Jun Okumura notes that while the political world waits to find out whether Ozawa Ichiro will survive the scandal in his political organization, the DPJ has revived an approach pursued in the earlier half of this decade.The DPJ, he writes, banned contributions from the Japan Federation of Construction Contractors based on a recommendation in 2003 …
Tag: Hatoyama Yukio
The DPJ debates its election
The DPJ is scheduled to hold a leadership election in September.There is some debate about the election. Should the party even bother with an election (see this article in Liberal Time), or should it just reaffirm Ozawa Ichiro as party president to minimize the risk of election-related instability? Should it wait until September, when the …
Ishiba under fire from all sides
It looks like the Ministry of Defense's civilians and the JSDF may not have to fight Defense Minister Ishiba after all.In the aftermath of the collision between the Atago, one of the MSDF's most sophisticated Aegis-equipped destroyers, and a fishing boat on Tuesday, questions have been raised about the vulnerabilities of MSDF ships to terrorist …
Has Ozawa overstayed his welcome?
One consequence of a general election's being pushed back until this autumn at the earliest is that Ozawa Ichiro's term as DPJ president may expire before he gets his chance to risk his political career in a bid to unseat the LDP.There is a chance that his term could be extended without a party election, …
Bring on the family feud
Hatoyama Yukio, DPJ secretary-general and brother of justice minister Hatoyama Kunio, has responded to his brother's absurd comments about his "friend of a friend."This is the kind of thing we wonks were waiting for when Mr. Abe brought Kunio into the cabinet in August. Sooner or later there would be something that would require Yukio …
The non-debate debate continues
The government's new law on the MSDF refueling mission will be discussed in a plenary session of the House of Representatives this afternoon, in the midst of the widening scandal involving Moriya Takemasa and the Yamada Yoko corporation. As implicitly suggested by MTC, the Moriya scandal has provided the DPJ with yet another opportunity to …
Nakatani gives a gift, but to whom?
On Fuji Television on Sunday, Nakatani Gen, a former head of the (then) Japan Defense Agency (JDA), borrowed from George W. Bush and said, "Those who are opposed to this [the MSDF refueling mission] are nothing but terrorists." (Of course, not having watched the program, I'm forced to rely on newspaper accounts, such as this …
The Upper House elections and Japanese security policy
Of all the factors that went into the LDP's historic loss on Sunday, it is safe to assume that the security policy pursued under the Koizumi and Abe cabinets — an emphasis on the alliance with the US that has seen the JSDF deployed to the Indian Ocean and Iraq, albeit in non-combat roles — …
Continue reading The Upper House elections and Japanese security policy
Is the DPJ losing steam?
The DPJ's leadership, apparently looking at the same material I've been looking at, only more so, has concluded that its previously stated aim of fifty-five seats in the July 29 Upper House elections is too high. Says Mr. Ozawa, "In conditions like these, we will not reach our target of fifty-five seats."What I find interesting …
Tobias S. Harris 