Fukuda Yasuo, done playing the (overly) generous host in Toyako, is back in Tokyo to face his ever growing pile of problems.First on the agenda is, of course, the question of whether he should reshuffle his cabinet before going into the autumn extraordinary session.After meeting with Ibuki Bunmei, LDP secretary-general, at the Kantei on Thursday, …
Tag: Fukuda cabinet
Fixing Fukuda’s "good enough" cabinet
After Koizumi Junichiro called upon Prime Minister Fukuda to decide whether to shuffle his cabinet in the coming months, Mori Yoshiro — Mr. Fukuda's so-called "guardian" and an advocate of a reshuffle — and Kato Koichi suggested that the prime minister should form a new cabinet before the start of the extraordinary Diet session in …
Koizumi tells Fukuda to lead
Fukuda Yasuo, faced with growing complaints about his deficiencies as a leader, now has a new critic: Koizumi Junichiro.In a speech in Tokyo Thursday, the former prime minister asked the prime minister to make a decision about a cabinet reshuffle, saying that he will support the prime minister once he makes a decision – even …
The LDP is shocked — shocked! — to find waste in the budget
I previously wrote that the LDP, in the midst of a debate over whether and when to raise the consumption tax to cover growing pensions liabilities, also organized a project team — headed by Sonoda Hiroyuki and staffed with fervent young reformists like Kono Taro and Yamamoto Ichita — with the purpose of identifying "waste" …
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Censured!
As planned, the House of Councillors passed a non-binding censure motion against the Fukuda government this evening.It should be noted that the upper house passed twelve bills — including four government bills — on Tuesday, bypassing normal deliberation to clear the agenda for the censure motion. Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't the DPJ …
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 …
Fukuda loses another crutch
Following polls that showed the DPJ edging ahead of the LDP in party approval ratings and Mr. Fukuda's approval ratings falling to record lows — the lowest being Mainichi's 18% — Mr. Fukuda has suffered another blow in the latest Mainichi poll.If the claim that the "LDP is still more popular than the DPJ" was …
So much for the LDP’s popularity
In recent weeks, some LDP leaders, hinting that the party might be willing to consider calling a general election sometime before September 2009, pointed to the party's ratings in public opinion polls. Polls have consistently shown the LDP polling higher than the DPJ, even as Prime Minister Fukuda's popularity has tanked. On this point, I …
Speaking of democracy
Addressing the DPJ's rejection of the nomination of Watanabe Hiroshi to be deputy governor of the Bank of Japan at a press conference Wednesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Machimura Nobutaka commented upon the internal dynamics of the DPJ. He said, "Although a majority of the DPJ's investigatory subcommittee on joint personnel decisions approved the nomination, I …
The government serves up a weak adminstrative reform bill
On Thursday morning the LDP's headquarters for the promotion of administrative reform approved an administrative reform plan and passed it along to the cabinet. The cabinet approved it Friday morning and will submit it to the Diet later today.The plan still calls for a new cabinet personnel agency and restrictions on direct contact between politicians …
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Tobias S. Harris 