The LDP has produced its campaign CM (easier than trying to say commercial, I guess).It is available here, at the LDP website.Abe Shinzo. Pomp and Circumstance. Economic growth.I really don't think further comment is necessary. At some point it just gets to be overkill.
Tag: Abe Shinzo
For the DPJ, the worse the better
With the Upper House elections little over a month away and public outrage over the pensions scandal seemingly unassuaged, the DPJ has found another angle to emphasize the government's indifference to the plight of the average Japanese citizen.A comic strip, available online here, is being distributed to voters in a flier, the cover of which …
Constitutions east and west
In his Sunday interview on NHK, Prime Minister Abe reiterated the importance of constitution revision as a point of contention in next month's Upper House election.Meanwhile, in Brussels this past weekend the European Union's member states concluded a treaty that wraps up the questions that were intended to be addressed by the nixed constitution. The …
A referendum?
Prime Minister Abe, speaking on NHK on Sunday, said that next month's elections will be a referendum on his government's record in office.Let that sink in for a moment.As I've argued before, what record exactly does the government have to run on? What does the government have to be proud of that will also attract …
What grades will Abe bring home at term’s end?
So the Diet session that was due to end this week has been extended an extra twelve days.In a press conference on Friday, Prime Minister Abe tried to dispel reports of dissent within the LDP on the question of extending the session — there has been a steady drumbeat of stories in the major dailies …
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In Abe’s Japan, everything’s fine
At the LDP website, it's 大丈夫 time. (For non-Japanese readers, the word is daijyoubu, and it means essentially "everything's fine" or "all right" — try saying it like a surfer dude.)On the main page, overlaid over a picture of cool-biz Abe with a gentle sky-blue background, are links to campaign materials that inform readers that …
What would a liberal Japan actually look like?
Project Syndicate has posted an essay based on a speech by Joseph Nye in Tokyo last month, in which he foresees the rise of a "liberal" Japan.Calling attention to Asahi's series of twenty-one editorials [series available at Japan Focus] outlining a vision for Japan, Nye argues on its behalf, observing that Asahi's vision provides a …
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Buying the hype?
Michael Auslin, a history professor at Yale and soon to be scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, has a somewhat challenging survey of contemporary Japan at American.com, AEI's online magazine.As the article's title — "A Beautiful Country" — suggests, Auslin buys into the confident rhetoric that has emanated from Tokyo in recent years, but at …
Death of the 1955 system? Greatly exaggerated.
With Prime Minister Abe turning his attention and blame to the hapless bureaucrats in the Social Insurance Agency — those bureaucrats who have served as the fly in his constitution revision ointment — the Japan Times published a piece by Philip Brasor discussing the actual conditions within the agency, and the bureaucrats who lorded over …
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Reading the proverbial tea leaves
In light of the new Asahi poll showing that the DPJ has expanded its lead in the proportional representation races for the Upper House, 29% to 23%, it is interesting to consider Shisaku's discussion of whether a Lower House election is also possible this year.Now, I don't disagree with his conclusion: "damnably unlikely." With its …
Tobias S. Harris 