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; …
Tag: party politics
Bait and switch
The HR passed the road construction bill a second time on Tuesday afternoon, as scheduled. Despite rumors to the contrary, there was no rebellion. Kono Taro and his comrades voted with the government, in the process illustrating why the much-anticipated political realignment has yet to occur: for all the discontent voiced by backbenchers about the …
Realignment scenarios
After months of talking about forming a new party, Hiranuma Takeo, a leading LDP postal rebel who spurned LDP efforts to bring him back into the party during the Abe era, may finally be taking steps to create a new conservative party that may yet be a fly in the LDP's ointment.Mr. Hiranuma has reportedly …
Why a realignment is inevitable
Janne Morén's recent post on institutional loyalty (thanks for the reminder, MTC) provides an excellent argument for why to anticipate a new political realignment in the near future.He writes:If we return to politics, the situation shares some similarities and there is a clear possibility of a similar dissolution of loyalty between lawmakers and their parties. …
A new 1955 system?
With Typhoon Fitow bearing down on the Kanto plain, I have decided to take shelter from the storm for the evening, and so there's no better time to step back and ponder the evolution of the Japanese party system.In the aftermath of the Upper House election, there was some talk of a political realignment as …
Tobias S. Harris 