Japan's "temporary" gasoline surcharge holiday is over, just as the Japanese people set off on their Golden Week holidays.The government will use its HR supermajority to reinstate the temporary tax Wednesday, ensuring that the surcharge is in place for the start of the new month.The opposition parties have, of course, strongly criticized the government's decision …
Tag: LDP
The DPJ’s way forward should not include Hiranuma
Convinced that a major electoral breakthrough is at hand following Hiraoka Hideo's impressive victory in Yamaguchi-2 Sunday, the DPJ leadership (a.ka., Ozawa Ichiro) has decided that it will continue to try to force the government to dissolve the HR and call a general election.To that end, Mr. Ozawa indicated yesterday that the DPJ will push …
Continue reading The DPJ’s way forward should not include Hiranuma
Dissecting Hiraoka’s victory
It is probably safe to call Hiraoka Hideo's victory in Yamaguchi-2 resounding.He received 116,348 votes, approximately 13,000 more votes than he received in 2005 when he lost to Fukuda Yoshihiko and 7,000 more votes than his previous high (109,647), which he received running for reelection in 2003. He received 22,000 votes than the LDP's Yamamoto …
Hiraoka wins
As expected, Prime Minister Fukuda was welcomed back to Japan after his trip to Russia by a DPJ victory in the Yamaguchi-2 by-election.Hiraoka Hideo defeated the LDP's Yamamoto Shigetaro by a still unknown margin of victory. Mainichi reports that the turnout rate was 69%, a fall from 2005's 72.45%.It's hard to make any definite conclusions …
Koizumi Junichiro, whipping boy
"The nonsense of public opinion that hopes for Pitcher Koizumi, ringleader in making an unequal society, to take the mound again."So reads the headline of an opinion piece at JanJan by Sato Shuichi, a journalist and activist.Sato uses an extended — and I mean extended — baseball metaphor to discuss the transfer of power from …
Counting down to X-Day
With less than a week until 30 April — "X-Day" — when the government intends to bring the tax bill to a vote in the HR again, the DPJ is apparently stepping away from threats to censure the government in response to the revote.Kan Naoto indicated at a press conference Thursday that the party has …
The race for defense ministry reform
Back in February, when Defense Minister Ishiba Shigeru was threatened with censure for his ministry's dilatory response to the Atago incident, Prime Minister Fukuda gave Mr. Ishiba a firm vote of confidence, calling upon the defense minister to "review the organization from its very foundation."It appears that Mr. Fukuda's support for comprehensive defense ministry reform …
Koike fever?
Within days of Mori Yoshiro's calling the prospect of Korike Yuriko, former defense minister, a "joke," Sankei writes that "Koike fever" is taking hold — even though Ms. Koike claims to share Mr. Mori's assessment of a Koike candidacy.The basis for this "fever" is unclear to me.The examples cited by Sankei? A long speech to …
Koizumi goes to work for the government?
The Fukuda government has announced that it will definitely proceed with plans to submit the tax bill to the HR for a second vote on 30 April, the day after the expiration of the sixty-day Article 59 window. No word from Asahi or Mainichi about whether the LDP and Komeito will face defections when the …
DPJ cruising to victory in Yamaguchi-2
As expected, the DPJ's Hiraoka Hideo is in a strong position with less than a week before the by-election in Yamaguchi's second district.A poll conducted by Mainichi over the weekend reveals that voters' concerns favor the DPJ. Health and welfare policy are the top priority (22%), followed by the pensions problem (20%), administrative reform (14%), …
Tobias S. Harris 