There is no question now that the outlook for the next general election — which a growing number of LDP officials are reportedly arguing should be held after dissolving the Diet in May — is muddier than before. The scandal in Ozawa Ichiro's political organization has overshadowed all else, including the re-passage this week of …
Tag: Nikai Toshihiro
Meet the new Fukuda cabinet
I am in Los Angeles on a brief layover before heading to Chicago, so I don't have time to offer a more thorough discussion of the Fukuda reshuffle.For something more than my cursory remarks, I strongly recommend Jun Okumura's take and MTC's two posts.Readers will not be surprised to learn that I am underwhelmed by …
Post-summit election?
In recent days, the message from the LDP's leaders has been that the government is considering calling a general election later in 2008, following the G8 summit to be held in Hokkaido in July.Nikai Toshihiro, chairman of the LDP's executive council, argued in a speech in Osaka on Saturday for a post-summit election, suggesting that …
Perilous weeks ahead
Prime Minister Fukuda, as I expected when he was chosen as prime minister in late September, has shown himself to be far more adept than most commentators expected. (And one hears fewer complaints about Mr. Fukuda's being a government of factions — I have no doubt that this is Mr. Fukuda's government.)But while he has …
Reshuffle day — LDP leadership
NHK has just announced the new LDP leadership, and in general it looks to be a better team than that which served for the past year.As expected, Aso Taro (Aso faction, 66) has been moved over to party headquarters to become LDP secretary-general; whether this will be a career cul-de-sac for Aso remains to be …
A step forward?
It seems that incumbent LDP Diet Strategy Committee Chairman Nikai Toshihiro is being considered as Shiozaki Yasuhisa's replacement as chief cabinet secretary. Nikai, a onetime member of the Takeshita faction (like Ozawa) who left the LDP to join former Prime Minister Hosokawa's Japan Renewal Party in 1993 and served as a vice-minister in Hosokawa's cabinet, …
Tobias S. Harris 