Publicly, Mr. Ozawa and the DPJ leadership remain determined to push for a general election. At a meeting of prefectural chapter heads last week, Mr. Ozawa spoke of intensifying the party's preparations for a general election and outlined the DPJ's four principles for a general election campaign: (1) not standing candidates in all 300 electoral …
Continue reading Is a snap election within the next seven months likely?
Subscribers to the Far Eastern Economic Review can read my take on Mr. Fukuda's prospects in the October issue (online here).(And readers of FEER's dead-tree edition will be able to see my face in the table of contents.)
Jun Okumura comments on an Asahi article — available here — that discusses former Prime Minister Koizumi's speech to a meeting of the Machimura faction, in which he described the DPJ as being akin to the LDP anti-mainstream. Now, this might strike some as a strange, but it's actually an apt description for the current …
With the special session of the Diet session now in full swing, both the LDP and the DPJ are learning how to function in an unprecedented political environment. Barring the government's somehow folding and calling an early election — essentially giving up its Lower House supermajority, its one trump card — both parties will have …
In case anyone thinks that the DPJ will buy the dodge attempted by CCS Machimura on The Sunday Project — discussed by Jun Okumura in this post — this post by Nagashima Akihisa should disabuse you of that notion.Mr. Machimura attempted to shift the blame to the US for reports that US warships used Japanese-provided …
Prime Minister Fukuda delivered his maiden speech to the Diet this afternoon, reopening legislative business after an unscheduled three-week abeyance.If Mr. Fukuda was trying to differentiate himself from his successor, he succeeded admirably. Mr. Abe's way of politics was not just ideological, but inflexibly ideological. For Mr. Abe, it was always "my way or the …
Following on Asahi's report on Mr. Ozawa's order to the DPJ to prepare a storm of legislation, Sankei provides a fuller survey of the DPJ's arsenal as it prepares for battle against Mr. Fukuda.One pillar is, of course, submitting a host of legislation to the Upper House. Sankei notes that in at least one case, …
In a year that has been nothing but hurricane-strength headwinds for the LDP, the party has for the first time in months a wind at its back.The talk of the day is, of course, the first opinion polls on the Fukuda cabinet, which show, across the board, a considerable boost for Mr. Fukuda and the …
Following this post from last week, this article in Mainichi today caught my eye:Fukuda cabinet: many common points between father and sonComing to the plate in a "ninth inning, two outs, bases loaded" crisisThe article proceeds to discuss the number of similarities between the circumstances faced by Fukuda the elder and Fukuda the younger, not …
The first day of the Fukuda cabinet has passed, and the new prime minister has already put himself in about as advantageous a position as possible in light of the difficult circumstances in which he has taken office.Criticism from the opposition and the media about the return of the factions notwithstanding, Mr. Fukuda has ensured …
Tobias S. Harris 