LDP local execs in 22 prefectures support Aso as Fukuda's successor

Wednesday 03rd September, 03:01 AM JST

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Latest 15 of 18 Total Comments Show All

thepro at 09:58 AM JST - 3rd September

He might good for a bit of entertainment for a while, anyway.
suebe36d at 10:09 AM JST - 3rd September

Rotating PM perks and honoring the family name for posterity as memories of ineptitude will dim with the years.
Simon_Foston at 10:57 AM JST - 3rd September

The reason that the execs of 22 LDP chapters support Aso is that they're just as stupid as he is.
Dogdog at 11:14 AM JST - 3rd September

Anyone but Aso please. It would be like Rush Limbaugh becoming president of the US. Aso is a right wing nut job with little common sense to control what he says about key Asian neighbors. He will quickly alienate just about anyone he talks about.

I think this is a good thing, The world has to wake up to what Japan is really about and Aso might just speed up that waking.

Japan is not, contrary to modern western myth, the bridge between East and West, it's a one party state controlled by the same hereditary elite that led it down to the road to destruction of 1945. This elite has no other agenda, for either Japan or the world, than to stay in power and will go to any level (xenophobia, economic enslavement of its domestic workforce, revision of historical facts, promotion of extreme nationalism and corruption) to maintain that dominant position.
Simon_Foston at 11:32 AM JST - 3rd September

I think this is a good thing, The world has to wake up to what Japan is really about and Aso might just speed up that waking.

For a start, he might wake Japan up to what the LDP are all about and get them kicked out of power at the next election. If Aso becomes Prime Minister it will soon be revealed just how ideologically bankrupt he and his cronies are. There is no way they can turn things around enough to win the next lower house election, they're too desperate to stick to the money politics (i.e. institutionalised bribery) that have kept them in power all this time.
ninjaboy at 11:45 AM JST - 3rd September

Well of course 22 prefectures would lend their support!

Presumably (or should that be - obviously?) it was already decided last year that Aso would take-over. Fukuda was only an 'interim leader', perhaps not even worthy of being called a 'Prime Minister', to allow time for certain ongoing issues to be resolved (improving Sino-Japanese relations being one obvious example).

Although not every issue on the political agenda has been resolved to Japan's liking, circumstances and other developments in the time since have certainly brought Japan to a place ripe for a hawkish leader to take power.

Agreeing with the comment above by "Dogdog", the world will, once again, see Japan for what it really is.
dr_jones at 12:10 PM JST - 3rd September

Look at all the cry-boys here! "Pleeease not Aso!! He's a racist and a sexist!" ... I wonder where you got that from? Just because he reads Manga he's a sexist and just because some of his statements were controversial he's a racist? Oh yea right!
Thenewfront at 12:59 PM JST - 3rd September

Aso is an idiot , of course LDP will support him, what does anyone expect.
DeepAir65 at 01:03 PM JST - 3rd September

My wife (Japanese) is now asking if it is worth living in this country anymore. Last person out please remember to switch off the lights!
Patrick Smash at 01:17 PM JST - 3rd September

Aso may be a bit of a fool, and a loud mouth, but he has lived in both the US and the UK, and his family were worried about how Americanized he was and so cut off his funding. He belives the Japanese are unique, but plenty of reasonable Japanese people believe that. He may be worse for relations with China and Korea, but let's face it that's a popular thing in LCP heart land and attracts voters. The Japanese are not usually to be believed. They will tell you how much they dislike racism and crime to your face, and then they'll elect Ishihara. Aso's the same thing, and he'll probably be more like Koizumi and less like Fukuda. If he can't get his public image right we'll all be in for a bit of a laugh. He's not about to declare war on China.
Sherman at 01:38 PM JST - 3rd September

I hope Yuriko Koike wins.
Dogdog at 01:41 PM JST - 3rd September

I hope Yuriko Koike wins.

You kid me, right?

The woman belongs to the history revisionist group of the LDP, who state that there were no such thing as forced sex workers, only sex workers who had volunteered?
Statistician at 02:55 PM JST - 3rd September

Who else can they support, the barrel is empty and the table is bare.
maryhinge at 09:55 PM JST - 3rd September

Dogdog. Seen the latest on Koike? She will win.
taikan at 05:48 AM JST - 4th September

Given the fundamentally conservative and nationalistic base of the LDP, one should expect that whoever is elected LDP president will reflect those views, and all of the leading candidates do. Thus, one can expect that Japan's relationship with China will suffer somewhat. However, what really counts is whether any of them is willing and able to deal with Japan's growing economic problems.