June is approaching, and that means we're one month closer to the expiration of the anti-terror special measures law passed in January via Article 59.Both parties are stepping up their preparations for the fight over a new bill that will likely occur in the autumn special session.When the Fukuda government agreed to Komeito's demand to …
Tag: DPJ
The LDP and DPJ cooperate on space
The House of Councillors has, as expected, passed a new space basic law on the back of cooperation between the LDP, Komeito, and the DPJ.As noted previously, the law ends the 1969 ban on the use of space for military purposes, permitting the government to deploy high-resolution spy satellites. The law also calls for the …
The balkanization scenario
Sasayama Tatsuo, onetime HR member from Akita who followed Ozawa Ichiro out of the LDP in 1993 and remained with him through the New Frontier and Liberal party eras before losing his seat in 2000, has an idea for the future of the LDP that has the virtue of at least being different.Mr. Sasayama has …
The DPJ will use administrative reform as a wedge issue
With the government's having finally dispensed with the gasoline tax and road construction issues — for now — attention is now turning to other portions of the Fukuda agenda, such as it exists.Item number one is the government's — or perhaps more accurately, Administrative Reform Minister Watanabe Yoshimi's — administrative reform plan (previously discussed here). …
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Shuffling districts?
At a press conference Wednesday at DPJ headquarters, Ozawa Ichiro hinted at the possibility that he, along with several other prominent figures from the DPJ and other opposition parties, will change districts in the next general election to campaign against governing coalition heavyweights holding seats in Tokyo.Asahi suggests that if Mr. Ozawa makes the jump …
Bait and switch
The HR passed the road construction bill a second time on Tuesday afternoon, as scheduled. Despite rumors to the contrary, there was no rebellion. Kono Taro and his comrades voted with the government, in the process illustrating why the much-anticipated political realignment has yet to occur: for all the discontent voiced by backbenchers about the …
Realignment scenarios
After months of talking about forming a new party, Hiranuma Takeo, a leading LDP postal rebel who spurned LDP efforts to bring him back into the party during the Abe era, may finally be taking steps to create a new conservative party that may yet be a fly in the LDP's ointment.Mr. Hiranuma has reportedly …
The second override
The House of Councillors voted yesterday to reject the ten-year road construction plan passed by the House of Representatives in March. The bill was defeated 108 to 126, with DPJ (proportional representation) members Oe Yasuhiro and Watanabe Hideo rebelling against the party leadership to support the bill, and Kimata Yoshitake (Aichi) and Hironaka Wakako (Chiba) …
Boldly going where Japan has never gone before
Thanks to an agreement between the LDP, the DPJ, and Komeito, on Friday the HR's Cabinet committee passed a bill that revises Japanese space policy, lifting the 1969 ban on the military use of space. The bill, expected to pass the HR on Tuesday, will create a NASA-style agency attached to the cabinet as a …
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Sankei analyzes its polls
Sankei Shimbun, whose website is probably the best among the websites of the major dailies, is posting a four-part series of articles online that breakdown the newspaper's public opinion polls. (Three of four have already been posted.) Regardless of the analysis provided in these pieces, they are worth looking at because they provide fine-grained analysis …
Tobias S. Harris 