One thing that the Japanese press provides is copious amounts of numbers. Within hours of the start of the campaign Tuesday the media released data on the demographics of the 1374 candidates who will be vying for office.A few figures struck me as particularly important.It will be an election based on direct contests between the …
Tag: 2009 general election
The campaign begins
After nearly a month of "phony" campaigning — passed quickly, didn't it? — the campaign for the 30 August general election began today as candidates filed their paperwork and parties submitted their lists for proportional representation voting. The main difference from now is simply that the long list of restrictions included the Public Elections law …
How the DPJ can get Japan growing again
Growth or aid, Yomiuri tells us, is the key point of difference between government and opposition manifestos. The LDP wants to promote economic growth, while the DPJ stresses protection for citizens. Sankei says the same regarding Monday's debate among party leaders.All too often in recent months DPJ leaders have encouraged the idea that the LDP …
Chugoku, a conservative kingdom in decline?
This is the ninth installment in my general election guide. For an explanation of my purpose in making this guide, see here. For previous installments, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.The Chugoku regional block, at the western end of the island of Honshu, is comprised of Tottori, Shimane, Okayama, Hiroshima, and …
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Kinki, the metropolitan west
This is the eighth installment in my general election guide. For an explanation of my purpose in making this guide, see here. For previous installments, see here, here, here, here, here, here and here.The Kinki regional block, which includes Shiga prefecture, Kyoto, Osaka, and Hyogo, Nara, and Wakayama prefectures, elects forty-eight representatives from single-member districts …
2009 general election open thread #2
The general election campaign begins officially on Tuesday. In the meantime, here's a somewhat stylized picture I took outside Fussa station in Tokyo's twenty-fifth district.Nagashima Akihisa, the DPJ's candidate in Tokyo's twenty-first district, gives a speech on behalf of Masago Taro, the PNP candidate in the twenty-fifth district.Post your notes and observations from the campaign …
It’s not 1954 all over again
At a press conference over the weekend, Okada Katsuya, the DPJ's secretary-general stressed that because Hatoyama will be winning the mandate for the party, Hatoyama should serve a full four-year term (which, Okada stated, a DPJ government will serve so that it is able to accomplish its goals).After four prime ministers in four years, I …
Tokai, Japan’s industrial heartland — and a DPJ stronghold?
This is the seventh installment in my general election guide. For an explanation of my purpose in making this guide, see here. For previous installments, see here, here, here, here, here, and here.The Tokai block, comprised of Gifu, Shizuoka, Aichi, and Mie prefectures, is Japan's industrial heartland. Aichi, the fourth most populous prefecture, is home …
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Hokuriku-Shinetsu, favorable prospects for the DPJ
This is the sixth installment in my general election guide. For an explanation of my purpose in making this guide, see here. For previous installments, see here, here, here, here, and here.The Hokuriku-Shinetsu region, comprised of Niigata, Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui, and Nagano prefectures, has twenty single-member districts and eleven proportional representation seats.In 2005, opposition parties …
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Tokyo, reversing an LDP landslide?
Tokyo, the center of Japanese political and economic life, is growing more than any other jurisdiction — mostly by drawing people from other prefectures — and sends forty-two representatives to the Diet between its twenty-five single-member districts and its seventeen proportional representation seats.The LDP won twenty-three of twenty-five SMDS in 2005, with Komeito and the …
Tobias S. Harris 