During its long "lost decade," Japan became painfully acquainted with the concept of pushing on a string.In monetary policy, pushing on a string is when a central bank finds itself unable to reverse an economic downturn with customary monetary policy tools; famously, the Bank of Japan slashed nominal interest rates to zero without success in …
Tag: Japanese public opinion
The LDP looks to delay a general election
His poll numbers slipping (even in Yomiuri, in whose latest poll his approval rating fell 3.6% to 45.9% and his disapproval rating rose 5.2% to 38.6%), the financial system collapsing, the US "passing" Japan on North Korea, and the DPJ refusing to provide an issue with which the government can galvanize public opinion (for now), …
Aso stumbles out of the gate
In Asahi's latest opinion poll, the Aso cabinet's approval rating fell seven points to 41%, and its disapproval rating rose six points to 42%. The skepticism of nonaligned voters about Aso Taro continues to grow, at least in this poll: the approval rating among nonaligned voters fell seven points to 24% and rose seven points …
Aso aims for his base
It seems that in sweeping to office with the support of two thirds of the votes in the LDP presidential election, and with even more support among the party's rank-and-file supporters, Aso Taro has decided that the key to winning the next general election is...satisfying his electoral base?Has Mr. Aso been talking with Karl Rove?All …
The Japanese public decides to wait and see on Aso
On Sunday, I suggested that Aso Taro would not enjoy the honeymoon enjoyed by his predecessors upon becoming prime minister.Now that the first opinion polls are in, it is clear that the public is losing its tolerance for LDP inaction.There was talk that the Aso cabinet might receive public approval in the sixties; isn't that …
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Aso seals the deal, and the LDP pats itself on the back
The campaign to replace Fukuda Yasuo as LDP president and prime minister officially began on Wednesday, with the five candidates — Aso Taro, Koike Yuriko, Yosano Kaoru, Ishihara Nobuteru, and Ishiba Shigeru — holding a joint press conference before traveling the country to campaign.The press conference makes clear just how farcical claims of the LDP's …
Continue reading Aso seals the deal, and the LDP pats itself on the back
The Fukuda government’s China tightrope walk
The gyoza scandal reopened just as the Beijing Olympics opened, with the Fukuda government on the defensive in light of revelations that it acceded to the Chinese government's request that Tokyo not release information about the presence of poisoned dumplings within China.Part of the problem is a statement by newly appointed MAFF minister Ota Seiichi, …
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They like him, they really, really like him…but will it matter?
Jun Okumura provides a convenient breakdown of the initial polls pertaining to the Fukuda reshuffle.The bounce to Prime Minister Fukuda appears to have been somewhere around five percentage points, excluding Yomiuri's freakish poll recording a fourteen-point increase (a poll that can't be compared with earlier Yomiuri polls due to a differing methodology).What I found interesting, …
Continue reading They like him, they really, really like him…but will it matter?
More stress headed Fukuda’s way
Prime Minister Fukuda held a press conference Tuesday with journalists from foreign wire services at which he said in response to a question about whether it is fun being prime minister, "It's not fun! It's like a painful lump." To deal with stress, he told the reporters that he sleeps and drinks wine.Little wonder that …
Nakagawa sees an end to the Fukuda slide
Break out the champagne! The prime minister's slide has stopped!So declares Nakagawa Hidenao, in response to a Hodo 2001 poll that showed Mr. Fukuda's approval rating rise four points to 24.2% and his disapproval rating fall two points to 70%.A net six-point shift in a single poll (which is limited to 500 people in the …
Tobias S. Harris 