When the Hosokawa government — with Ozawa Ichiro, then secretary-general of one of the leading parties of the eight-party coalition backing the government — passed electoral reform in 1994, one of the arguments made then and ever since by Japanese politicians (and American political scientists) was that the new mixed single-member district/proportional representation electoral system …
Tag: Watanabe Yoshimi
"The DPJ that does not do any pork-barrel spending"
Watanabe Yoshimi and Asao Keiichiro, who, along with Eda Kenji are the three "partners" at the head of the Minna no to (Your Party), gave a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan this afternoon to explain their purposes to the foreign press.The value of the talk was in providing information about how …
Continue reading "The DPJ that does not do any pork-barrel spending"
Another Koizumi child leaves the LDP
As expected, despite their tenuous position in the party (and their bleak electoral prospects), the LDP has not seen young reformists rush to exit the party and sign on with Watanabe Yoshimi's Your Party.Only a small number has left, one by one, and with only a week until the campaign officially begins, presumably not many …
One more for Watanabe?
Watanabe Yoshimi, the onetime cabinet minister who left the LDP earlier this year to form a reformist "third force" with independent Eda Kenji, is still preparing to launch a new party before next month's general election. But while the prospects for his incipient (and still nameless) party looked bright as the reformist rebellion against Prime …
The LDP’s disorder deepens, but it remains one party — for now
Asō Tarō's decision to dissolve the Diet on 21 July and hold a general election on 30 August rippled through the LDP on Tuesday, as the prime minister's critics increasingly recognized that with the political system shifting into election mode, the window of opportunity to replace Asō is closing.Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintarō, whose position was …
Continue reading The LDP’s disorder deepens, but it remains one party — for now
Departures
Watanabe Yoshimi is on his own.As Jun Okumura makes exceedingly clear, there is little chance that Mr. Watanabe will be joined by other LDP defectors in his effort to build a national movement to take down the old guard. (Although, surprisingly, Mr. Watanabe was joined by an LDP abstainer — Matsunami Kenta — in Tuesday's …
LDP members respond to Watanabe
Yamauchi Koichi, a first-term LDP member from Kanagawa's ninth district, making him a Koizumi child, has offered his response to Watanabe Yoshimi's leaving the LDP at his blog, a response that I think is typical of the Koizumi children as a whole.Mr. Yamauchi shares Mr. Watanabe's ideas of political and economic reform and is thus …
Aso the impervious?
The bad news keeps coming for Prime Minister Aso Taro.He has been hit with another wave of negative poll results. In Yomiuri, his approval rating is a hair over 20%, while his disapproval has broken 70%, rising to 72.3%. In the same poll, Ozawa Ichiro remains gained another three points in the question of who …
Watanabe to LDP: I’m outta here
It appears that Watanabe Yoshimi is nearing a decision regarding his future in the LDP. With the second stimulus package scheduled to come to a vote on January 13, Mr. Watanabe could leave the LDP in a matter of days.Mr. Watanabe appears to be working hard to exacerbate tensions with the LDP. Not surprisingly, the …
Before the deluge
After an abbreviated recess, the Diet will reconvene today for its 2009 ordinary session.The situation facing Aso Taro, his party, and his country is dire, and growing darker by the day. The latest development is the tent village — is it appropriate to call it an Asoville or Aso-mura? — that has been growing in …
Tobias S. Harris 