the LDP's Yamamoto …
Year: 2008
Hiraoka wins
As expected, Prime Minister Fukuda was welcomed back to Japan after his trip to Russia by a DPJ victory in the Yamaguchi-2 by-election.Hiraoka Hideo defeated the LDP's Yamamoto Shigetaro by a still unknown margin of victory. Mainichi reports that the turnout rate was 69%, a fall from 2005's 72.45%.It's hard to make any definite conclusions …
Koizumi Junichiro, whipping boy
"The nonsense of public opinion that hopes for Pitcher Koizumi, ringleader in making an unequal society, to take the mound again."So reads the headline of an opinion piece at JanJan by Sato Shuichi, a journalist and activist.Sato uses an extended — and I mean extended — baseball metaphor to discuss the transfer of power from …
Counting down to X-Day
With less than a week until 30 April — "X-Day" — when the government intends to bring the tax bill to a vote in the HR again, the DPJ is apparently stepping away from threats to censure the government in response to the revote.Kan Naoto indicated at a press conference Thursday that the party has …
The race for defense ministry reform
Back in February, when Defense Minister Ishiba Shigeru was threatened with censure for his ministry's dilatory response to the Atago incident, Prime Minister Fukuda gave Mr. Ishiba a firm vote of confidence, calling upon the defense minister to "review the organization from its very foundation."It appears that Mr. Fukuda's support for comprehensive defense ministry reform …
Koike fever?
Within days of Mori Yoshiro's calling the prospect of Korike Yuriko, former defense minister, a "joke," Sankei writes that "Koike fever" is taking hold — even though Ms. Koike claims to share Mr. Mori's assessment of a Koike candidacy.The basis for this "fever" is unclear to me.The examples cited by Sankei? A long speech to …
Koizumi goes to work for the government?
The Fukuda government has announced that it will definitely proceed with plans to submit the tax bill to the HR for a second vote on 30 April, the day after the expiration of the sixty-day Article 59 window. No word from Asahi or Mainichi about whether the LDP and Komeito will face defections when the …
DPJ cruising to victory in Yamaguchi-2
As expected, the DPJ's Hiraoka Hideo is in a strong position with less than a week before the by-election in Yamaguchi's second district.A poll conducted by Mainichi over the weekend reveals that voters' concerns favor the DPJ. Health and welfare policy are the top priority (22%), followed by the pensions problem (20%), administrative reform (14%), …
The world’s top public intellectual
Voting is open in Foreign Policy magazine and Prospect magazine's contest to choose the world's top public intellectual.The magazines chose a list of the top 100, available here, on the basis of the following criteria: "Although the men and women on this list are some of the world’s most sophisticated thinkers, the criteria to make …
Mori discusses the post-Fukuda era
Mori Yoshiro, the man who probably has as good a claim as anyone to the title of LDP kingmaker, appeared on The Sunday Project yesterday.He treated viewers to his assessments of potential successors for Mr. Fukuda, although he made clear that he still stands behind the prime minister (although who knows how much longer that …
Tobias S. Harris 