Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's Japan Restoration Party will field 142 candidates in the Dec 16 lower house election, considerably less than had been expected.
The party, which merged with the Sunrise Party and named former Tokyo Gov Shintaro Ishihara as its leader, had been expected to put forward at least 241 candidates in a bid to win a majority of seats in the 480-seat lower house.
Hashimoto's party has lost a little momentum since it merged with the Sunrise Party to create a "third force" in national politics. Hashimoto has been trying to win over the small opposition Your Party but was rebuffed.
The Japan Restoration Party candidates are “graduates” of his school for aspiring politicians, the Ishin Seiji Juku (Political Restoration Academy), which opened in April, drawing 2,025 “students” from all over Japan.
The students, who come from all walks of life, include housewives, businessmen, bureaucrats and unemployed people. They paid tuition and attended training sessions twice a month, learning to articulate their views on various issues.
Hashimoto said the Dec 16 election will be the first big test of his new party and said that his party's candidates will be the vanguard to bring about fundamental political change in Japan, TV Asahi reported.
© Japan Today
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Yubaru
Here's to hoping that 142 will lose too!
comarade_captain
They( housewives, businessmen, bureaucrats and unemployed people)paid tuition and attended training sessions twice a month, learning to articulate their views on various issues.
And now we see how low qualities and unprofessional were members of this party! The major reason why Japan's political views were out of touch with real!
Yubaru
I wonder when the people of Osaka are going to tell Hashimoto to do his job as Gov and stop with the national politics.
edojin
It will be interesting to see how the 142 do. When people vote, they will actually be voting for Ishihara & Hashimoto. Will no-name, inexperienced candidates be able to rack up enough votes on their own to march into the Diet with a strong party? Lots of things to look forward to in the Dec. 16 election.
andrew-s
I see, so basically they were told what to believe/say if they want to be part of Hashimoto's wacky bandwagon of fun. What a joke. Even the name (Political Restoration Academy) is reminiscent of a modern day cult.
It still amazes me how this man was given power over anything, everything he does and says wreaks of facist, can't see the forest from the trees kind of narrow view.
Hope Hashi and his equallty dastardly accomplice Ishi get 0 seats in the lower house, politicians need to be rational level-headed thinkers, not groomed mindless puppets.
some14some
coalition govt. and chaos ahead, my guess.
semperfi
hashimoto syndrome is scarey
Yubaru
Part of the problem however is the people of Japan, are they mad enough at the LDP and DJP to use (waste) their vote on a third party inexperienced candidate that in the hierarchy of the diet is going to be the low man or woman on the totem pole and not given any kind of position with any power?
While not liking either established party much, I don't want to see some narrow minded zombie, housewife, or uneducated nut, who just happened to "graduate" from his cult get elected.
Open Minded
This "Political Restoration Academy" sounds to me like a brain washing place in the spirit of what you can find in China, Russia or earlier in the Hiltlerian Jugends stuff. Scary!
plasticmonkey
Too bad politicians in Japan generally come in three flavors:
1) inherited their seat from Daddy, born with a silver spoon in mouth, don't give a rats about the country
2) bureaucratic nerds, graduated "top" university, look down on the public as stupid
3) geinojin, talento, pro-wrestlers, comedians, charisma lawyers, media darlings -- think they know how to legislate because they're popular
Good luck, Japan.
Yubaru
2) bureaucratic nerds, graduated "top" university, look down on the public as stupid
3) geinojin, talento, pro-wrestlers, comedians, charisma lawyers, media darlings -- think they know how to legislate because they're popular
You know this sounds like some other country I know of too!
Ayler
new party motto. get used to it toru-chan
alliswellinjapan
Among the third force it seems Watanabe's Your Party ended up being the only party which has remained consistent without bending its original policies. Hashimoto initially made it clear that collaborations with other parties need to be strictly based on pursuit of common policies but turns out his party was the one of the first to engage in an unprincipled coalition, now the target of sharp criticism from both DPJ and LDP as well as Watanabe who is now ironically making it clear to Hashimoto exactly what Hashimoto initially made clear to the Sunrise Party - no coalition if no match in policies - essentially setting Hashimoto's withdrawal of his tie-up with Ishihara as a precondition to any coalition talks, which is probably equal to a straight no answer.
telecasterplayer
We have something like that here, but it's operated by Ringling Brothers.
volland
This is not really good news...
Members of this party will be elected and some of them only because many right wing fundamentalist japanese voters think the liberals are actual too liberal. In other words, the majority for the liberals will be increasing, and we might get Abe, Hashimoto and Ishihara in the cabinett....
comarade_captain
Hashimoto's party is running out of money and they were subjected to doom soon! Nobody willing to fund their candidates not even Ishihara himself!
Yubaru
What bugs me is that down here in Okinawa his party is fielding 4 candidates, one for each district, and TWO of the candidates are not, or do not even live in Okinawa, or didn't until the election, and one is only 34 years old and lists his occupation as working at hashimoto's politicians school.
Show a little respect for the locals will you? I doubt anyone in Osaka would appreciate having someone from Tokyo come there just to stand in the election.
fds
for what its worth i hope the japan restoration party succeeds, they couldn't be any worse than the DPJ and LDP which both suck. but what really needs to happen is japan's bureaucracy needs to be broken and career politicians banned. i also like warren buffet's suggestion for fixing the budget
http://www.cnbc.com/id/43670783/Warren_Buffett_s_5_Minute_Plan_to_Fix_the_Deficit
Thomas Anderson
Restoration Party is probably 100 times worse than DPJ and LDP. Well, I'm not sure about LDP.