Japan’s new centre-left government is due to take power on Wednesday in a fresh start for Asia’s top economy, which has been under conservative rule for almost all of the post-war era. Yukio Hatoyama, head of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), was to be voted in as prime minister two and a
Posts Tagged ‘dpj’
Business in Japan under the DPJ: New bosses
September 3rd, 2009 |
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The effect on business of the change of government in Japan is likely to be subtle but profound
AMONG Japan’s many inventions in the 20th century was the “developmental state”, an alliance between government and business to direct industry and set economic priorities. For most of the post-war period it was phenomenally successful, transforming the country into the world’s second largest economy. So was the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which embraced this approach during over 50 years of almost uninterrupted sway. But in elections on August 30th the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) trounced the LDP. Given the active role that the state still plays in the economy, the change may be as sweeping for business as it is for politics.
The relations that big business nurtured with the LDP for decades now count for little. The 1,400 firms of Keidanren, a powerful business lobby, for example, donated around $30m to the LDP in 2007 compared with less than $1m to the DPJ (though Keidanren itself declined to endorse a party in the election). …
Japan’s victorious Democrats start forming government
September 1st, 2009 |
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Japan’s Democratic Party began talks on Monday on forming a new government, faced with the challenge of reviving the economy and reshaping ties with key allies after its crushing election win. Yukio Hatoyama’s centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is under heavy pressure to get to work
Promises, promises
August 3rd, 2009 |
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One of the world’s most entrenched political parties faces the fight of its life in Japan
FOR more than half a century the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has ruled Japan, with only a brief hiatus in the early 1990s. But its monopoly on power is likely to end on August 30th. With less than month to go before general elections, it has issued a manifesto focused on bringing Japan’s economy—still the world’s second largest—back to health. But after years of broken promises, voters appear to be unimpressed, according to a poll published on Monday August 3rd by Asahi Shimbun. The newspaper suggests that the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is almost twice as popular as the LDP.
The LDP promises to restore Japan to 2% growth by March 2011, create 2m new jobs in three years and boost household disposable income by YEN1m ($10,505) in a decade. The focus on the economy reflects the main anxiety of voters. Unemployment is at the highest level in six years and the spectre of deflation has re-emerged. Not only are consumer prices broadly falling, on Monday the government reported that cash wages fell in June at their fastest pace since 1990. …
Aso sorry
July 21st, 2009 |
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By Roland Buerk
BBC News, Tokyo
He put a brave face on it, walking up to the podium and bowing stiffly before he began the news conference.
But even some in his own Liberal Democratic Party fear Japan’s Prime Minister, Taro Aso, is leading them to a historic defeat.
He is asking for more time in power. But he began by saying sorry for past mistakes.
"There might have been some inappropriate comments I made that might have led to the lowering of the support of the people of Japan," he said.
"And within our party, the solidarity was lacking and that might have been because of my lack of leadership. And there might have been Japanese people who were not very comfortable about my leadership, and I would like to take this opportunity to apologise."
Mr Aso, who is known for gaffes that have offended people from doctors to the elderly, was speaking after he dissolved the lower house of Japan’s Diet, or parliament.
He hopes the general election at the end of August will be about the economy, and security.
He insists he can deliver on both.
Rise from the ashes
But the campaign threatens to be more about whether the Liberal Democratic Party’s time is up.
The party has governed Japan for more than half a century, except for a break of less than a year in the early 1990s.
For much of that time the story of Japan was its rise from the ashes of World War II to economic might.
But times have changed.
Japan is now mired in a recession, and that is on top of a decade of stagnation in the 1990s.
"The LDP has nothing to run on, their record is miserable, they’ve done nothing to alleviate the soaring misery index," says Jeff Kingston of Temple University in Tokyo.
Taro Aso is the third prime minister since the popular Junichiro Koizumi stepped down after winning the last election for the lower house in 2005 on a platform of reform.
"The voters gave Koizumi an overwhelming mandate and they didn’t do anything. In the meantime the economy is falling off a cliff and unemployment is soaring," says Jeff Kingston.
Hoping to take power in the next election is Yukio Hatoyama, of the Democratic Party of Japan – like Mr Aso, the heir to a political dynasty.
His grandfather replaced Taro Aso’s grandfather as prime minister in the 1950s.
History could be about to repeat itself.
Mr Hatoyama’s party is promising reforms, including strengthening social welfare and wrestling control of policy-making from what it says is an over mighty bureaucracy.
The DPJ is well ahead in the opinion polls, and perhaps Taro Aso’s greatest hope of surviving in office is if the opposition stumbles before election day.
In May, Ichiro Ozawa stepped down as the leader of the DPJ amid a political fundraising scandal.
His successor – Mr Hatoyama – has already been embarrassed after it emerged some people listed as his donors were dead.
"It would have to be hugely dramatic, something way out of the ordinary to derail the DPJ express," says Jeff Kingston of Temple University.
"The DPJ has a long history of self-inflicted wounds, of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, but it would have to be something truly extraordinary for them to blow it." </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Japanese PM dissolves parliament for election
July 21st, 2009 |
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Taro Aso criticised for leadership and handling of recession as ruling Liberal Democratic Party trails opposition with just 23% backing
The Japanese prime minister, Taro Aso, today dissolved parliament and called a general election for 30 August that could see his party cast out of power for only the second time in almost 55 years.
Racked with infighting and policy confusion during Aso’s 10 months in charge, the Liberal Democratic party [LDP] trails the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan [DPJ] in opinion polls by what many believe is an insurmountable margin.
Aso, the manga-addicted scion of a wealthy political dynasty, has presided over one of the LDP’s most miserable periods in power since he took office last September.
He has managed to insult teachers, the elderly and Alzheimer’s sufferers with ill-judged comments, at one point likening the opposition to the Nazis. His cabinet has been dogged by scandal, including the resignation in February of his finance minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, after he turned up drunk at a G8 press conference in Italy.
A poll in yesterday’s Mainichi newspaper put support for the DPJ at 56%, with 23% backing the LDP. At a meagre 11%, support for Aso trailed well behind that for the DPJ’s leader, Yukio Hatoyama, on 28%.
Though his party’s policies are short on detail, Hatoyama has struck a chord with disaffected voters with promises to take on the reform-resistant bureaucracy, lower taxes and set aside cash for families, the sick and the elderly.
The DPJ has also vowed to pursue a more independent foreign policy after decades of subservience to the US, and to increase its involvement in UN peacekeeping missions.
Hatoyama told party members that the election would be a “revolutionary” opportunity for politicians to wrest control from bureaucrats, who have dominated policymaking under the LDP. “We should face it with a sense of historic mission,” he said.
Japan has effectively been in a state of political paralysis since the DPJ took control of the upper house in 2007, giving it the ability to block and delay government legislation.
Yet despite its comfortable lead in the opinion polls, the DPJ are by no means assured of taking control of the more powerful lower house.
The LDP holds 303 seats in the 408-seat chamber – and its junior coalition partner New Komeito holds 31 – while the DPJ has just 112. The result, analysts say, will be determined by the roughly 30% of voters who remain undecided.
Aso, 68, has been criticised for his handling of Japan’s recession with the economy faring even worse than those of the US and the EU. Record stimulus packages have been derided as wasteful, at a time when Japan is lumbered with a public debt equivalent to 180% of its GDP.
His party also appears poorly equipped to address pressing social problems, including how to fund the creaking state pension and healthcare for the elderly.
Public disaffection with the LDP, one of the most successful electoral machines in modern political history, culminated in a resounding defeat at last weekend’s elections for the Tokyo assembly, the party’s first loss in the capital for 40 years.
That defeat triggered an attempt by LDP rebels to out Aso before the election, but the move was frustrated by party executives desperate to impose a semblance of unity in the run-up to the general election.
After insisting that the LDP’s drubbing in Tokyo was not an indictment of his administration, Aso apologised to party colleagues for his mistakes as leader.
“I’m sorry for my lack of ability and that I couldn’t fully unite the party,” he said. “We must sincerely accept the public’s criticism, humbly reflect on our performance and start afresh.”
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Taro’s last card
July 13th, 2009 |
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Japan’s beleaguered prime minister calls an election
SINCE becoming Japan’s prime minister last September, Taro Aso has resisted calls to hold an early election. But the clamour from both his own team, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), as well as the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), became too loud to ignore. The LDP suffered a striking defeat in municipal elections in Tokyo on Sunday July 12th and, facing an open revolt from his own party, Mr Aso finally succumbed.
On Monday Mr Aso decided to call an election on August 30th to select members of the lower house of Japan’s Diet (parliament), which he plans to dissolve next week. The decision should quell moves from within the LDP to boot him out. But the decision could result in the ousting of the LDP; the party has governed Japan for more than 50 years. …