Prime Minister Aso Taro is in Peru for this year's APEC summit, a summit that will undoubtedly be an even greater exercise in futility than usual.At home, his administration is faltering.He is under fire from within the LDP for recent gaffes. (It was only a matter of time before Mr. Aso talked without thinking.) The …
Tag: 2008 extraordinary session of the Diet
The DPJ gambles
Prime Minister Aso Taro returned from the G20 meeting in Washington and immediately met with Ozawa Ichiro to discuss the conclusion of the extraordinary session of the Diet.The LDP and the DPJ are set for another showdown over the MSDF refueling mission in the Indian Ocean, as the DPJ has announced that it will boycott …
Plus ça change…
There appears to be little doubt that on Thursday Aso Taro will announce a new set of economic measures — and will also announce that he will not schedule an election for the later part of November. Yomiuri reports that Oshima Tadanori, the LDP's parliamentary affairs chairman, has voiced his disagreement with the prime minister's …
Aso pushes back
Prime Minister Aso, holding a press conference in Beijing where he is attending the annual Asia-Europe meeting (ASEM), suggested that in the midst of the current crisis, he will be prioritizing Japan's international role over the "domestic political situation."The press interpretation of this remark is that Mr. Aso was signaling that he will not call …
Pushing on a string
During its long "lost decade," Japan became painfully acquainted with the concept of pushing on a string.In monetary policy, pushing on a string is when a central bank finds itself unable to reverse an economic downturn with customary monetary policy tools; famously, the Bank of Japan slashed nominal interest rates to zero without success in …
The DPJ embraces tactical retreat
Yamaoka Kenji, the DPJ's Diet strategy chairman, indicated in Diet proceedings Wednesday that the DPJ will consent to a quick vote on the bill extending the MSDF's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean. He didn't say that the DPJ would support it, of course, but he did say that the DPJ would consent to moving …
Ozawa responds
Two days after Aso Taro issued his challenge to the DPJ to put country first, DPJ President Ozawa Ichiro delivered his rebuttal to Mr. Aso's address.The speech was mostly a repeat of his speech last month to the DPJ convention following his uncontested reelection as DPJ president.In contrast to Mr. Aso, he provided a series …
Aso the exhorter
Prime Minister Aso Taro officially opened the extraordinary session of the Diet with his first policy address.Press coverage of the speech has uniformly characterized it as taking to the offensive to the DPJ.In the first portion of the speech, Mr. Aso suggested that in its opposition to government plans, the DPJ has put the people's …
Fukuda resigns
The autumn extraordinary session of the Diet has been looking quite similar to the 2007 extraordinary session of the Diet.We can discuss whether history rhymes or repeats, but one thing is clear:Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo has resigned, less than one year into his tenure as prime minister.The questions on the table are obvious. Will public …
Komeito riles the LDP
It is safe to assume that when Mori Yoshiro admonishes someone, the mood in the LDP is bleaker than previously thought.Mr. Mori, whose mission is not the advancement of an agenda of reform or reaction but the preservation of LDP primacy, has taken it upon himself to use his bully pulpit as a former prime …
Tobias S. Harris 