The Japan Times has a brief article about the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' latest survey of Japan's population, conducted in October of last year.The survey found that Japan's population held steady at roughly 127 million people, but there was considerable change in the populations of Japan's prefectures, a continuation of the shift of …
Tag: Japanese democracy
Japan’s campaign trucks
Over at Japan Probe, James writes about Japan's ubiquitous -- during election season -- campaign sound trucks, about which I have a certain appreciation, having been on the working side of several election campaigns now. (See this post, for example.)As annoying as noise pollution is at 8:30am, foreigners resident in Japan must realize the severe …
Friction in the coalition?
The Mainichi Shimbun reports in a brief article that the New Komeito Party, the LDP's coalition partner, wants to maintain clauses one and two of Article 9 and does not seek the ability to exercise the right of collective self-defense.Surely a disagreement within the LDP-Komeito coalition on constitution revision and the related question of collective …
Ozawa Ichiro, Japan’s Gingrich?
Alex Pappas at Japundit calls attention to this recent Asahi article on DPJ President Ozawa Ichiro.When the political history of Japan during the two decades following the breakdown of the 1955 system is written -- although in The Logic of Japanese Politics, Gerald Curtis has already provided a fantastic account of change (or the lack …
LDP gloom in Kanagawa
In an article in yesterday's Shonan edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun -- as usual, not online -- entitled "The governor's expanding clout," LDP members of the Kanagawa prefectural assembly sound despondent in the face of Governor Matsuzawa's landslide victory Sunday, and, more significantly, the victory of DPJ and independent allies in campaigns for prefectural assembly …
The heart of the matter
What Japan Thinks published the results of a survey by the Cabinet Office of what the Japanese people think about their society.In part two, posted here, the survey found that approximately 75% of respondents answered in the negative to the question "do you think the government takes into consideration its citizens' opinions and thoughts." The …
Fukuyama on democracy
Francis Fukuyama, in a brief essay posted at the Guardian, argues against connecting his "end of history" thesis with the Bush administration's foreign policy. (Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan)I can think of few contemporary ideas that have been more misunderstood than Fukuyama's argument in his original essay "The End of History?" in The National Interest and …
The DPJ’s dilemma
With the Abe Cabinet determined to press ahead with passage of a bill establishing a national referendum system so that when the time comes a revised constitution can be submitted to a vote, the Democratic Party of Japan finds itself in something of a bind, because unlike previous opposition parties, the DPJ is not opposed …
George Bush helping Matsuoka?
George Bush, speaking to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, issued a challenge to Japan (and others):Today, more than 100 countries have fully or partially opened their markets to U.S. beef. The objective of this administration, however, is to make sure that they're better than partially opened, they're fully opened, including the countries like Japan and …
Food for thought
Nagashima Akihisa, international security policy expert and DPJ member of the Lower House, delivered questions in plenary session of the Lower House concerning the government's recently submitted bill on the realignment of US forces (discussed in this post).Nagashima's remarks, posted here at his blog (in Japanese), constitute a long explanation of the need for a …
Tobias S. Harris 