After suggesting at the start of the week that he would hold off on announcing appointments, Hatoyama Yukio, a day after announcing that Ozawa Ichiro would serve as secretary-general of the DPJ, has announced his chief cabinet secretary, Hirano Hirofumi, a five-term representative from Osaka.Hirano is one of Hatoyama's three closest lieutenants, along with Ozawa …
Continue reading Hatoyama, changing his mind, will appoint senior officials quickly
Hatoyama Yukio has made perhaps the most important personnel decision that he will have to make as the DPJ transitions into power. Ozawa Ichiro, his predecessor as DPJ leader, architect of the DPJ's election victory, and without question the most powerful figure within the DPJ, will serve as the party's secretary-general.The reason why this decision …
Hatoyama Yukio's essay in VOICE has officially become a problem for his government-in-waiting.The latest sign of discord is a New York Times article documenting fears in Washington about the incoming Hatoyama government and the DPJ more generally. Indeed, the article reads like a catalog of the myths and exaggerations surrounding the DPJ in the US …
In case anyone doubted that the conservative media will have it out for the incoming DPJ government, the Sankei Shimbun has done everyone a favor and admitted that, like the LDP, it has gone into opposition.Sankei's city desk recently established a Twitter feed, at which the following was posted on 30 August even before voting …
With the DPJ's ranks swelling to 417 Diet members between both houses, some in the party are asking whether the party needs to move its headquarters into a larger space.The DPJ currently rents eight floors in a twelve-story building across the way from the National Diet Library in Nagata-cho, with floor space totaling approximately 3000 …
After negotiations between the DPJ and the LDP, the parties have agreed that a special session will be convened on 16 September to elect Hatoyama Yukio as Japan's prime minister. The DPJ had wanted the session to meet on the 15th, which was apparently inconvenient for the Emperor. With the prime minister and his cabinet …
The DPJ is transitioning into power, and Hatoyama Yukio is doing burasagari press conferences again after not doing them during the campaign.(For those wondering what burasagari means, it simply refers to impromptu press conferences given by politicians to reporters as the politicians walk to or from, say, a car. The term, which means "hanging" or …
Bright and early this morning, I somehow managed to speak coherently (I think?) about the DPJ's plans for the government.http://plus.cnbc.com/rssvideosearch/action/player/id/1232917692/code/cnbcplayershare
Responding to yesterday's election, President Barack Obama has issued an innocuous statement congratulating Japan on its "historic election," but the Obama administration appears that it will waste no time in establishing the terms of the relationship with the Hatoyama government.Yomiuri reports that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will be visiting Japan in mid-October for discussions …
Fresh after barely escaping with his political life, Nakagawa Hidenao — who you will recall failed to unseat Aso Taro as LDP leader in July and then stressed that the DPJ would destroy Japan and had to be stopped — has announced that he wants to stand in the election to succeed Aso as LDP …
Tobias S. Harris 