Sankei has published the fourth part of its analysis of recent public opinion polls (parts one through three discussed here).The questions dissected here are related to the government's use of its two-thirds majority to pass the gasoline tax and MSDF refueling mission authorization bills a second time in the HR, and cooperation between the LDP …
Tag: temporary gasoline tax
The DPJ botches the endgame again
After holding the line against the government — forcing it to use its supermajority to override the HC — in both the special session of the Diet (the MSDF refueling mission) and the current regular session (the temporary tax), the DPJ has been unable to find the right way to respond to the government's use …
A pyrrhic victory
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 …
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 …
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 …
The LDP and DPJ talk past each other
A six-party conference of government and opposition parties met Friday to negotiate a compromise on the future of the special fund for road construction. Debate will begin in earnest on Wednesday, a week before the governing coalition is expected to use its HR supermajority to reimpose the temporary gasoline tax.According to Mainichi, at the initial …
The unknown but limited power of the censure motion
During the fight over the MSDF refueling mission and at other junctures in the months since the DPJ took control of the HC, the DPJ has threatened to use its "censure motion" card. It has yet to play it, whether against Prime Minister Fukuda or one of his cabinet ministers.It is still unknown what will …
Continue reading The unknown but limited power of the censure motion
Is a tax revote a sure thing?
Yamamoto Ichita, who is a far more prolific blogger than I despite (because of?) his membership in the House of Councillors (I've just added his blog to the blogroll after linking to him for months), lays out the reasons why the government must use the HR supermajority to reintroduce the temporary tax.His four reasons are: …
Three weeks and counting
Aso Taro continues to position himself as the LDP's savior in a rapidly approaching post-Fukuda period — in MTC's extended (and excellent) Fukuda-as-currency analogy, Mr. Aso is hoping that he is the best store of value in a chaotic environment.His latest move is to come out on behalf of the restoration of the temporary tax …
The imperial guard coalesces
It's been less than a week since Prime Minister Fukuda made his eleventh hour appeal to the DPJ to cooperate in the gasoline tax/road construction dispute, discarding much of the road tribe's program in the process and leading Kono Taro to remark (noted here) that the young reformers had gone "from opposition forces to imperial …
Tobias S. Harris 