Election fever is starting to grip Japan with a bunch of recent local and gubernatorial elections.  The general election is no more than a couple of months away but nobody still knows the exact date as Prime Minister Taro Aso is holding off, maybe hoping for more hostile moves or rhetoric by DPRK to give him ammunition for him and his party.  Just editing my post as I type though as one news report has just dropped into my inbox saying the lower house could be dissolved by Tuesday, according to rumours coming out of the Diet.  This could mean an election as soon as August 8th.  I was just thinking that what everyone really needs now is 3 weeks of even louder campaign buses and people in white gloves waving at me from every intersection, as well as getting asked by numerous students if I know “Japan erection” (those “l” and “r” sounds are killers).  On the odd occasions I feel hospitable to wave back (usually when there is a decent song playing in my car drowning out the megaphones) there is frequently ecstasy that someone is responding to their waving, and then confusion as to why the foreigner is waving.  Got to do something to get through the day.

But I have digressed, as this report was supposed to be about big political news from Tokyo, where the LDP has achieved its worst result in history in the Tokyo assembly.  Out of 127 seats, the LDP won only 38, with the power moving to the DPJ who have won 54 seats.  New Komeito (can someone fill me in on who they actually are?) won 23 seats.  That represents a loss of 14 seats for the LDP and a gain of 20 for the DPJ, and acts as a further blow to Aso.  Can’t really be shedding too many tears at the loss for Aso and Nobuteru Ishihara, leader of the LDP’s Tokyo chapter and son of Tokyo governor & noted anti-foreigner Shintaro Ishihara.

The big question is whether or not this result will be matched in the big general election, whenever it is.  And I suppose you have to ask whether the DPJ, if brought to power, will deliver the stimulus that Japan desperately needs to get it moving forward again, both economically and socially.  Or will it be more of the same policies but just under a different name?  Only time will tell.

EDIT:  NHK is reporting that a general election has been called for August 30th.  The clock is ticking…

Tags: dpj, featured, general election, japanese news, ldp, politics, taro aso

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