Fukuda Yasuo, done playing the (overly) generous host in Toyako, is back in Tokyo to face his ever growing pile of problems.First on the agenda is, of course, the question of whether he should reshuffle his cabinet before going into the autumn extraordinary session.After meeting with Ibuki Bunmei, LDP secretary-general, at the Kantei on Thursday, …
Tag: LDP
Maehara backs down?
The DPJ is increasingly focused on its forthcoming leadership election, the date of which has been set for 21 September, with the campaign's official start set for two weeks prior.The DPJ's anti-Ozawa groups have still not agreed upon a candidate to stand against Ozawa Ichiro, while Hatoyama Yukio and Kan Naoto have both expressed their …
Banning hereditary politicians
Koga Makoto, the LDP's chief election strategist, spoke in Fukuoka on Monday, where he suggested that the government might not wait until September 2009 to call an election after all. He noted that the prime minister might instead decide to call an election in early 2009, before the start of the ordinary Diet session, or …
Fixing Fukuda’s "good enough" cabinet
After Koizumi Junichiro called upon Prime Minister Fukuda to decide whether to shuffle his cabinet in the coming months, Mori Yoshiro — Mr. Fukuda's so-called "guardian" and an advocate of a reshuffle — and Kato Koichi suggested that the prime minister should form a new cabinet before the start of the extraordinary Diet session in …
Koizumi tells Fukuda to lead
Fukuda Yasuo, faced with growing complaints about his deficiencies as a leader, now has a new critic: Koizumi Junichiro.In a speech in Tokyo Thursday, the former prime minister asked the prime minister to make a decision about a cabinet reshuffle, saying that he will support the prime minister once he makes a decision – even …
Hashimoto Daijiro: key to a DPJ government?
As noted by MTC in this post, Hashimoto Daijiro, who served as governor of Kochi prefecture for sixteen years (1991-2007), has announced that before the next general election he will create a new party dedicated to radical decentralization that will give prefectural and local governments the tools with which to tackle socio-economic problems that have …
Continue reading Hashimoto Daijiro: key to a DPJ government?
The LDP is shocked — shocked! — to find waste in the budget
I previously wrote that the LDP, in the midst of a debate over whether and when to raise the consumption tax to cover growing pensions liabilities, also organized a project team — headed by Sonoda Hiroyuki and staffed with fervent young reformists like Kono Taro and Yamamoto Ichita — with the purpose of identifying "waste" …
Continue reading The LDP is shocked — shocked! — to find waste in the budget
Cracks in the Machimura faction?
Will the Machimura faction, the LDP's largest with eighty-eight members in the two houses of the Diet, be the victim of its own success?Mainichi reported over the weekend that the Machimura faction — still unclear on who it should support as Fukuda Yasuo's successor, may be on the brink of splitting. The reason? As a …
An Ozawa indiscretion?
Ozawa Ichiro's comments on the US decision to proceed with removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism — mentioned here in passing — have apparently caused a tempest in Washington, as US Asia watchers have taken issue with his claim that the US "never" takes Japan's wishes into account when making …
Web developments
The Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest daily by circulation, is finally entering the twenty-first century.Earlier this month it revamped its website, introducing an RSS feed and other web tools. It also created a clipping service, for which users must register.Meanwhile Japan's other political parties have followed the LDP and created YouTube channels of their own (DPJ; …
Tobias S. Harris 