Ozawa Ichiro's path to reelection as head of the DPJ is increasingly open. Despite bold words from the leading lights of the DPJ's anti-Ozawa wing, one after the other has opted not to challenge Mr. Ozawa in next month's election for the party leadership.Despite demands form Maehara Seiji and his fellow young turks that the …
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.
Blogging again
I must apologize for the absence of the past several days.Between moving to Greater Boston and being transfixed by events in the Caucasus, I've found it hard to write about developments in Japanese politics.Blogging will resume momentarily.
Maehara will not run
In case there were any doubts about Ozawa Ichiro's reelection chances as head of the DPJ, Maehara Seiji has announced that despite his problems with Ozawa Ichiro's leadership, he will not run against Mr. Ozawa in the September leadership election.Speaking at Japan's national press club Wednesday, Mr. Maehara reiterated his desire to see a new …
Ozawa unconcerned
The campaign for the DPJ's 21 Sept. leadership election will begin in just over one month.Not surprisingly, no candidate has stepped forward to challenge Ozawa Ichiro in his bid for a third time. Mr. Ozawa has announced that he will not be thinking about the party election until after next week's Obon holiday.One by one, …
Recipe for disaster
The more I look at the new Fukuda cabinet and its first days in office, the more I'm convinced that the Fukuda cabinet is, in MTC's words, designed to "set up the LDP for a wipeout in the next House of Representatives election."In bringing Kaoru Yosano into the cabinet while also giving Nakagawa Hidenao a …
Flailing Fukuda
I have an op-ed on the Fukuda reshuffle in the Tuesday edition of the Wall Street Asia.It can be found online here.
They like him, they really, really like him…but will it matter?
Jun Okumura provides a convenient breakdown of the initial polls pertaining to the Fukuda reshuffle.The bounce to Prime Minister Fukuda appears to have been somewhere around five percentage points, excluding Yomiuri's freakish poll recording a fourteen-point increase (a poll that can't be compared with earlier Yomiuri polls due to a differing methodology).What I found interesting, …
Continue reading They like him, they really, really like him…but will it matter?
Change in Ichigaya
With the Fukuda cabinet reshuffle, Hayashi Yoshimasa becomes Japan's fourth defense minister in the past twelve months.Of all the changes in the reshuffle, the ousting of Ishiba Shigeru is perplexing.The prime minister had given Mr. Ishiba his vote of confidence in the midst of calls for his resignation in the wake of the Atago incident, …
Meet the new Fukuda cabinet
I am in Los Angeles on a brief layover before heading to Chicago, so I don't have time to offer a more thorough discussion of the Fukuda reshuffle.For something more than my cursory remarks, I strongly recommend Jun Okumura's take and MTC's two posts.Readers will not be surprised to learn that I am underwhelmed by …
Reshuffle questions
It appears that the new cabinet won't be announced until Friday evening, after my departure from Narita, so it looks like readers will have to wait until tomorrow for my thoughts on the prime minister's choices.But my thinking on the fundamental unsoundness of Fukuda Yasuo's decision to reshuffle remains unchanged. (Readers can find my thread …
Tobias S. Harris 