While Okada Katsuya was securing his position as the undisputed leader in foreign policy making, Kamei Shizuka has made immediately clear that he was going to be a source of trouble for the Hatoyama government as minister of postal reform and financial services.I already noted Friday that Kamei had used a press conference following a …
Author: Tobias S. Harris
Tobias Harris is Japan analyst at Teneo Intelligence. He is the author of a forthcoming biography of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Okada diplomacy
Not even a week into the Hatoyama government, it is clear that Foreign Minister Okada Katsuya will be a force to be reckoned with in the new cabinet.Even before the government formed, Okada raised the alarm that the new national strategy bureau would encroach on his turf in foreign policy making — prompting Hatoyama Yukio …
The Hatoyama government fills more positions and gets to work
On Friday the Hatoyama cabinet met and continued its work of reforming Japan's policymaking system.The cabinet decided to create the national strategy office under the leadership of Kan Naoto, pending legislation to elevate the office to a full bureau attached to the cabinet. Another cabinet decision created the Administrative Renovation Council (ARC), which will nominally …
Continue reading The Hatoyama government fills more positions and gets to work
The LDP race begins
The race to succeed Aso Taro as LDP president begins today, with three candidates vying for the unenviable task of fixing a broken Liberal Democratic Party.Surprisingly the race includes none of the candidates who Aso defeated to win the job last year: Ishiba Shigeru, despite being perhaps the most enthusiastic of the potential candidates, backed …
The first day of the new era in Japanese politics
The DPJ wasted no time following the election of Hatoyama Yukio as prime minister Wednesday.His cabinet lineup established, the DPJ-led government immediately set to work establishing a new relationship between the cabinet, DPJ backbenchers, and the bureaucracy.Regarding the DPJ, its internal organizations, and its numerous backbenchers, the new government announced several measures to strip the …
Continue reading The first day of the new era in Japanese politics
Japan has a new prime minister
Following in the footsteps of Hatoyama Ichiro, his grandfather, Hatoyama Yukio has been elected as Japan's ninety-third prime minister, a moment being compared by Hatoyama and others to great turning points in Japan's history.Whether this moment proves worthy of such a description will depend on the new prime minister and his cabinet. He inherits a …
Hatoyama delivers an impressive cabinet
The votes are being counted in the House of Representatives, after which the House of Councillors will vote for the new prime minister. Hatoyama Yukio's election as the next prime minister is assured.On the eve of his election by the Diet, Hatoyama decided the presumptive lineup of his cabinet — but he did not share …
The strengths and weakness of Mr. Hatoyama’s government
After meeting with Ozawa Ichiro Monday, it appears that Hatoyama Yukio will get Fujii Hirohisa as his finance minister after all. The party's executive board — comprised of the inner circle of party leaders, including Hatoyama, Ozawa, Kan Naoto, and Okada Katsuya — has approved the roster, which will now go before the party's board …
Continue reading The strengths and weakness of Mr. Hatoyama’s government
Tanigaki as the compromise candidate
For the second time in three months, an effort by younger LDP members to lead the party in a different direction has run out of steam not long after getting started.Ishihara Nobuteru (52), the last hope of the LDP's younger members, bowed out of the upcoming LDP presidential election on Saturday, clearing the way for …
Transition troubles
The work of picking a cabinet is done, said Hatoyama Yukio Sunday. He is scheduled to meet with Ozawa Ichiro Monday to finalize the lineup.It seems that Ozawa and Hatoyama are in disagreement over the appointment of Fujii Hirohisa as finance minister, perhaps because Fujii — despite having been close with Ozawa throughout the 1990s, …
Tobias S. Harris 