I have chronicled divisions in the Machimura faction since May of last year, and I have written on several occasions of what I think is the impending destruction of the LDP's biggest faction, paraphrasing Monty Python last month to conclude that the faction is in fact an ex-faction.The destruction of the Machimura faction proceeds apace.In …
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 foolish crusade against the House of Councillors
In May 2008, I wrote about the creation of an LDP study group with the goal of eliminating the House of Councillors — the Diet's upper house — and moving to a unicameral system, a proposal that I suggested was an anti-democratic temper tantrum in response to DPJ control of the upper chamber.This proposal and …
Continue reading The foolish crusade against the House of Councillors
Tax rebellion averted?
The LDP appears to have forged a truce in the incipient war over writing the timing of a consumption tax increase into law.In the best LDP tradition, the LDP leadership has decided to muddle the message of the bill. The LDP has produced a draft with language that calls for implementing "essential legislative measures by …
Dollars and yen(ts) (Noah Smith)
There's an interesting article in BusinessWeek asking whether Japan will intervene to push down the strengthening yen. The consensus seems to be that it will, even though such a policy is not necessarily optimal from an economic viewpoint, and may not in fact work. But a weak yen seems to still be an important part …
The conservatives humbled
Perhaps one of the positive consequences of Japan's economic crisis is that it has silenced Japan's conservatives.By silenced I do not mean literally silenced — they're still fulminating. What I mean is that they have been rendered irrelevant by events. Despite their media power, their ability to churn out a seemingly infinite amount of books, …
Obama says what Aso can’t
http://youtube.com/v/VjnygQ02aW4The impression I got from watching President Barack Obama's inaugural address is that he is acutely aware of the burden that has now fallen upon his shoulders.But I also think that in this address he accomplishes what Prime Minister Aso Taro has thus far failed to do. He does not hesitate to state his appreciation …
The LDP’s tax revolt
The upper house has begun debating the Aso government's second stimulus package and its controversial proposal to distribute roughly two trillion yen to Japanese citizens, 12,000 yen (US$132) per person in the hope of restarting the Japanese economy.At the same time, the LDP is in the midst what could be the climactic battle in a …
The LDP and the DPJ face the future
The LDP and the DPJ had their annual conventions in Tokyo over the weekend, steeling their resolve for the Diet session already underway and the general election that will occur within the year.For the second straight year, the incumbent LDP president and prime minister told the party faithful that the "responsible governing party" (how the …
Ambassador Schieffer’s farewell
J. Thomas Schieffer, US ambassador to Japan since 2005, left Japan Thursday.To mark his departure, Ambassador Schieffer gave a farewell address at the National Press Club in Tokyo Wednesday, followed by a long press conference that ranged over a host of topics, not all of them having to do with Japan and US-Japan relations.The central …
Departures
Watanabe Yoshimi is on his own.As Jun Okumura makes exceedingly clear, there is little chance that Mr. Watanabe will be joined by other LDP defectors in his effort to build a national movement to take down the old guard. (Although, surprisingly, Mr. Watanabe was joined by an LDP abstainer — Matsunami Kenta — in Tuesday's …
Tobias S. Harris 