The anti-Asō rebellion was over before it even began.Instead of a meeting of LDP Diet members that would meet today and debate whether to hold a party presidential election before a general election — thereby undoing the prime minister's plan for a 21 July dissolution — the LDP executive agreed to an informal, closed gathering …
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.
The emerging realism of the DPJ
As the general election approaches, there are signs that a new realism is afoot in the DPJ.Mainichi reports today that the DPJ is prepared to remove the party's opposition to the MSDF's participation in the Indian Ocean refueling mission in support of coalition activities in Afghanistan, at least until the expiration of the current law. …
SNAFU
Is the Nakagawa rebellion fizzling out already?After loudly proclaiming that he had received enough signatures to force a meeting of LDP Diet members within in the next week, it turns out that Nakagawa Hidenao's campaign to unseat Asō Tarō is falling victim to the pusillanimity of his "supporters."Some of the 133 signatories have claimed that …
The LDP in ruins
On Wednesday, Nakagawa Hidenao announced that the movement to move up the LDP presidential election from September — in effect a campaign for a recall election aimed at Prime Minister Asō Tarō — reached its goal of signatures from more than one-third of LDP members in the upper and lower houses (one-third is 128 members). …
The coming DPJ tsunami?
Daniel Twining, writing at Shadow Government, Foreign Policy's blog for Republicans in exile from government in Washington, argues that the advent of a DPJ government could represent a "tsunami" for the US and Japan.Twining offers the standard Washington perspective on the DPJ: Japan has lots of problems, but who knows whether the DPJ can actually …
The LDP’s disorder deepens, but it remains one party — for now
Asō Tarō's decision to dissolve the Diet on 21 July and hold a general election on 30 August rippled through the LDP on Tuesday, as the prime minister's critics increasingly recognized that with the political system shifting into election mode, the window of opportunity to replace Asō is closing.Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintarō, whose position was …
Continue reading The LDP’s disorder deepens, but it remains one party — for now
Waiting for the reformists
The decision to delay the general election until 30 August means that there are weeks left for the LDP's warring policy groups to battle for the soul of the party.It turns out that the twenty-seven days that will elapse between the dissolution of the lower house on 21 July and the start of the campaign …
Celebrate the kaisan
Ken Worsley from Trans-Pacific Radio and I will be at the Cantina in Takadanobaba on Wednesday evening, when Guinness will be half price. Join us to talk politics or just to hoist a glass and celebrate the fact that we finally know when the election will be held.And if you are interested in attending the …
Aso pulls the trigger
Prime Minister Asō Tarō, facing open rebellion, has decided to exercise his nuclear option.At an emergency meeting of LDP executives, the prime minister and the LDP agreed that the lower house will be dissolved on 21 July and the general election will be held on 30 August. Kōji will be on 18 August.After two years …
A decisive day?
Although the government parties rallied from behind as the night went on, the LDP and Komeitō failed to recapture a majority of the seats in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly, the goal set by the LDP.NHK has called all but three seats, with the opposition parties currently holding sixty-five, one more than the sixty-four needed for …
Tobias S. Harris 