Former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has been back in the headlines this week, first for his return to the Machimura faction, which he left when he became prime minister, second for the announcement that he will chair an LDP study group related to the implementation of his "Cool Earth 50" initiative. The latter prompted Asahi …
Tag: LDP
Ozawa foresees an early election
As the natural culmination of the shift in momentum that has the DPJ pressuring the government on all fronts and feeling confident enough to boycott HC deliberations to protest the government's passage of the FY 2008 budget last week, the DPJ is once again preparing for an early general election.Speaking to reporters in Hamamatsu, Ozawa …
The reinvention of Aso Taro
Speaking in Yokohama on Monday, Aso Taro, former foreign minister and LDP secretary-general, and conservative stalwart, called for an LDP-DPJ compromise on the road construction fund, emphasizing the need for mutual consent.So continues the reinvention of Mr. Aso in advance of his next bid for the LDP presidency.As I noted last month, Mr. Aso has …
More discouraging numbers for Fukuda
Following on the heels of a Mainichi poll that shows a public both increasingly opposed to the Fukuda government and its plans related to the temporary gasoline tax and the road construction plan and eager for the LDP and DPJ to compromise (discussed in this post by Jun Okumura), Asahi has released its first opinion …
Playing politics
For the second time in as many days, I have read of LDP members complaining of the DPJ's "playing politics" with matters of national import.Yesterday I mentioned that Ibuki Bunmei complained about the DPJ's introducing politics into the debate over BOJ succession.Today I read a column by Nakagawa Shoichi in which he chides the DPJ …
Hosokawa-Koizumi New Party?
Facta, a monthly, has a short item available at Yahoo! Japan's Minna no Seiji site speculating about a February meeting between former prime ministers Hosokawa and Koizumi.Mr. Hosokawa, who after heading up the first non-LDP government left politics to seclude himself in Kanagawa and work as an artist, met secretly with Mr. Koizumi in late …
The DPJ keeps pushing
With the Fukuda cabinet's popularity in free fall thanks to the fallout from the Atago incident, the DPJ's stance on the government's nomination of Muto Toshiro to be the next BOJ president has become decidedly less ambiguous. The DPJ has indicated that there is no chance of its consenting to Mr. Muto's nomination.In response, Ibuki …
The LDP’s personal-ideological struggles
Several media outlets, including Sankei and Jiji, have reported on comments by Kato Koichi, former LDP secretary-general and Kochikai faction leader, in which he declared, "The YKK is over."The YKK, which stands for Yamasaki (Taku), Kato (Koichi), Koizumi (Junichiro), was a political alliance formed in the early 1990s in opposition to the Tanakist politics of …
The DPJ gets its groove back (for now)
The past six months in Japanese politics have seen some surprising and unexpected events and reversals of momentum — and it looks as if we're in the midst of the latest shift in momentum. The DPJ, after a shaky start to the current Diet session following the government's deft maneuvering on the MSDF refueling mission …
Fukuda falls, Masuzoe rises
Sankei has published an article breaking down the factors in the Fukuda cabinet's falling poll numbers — and notes an interesting finding.Among the people who replied to the question asking them to evaluate Masuzoe Yoichi, minister of health and welfare, 72% replied favorably, making him the highest rated among eleven Diet members included in the …
Tobias S. Harris 