The public doesn’t think that opposition parties will be able to take over from the LDP. We have to promote political reorganization to create a strong opposition party.

We have to promote political reorganization to create a strong opposition party.

No, no, no!!

The reason why the public doesn't think that opposition parties will be able to take over from the LDP is that they don't see the opposition parties as having a policy and platform they can support and they don't see any opposition party as having any credible plan for government.

More simply: opposition parties cannot succeed just by being "against the LDP". They have to be FOR something.

Get a solid policy and agenda, with a credible leadership team, and the public will potentially support you. Otherwise, talking about political reorganisation to create a strong opposition party is like rearranging deck chairs on a sinking ship!!

I swear, politicians can just be so dense, having spent too much time around other politicians and playing politics!!

zones2surf is right.

No opposition party will succeed as long as it thinks it is an opposition party. As long as it thinks it's an opposition party, that's all it will ever be.

To succeed, a party would have to first find out what the majority of the voters want, what changes they want to occur, what they want in their lives, in towns, cities and the nation. They would then have to evaluate these in terms of importance and doability. Then formulate a plan to bring these things about and actually work toward these goals, making it known that it was doing so.

The biggest flaw in this is the first. Politicians would have to listen, and that's something many of them find difficult or impossible to do.

They need to learn to represent and evaluate in terms of the greatest good for the greatest number.

That would certainly be a change from the LDP which evaluates things in terms of the greatest good for me and my buddies, screw the rest of the populace.

You cannot learn to lead by being on the sidelines for decades.

If Japan wants new leadership, its going to have vote for it and be patient.

It bothers me to this day that they got rid of Hatoyama and Kan so fast, and all because two things: 1) not being able to fix the economy in mere months that they gave the LDP years to break and 2)several facets to the disaster created by the LDP and TEPCO, including not being able to fix that in months either. Anyone who is still going to complain about Kan's handling of is obviously ignorant of the yakuza run "clean up efforts" which is more like an effort to dilute the contamination by spreading it around Japan and into the sea, is obviously ignorant about what the LDP is doing and wishes to stay that way.

The trouble with Kan is that he spoke the embarrassing truth about the nuclear disaster. Japanese prefer to keep their heads firmly in the sand. The radioactive sand even. The LDP is sure to keep repeating the lies the Japanese people and the Japanese corporations want to hear. That is why they are a shoe in.

The problem is there are too many opposition parties. How many now? At least 6. I can't think of many countries where there are this many opposition parties. Some are formed a few weeks before an election (as in 2012) and then disband right after. There needs to be one or two (at the most) opposition parties with a strong leadership. Though I don't agree with many of his policies, I think Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto would make a strong opposition party leader. Unfortunately he is aligned with the LDP.

The problem with the DPJ is that its leaders are a bunch of dilettante fops. Sure they beat the LDP hands down when it comes to academic muscle (hardly a private university degree among them), however, they all suffer from a serious lack of leadership and backbone. Look what happened when Hatoyama was PM? He changed direction more times than a weather cock over the Okinawa issues. On the other hand, however, although Naoto Kan displayed leadership during the nuclear crisis (ordering TEPCO to grow a pair), he lacked the killer instinct in taking on the vested interests. Although I hate the nepotism, cronyism, double dealing, etc., of the LDP, the opposition parties at the moment are a joke.

a bunch of dilettante fops

Great name for a band.

Try not being openly hostile to all of Japan's very important companies next time. Japan's companies are really all Japan has when it comes to dealing with the outside world.

If Japan wants new leadership, its going to have vote for it and be patient.

That's what's happening at this moment.

We have to promote political reorganization to create a strong opposition party.

And that would start by standing for something other than just "opposition". Parties in places like the U.K. and the U.S. have a clear political view, like conservative or liberal. In Japan, all they stand for is opposing what the LDP believes.

The problem with the opposition is that there is no proper mandate and direction in which the country wants to go. Right wingers constantly team up with left wingers, form parties, disband, do a stint in the DPJ and reform a new party. All this does is confuse everyone more and more, and so they have no choice but to vote for the LDP.

This is done by design to keep the vested interests in power. this is not an accident.