Edano's new party may outperform expectations in Sunday's election

I wonder what would have happened if Edano had been made the leader after Renho resigned, and not that spineless snake Seiji Maehara! Or maybe this is what was needed to weed out the wannabes and now they have a real party, not a bunch of people thrown together for no reason.

Good luck to him and his party

Anything is possible I suppose, but they would have to score huge to have any significant impact! New parties always look promising at the start but, often fail to live up to their hype come polling day as voters tend to settle for better the devil you know and familiarity! Macron in France did manage to buck the trend but his party was only established after he became president, so he had the momentum and prestige. But I fear that this can only go so far and while it will undoubtedly get the headlines it come the day, it will fizzle out winning a respectable share of the vote but not enough to translate into seats!

Can’t help but feel a little flutter of excitement at this prospect.

Maybe this time it’ll be different. Maybe things will work out.

A fool’s optimism, maybe, born of following the football and hoping for a change each season.

Still, something’s got to go right sometime....

Edano?...I say, “Eh?Duh!No!!!”

Edano ... eschews what he calls outdated labels such as "liberal" or "left" .... he ... wants to redistribute wealth to create a more equitable society.

That sounds 'left' to me, but whatever.

A dimension to think about is big versus small government. LDP is very big, already doing huge amounts of tax and spend, creating massive debts to favour their various special interest groups.

Edano might favour different groups, but would still be in the same big government dimension.

Koike's Hope has failed to differentiate either.

Ishin has some members who talk about small government, but could stress this more.

Liberal is about liberty. It is not enough to be liberal in some areas, and not others, if aiming to attract the hearts of so inclined voters. Koike talks about accepting LGBT for example which is fine by me, but I crave economic liberty - getting to keep more of my taxes and getting to make more decisions for myself, in exchange for accepting a smaller role for government.

But if we are to have a big government I want one that is fiscally responsible at least.

Ganbaro, ganbaro Yukio Edano! Yukio Edano is a good guy with exceptional virtue to revitalize the Japanese population! I'm totally sick of the monopoly LDP has on japanese politics! It's time to restore Japan's political system the way it was supposed to be after the Meji redtoration with political diversity and proper manner!

Nationalism is a dangerous way to power and glory which is led by Abe! I believe in Yukio Edano, and that he can bring prosperity and love to this country without involving pityless nationalism! People, we have a job to do!:)

I would support Edano's new party, knowing little about him. But I know Abe too well to say no to him. Japan needs change. The old politic webs have to go. Why would Abe has to be PM. His grand farther already had chance, and himself had chances. But what Japan gets from their leadership? 70 years after the war, Japan still has no good relationships with China, with Korea, with Russia. This can't be continued for another 1000 years.

Anything better than zero is quite a bit bigger than most people expect. Good luck to them -- this country needs a bit of balance, even if that "balance" is between parties which hardly differ, and made up of former members of one or the other.

Edano came over as the only "hero" in government during the Fukushima incident. I confess I only just realized who he was. I think he earned his stripes then.

@albaleo

Really?