The LDP appears to have forged a truce in the incipient war over writing the timing of a consumption tax increase into law.In the best LDP tradition, the LDP leadership has decided to muddle the message of the bill. The LDP has produced a draft with language that calls for implementing "essential legislative measures by …
Tag: global financial crisis
The conservatives humbled
Perhaps one of the positive consequences of Japan's economic crisis is that it has silenced Japan's conservatives.By silenced I do not mean literally silenced — they're still fulminating. What I mean is that they have been rendered irrelevant by events. Despite their media power, their ability to churn out a seemingly infinite amount of books, …
Obama says what Aso can’t
http://youtube.com/v/VjnygQ02aW4The impression I got from watching President Barack Obama's inaugural address is that he is acutely aware of the burden that has now fallen upon his shoulders.But I also think that in this address he accomplishes what Prime Minister Aso Taro has thus far failed to do. He does not hesitate to state his appreciation …
Omission vs. commission (Noah Smith)
There's been some discussion on this blog about how much responsibility the LDP bears for Japan's current economic woes. Has Japan been helplessly swept up in a crisis of America's making? Or did LDP policies leave Japan more vulnerable than necessary to the storms sweeping the global economy?The answer, as I see it, is "both." …
Mr. Aso’s unbearable optimism
In his book Totetsumonai Nihon (2007), Aso Taro outlined an approach to governing Japan that amounts to a pep talk for the dispirited Japanese people.Time and time again, Mr. Aso suggests that the key to saving Japan is for its people to rediscover and celebrate their "latent power," to look cheerfully to the future, and …
Endgame
As 2008 enters its final week, the LDP and Aso Taro, its beleaguered head, are being written off as doomed in the year to come.No one, it seems, is willing to offer an explanation for how the LDP can save itself in a general election. The LDP may yet win the general election, but its …
Tobias S. Harris 