JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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Hikozaemon
Ozawa is the one being shafted here - the donations fuss has nothing to do with him.
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Hikozaemon
Arrestpaul - ah yes, if only the US constitution were designed to uphold common sense.
Heaven forbid...
Posted in: Obama releases full birth certificate to end controversy
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Hikozaemon
The birth requirement is stupid anyway. Why should the president have to be born in the US. Makes no sense. Immigrants and naturalized citizens are often among the most energetic contributors to their chosen homelands.
It is silly that Ahnold Schwarzenegger can be governor of Califohnia and not president of Amehica, for example.
Change the constitution. It's obviously wrong anyway.
Posted in: Obama releases full birth certificate to end controversy
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Hikozaemon
Tokyotom - don't be cynical. I'm sure Sony will pay dozens of people to stand in line to buy its tablet.
Posted in: iPad2 arrives
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Hikozaemon
This is good news.
However, it will be more helpful in new cases than existing ones - I know a lot of people have put a lot of time into campaigning for this, but it is important now to learn about the mechanics of how it works, and to manage expectations, by looking at how it works in practice in other countries.
Still, it is nice to see Japan stepping into line on this issue with other countries.
Hopefully, with this issue now being cleared, the more pressing issue of domestic family law can now be focussed on.
peace
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Hikozaemon
Oh, i see you're right. Silly law though. Shouldn't have to quit over that. Just being a crappy PM.
Another illustration of how every politician in Japan is a crook - it is only a matter of whose name gets called when they step too far out of line or start sticking out too much - like Ozawa.
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Hikozaemon
ApecNetworks - pardon me, people wanted Kan to resign to take responsibility for Maehara's receipt of illegal donations, but I don't think that Kan actually got those, did he? Even Maehara wasn't actually prosecuted in the end, he was just forced to resign.
That is the whole point of these political prosecutions - they are used to control figures in power seen as trying to exercise too much independent power or control. If they take themselves out of the game for a while, the threat usually subsides, as I believe is the case with Maehara.
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Hikozaemon
Gregoms - Ozawa is no more a crim than anyone else. Prosecutors found no grounds for prosecuting him three times before being overruled by a grand jury anyway. His prosecution is a political stitch up job by an establishment that is scared of the reforms they know he can bring.
My problem with Kan isn't to do with his personality. It is his competence.
As for honesty, what about the DPJ manifesto. And his own party members he lied straight to, and then cast aside? But there is a bigger issue right now:
He is incompetent.
And he is the wrong man for the job right now - he is stubborn and divisive, which when you have a split party in a hung parliament and gone through two election collapses in a row, his leadership means only that Japan will have NO working government until he is removed and people who can actually keep promises, and work with people who disagree with them for the good of the country are allowed back in control.
Everyone seems to be queing up for tickets to get on Kan's kamikaze flight to DPJ oblivion here, and riding the LDP and Bureaucrat bus to lynch Ozawa. You might not realize it, but you're doing the dance that the bureaucrats in kasumigaseki want you to dance, that ends with the LDP returning to power on a semi-permanent basis again.
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Hikozaemon
Rofea - you have it backwards. Hatoyama/Ozawa are trying to reunite the DPJ that Kan divided.
With a hung parliament and nearly half the members of DPJ cut off and alienated by the PM, what is needed now is cross faction and cross party unity. Kan isn't interested in either of those things, and that is why his neck is on the block. I'm NOT happy to wait for Kan to hand the country back to the LDP and then skip off like you say you are.
The current dire situation for the DPJ was caused by Kan. Hatoyama is doing what is best for the DPJ to fix it.
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Hikozaemon
Masswipe - as regards to "the LDP is a relic of the Cold War era consensus on national security and economic growth" - again, look at the election results. Both elections under Kan, the LDP has slaughtered the Dems.
The Dems got in because of high voter turnout, particularly among traditionally low turnout (and low expectations of politics) areas such as urban areas and youth votes. Some of these people voted for the first time in their lives to put the DPJ - Ozawa, Hatoyama and Kan all together, into power.
Now look at voter turnout since then.
Turnout in local elections was less than 30%. The old and rural voters who always vote LDP did that. The young people who thought the DPJ could make things better, played video games and spent the day in the park.
Look at 1994 and 1995 - the New Frontier Party, and the New New Party... these were the second parties that were meant to set up changing governments with the LDP. Hosokawa, Murayama, Hata - 2 years of screw ups (Murayama during Kobe being the absolute worst), and the LDP got 15 free years in power afterwards with no credible opposition left.
Kan is at risk of putting the Dems in the same position. How can you say that the LDP is a finished relic? I'm not being alarmist - I'm telling you exactly the road that Kan is taking Japan down. Basically a return to 1996. I don't want that to happen, and neither do the 60 elected DPJ representatives who understand how real a risk there is of that happening.
I'll guarantee you, if Kan remains PM up to the next house election, the Dems will not only lose, but they will not even be the second largest party in parliament after they lose. And that will cause the party to split into new minor parties based on Kan's "new socialist" faction and Hatoyama's "new liberal" faction.
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Hikozaemon
Masswipe - which PM since 2006 should have stayed? Abe? Fukuda? Aso? Hatoyama? Perhaps rather than Koizumi, we should have just gone for stability and stuck with Mori for 5 years? You know, show a bit of dedication.
Let's take your advice for a minute. Everybody sucks it up for the sake of continuity, and pospones elections until 2013. You still have several problems that Kan has already proved he is too incompetent to resolve:
1) Since Kan lost control of the upper house and has a hung parliament in the lower house, he still cannot pass a budget, even with all his own party on board.
2) At the very least Kan needs to have the support of other parties - but again, he kissed goodbye to the coalition partners the Dems had under Hatoyama. "We'll be fine, we can manage ourselves".
3) Nobody is turning out to vote for the Dems because even before the crisis, Kan was breaking and winding back the manifesto promises that got them elected. He has lost the trust of DPJ voters, and the large number of young DPJ members who were elected to implement the manifesto promises and policies set out in the original manifesto worked out together by all party factions.
Even the EMERGENCY budget is struggling to get passed. How in hell is he supposed to implement anything else in the next two years with a party that doesn't trust him because he lied to them, voters who can't bring themselves to turn out for the DPJ again, and an opposition that smells blood in the water and is going to shut government down, which it can do even without the DPJ in chaos because Kan won't work with any other parties, let alone his own party?
Hatoyama is on the money in terms of what needs to be done: - Cabinet needs to be reconstituted with people outside of Kan's cronies - DPJ can't treat campaign promises like whims - this was supposed to be a break from the LDP (who to their credit don't even bother with promises) - The best hope for a stable government that can implement laws and last until 2013 is one that forms a coalition with New Komeito. Hatoyama is right about that. And Kan is not competent enough to bring that about.
I want stability as much as you do - but I won't tolerate an incompetent like Kan for the sake of it. I want the DPJ to be a credible second party, not for Kan to destroy it like he is.
The replacement doesn't have to be charismatic or even a great leader. Just someone able to get the Diet working again for the Japanese people and for the sake of the recovery - basically, someone who knows how to cut the deals that need to be cut to get things done.
If the quake had never happened, Kan would have been gone weeks ago. The recent local elections confirmed that keeping him on is only hurting the Dems and the nation. Get him out and fix up the shambles in govt so things can get done.
Peace
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Hikozaemon
Virtuoso - this has little to do with March 11 - DPJ fared just as badly in the upper house elections last year. This was his second chance. Next election is the house election. With Kan at the helm, the LDP is practically guaranteed another 50 years in power come that time.
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Hikozaemon
Sarge - you have 60 more mails to write to everyone else in the Dems who feel betrayed by Kan - 80 million if you count the people that voted disapproval of Kan.
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Hikozaemon
I don't get it. Kan has chosen to run his party with a small clique of friends shutting everyone else in the party out, undoes the promises it campaigned on and was elected to power on, is destroyed in upper house, and last weekend annihilated in local elections - and Hatoyama is the problem?
If people have a problem with Kan being held accountable for being incompetent, then I'm surprised you weren't all up and protesting that elections were being held.
Kan's party was murdered in those elections. Lower house elections are next. Everyone is supposed to keep ignoring the electorate and sticking by Kan, because he's in his emergency wear?
I mean, I fully agree, democracy seldom works, least of all in this country. But if the DPJ coming to power was to represent any kind of political revolution, it was meant to be greater accountability and transparency.
I don't get the boner people have for Kan, who is an okay guy (at least his cousin thinks so), a half rate PM, and a complete failure of a political party leader...
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Hikozaemon
Smith - so you think they should have postponed the national local elections that were just held?
You know, the ones where Kan and the DPJ were slaughtered?
Certainly, I know Ishihara wanted a state of emergency declared - martial law with special powers to the PM. Is that what you are advocating.
If people feel betrayed by Kan, whey shouldn't the DPJ fix the situation?
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Hikozaemon
People seem to be seeing this as an issue of leadership - Kan vs Ozawa or Kan vs Hatoyama. That's really the wrong way to look at this.
The only power the leader really has is to select and fire ministers. The composition of the cabinet is what is key.
It's just the nature of Japanese politics, particularly in it's proportional representation system, that you need to build consensus and choose cabinets that are inclusive enough to ensure all voices are heard and included, where those voices are needed to prop up the government. We are not talking top down government like the US, or like the whip system in parliamentary democracies.
When Hatoyama was in power, he understood this, and gave both Ozawa and Kan important policy making positions. Kan was minister of finance, one of the most senior ministerial positions in government. Okada, Maehara, other rabid anti-Ozawa guys were all given posts, and policy was worked out and supported by all factions.
Ozawa knew he didn't have the numbers to beat Kan in the leadership race. The whole point of running was to demonstrate however the substantial support, almost the same as Kan, that his faction has, and remind Kan of the need to include those voices in his cabinet. Kan chose, unlike Hatoyama to ignore that half of the party and shut them out completely. Did you see the most recent DPJ conference and the way dissidents trying to stop election promises they had been elected on being undone were treated?
Hatoyama is doing the right thing. If any of you want to see a party that can compete against the LDP in elections survive out of this, Kan needs to be stopped now.
I don't care who the replacement is. I actually quite like Maehara, even though he is very anti-Ozawa and Hatoyama and would likely be as uncompromising as Kan. Okada might be a choice, at least because he has a brain in his head and might form an inclusive cabinet, even though he is anti-Hatoyama. Edano would be a popular choice right now, I'd go for that.
Hell, even Renho would be better...
Point is, Kan is a victim of karma here. The only way to save the DPJ beyond the next election is for a new leader, anyone will do, who will select a cabinet from both sides of the party. The sooner that situation is corrected, the better. I hope Hatoyama gets this done quickly so people can get on with the more important business of reconstruction.
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Hikozaemon
Hatoyama and Ozawa are right - Kan has killed the DPJ and all the hard work put in by all factions to get into power.
Hatoyama, for all his own failings as PM (mainly his unkeepable promise to improve the situation in Okinawa) understood the need to include all sides of the DPJ in his government, both Kan and Ozawa.
Kan took a gamble - that he could put his own cronies in gravy train positions, undo the policies of Hatoyama and Ozawa that got the party into power, and hope that things would go well enough to see them through.
Well, Kan screwed the election and ended up with a hung parliament, and now he is overseeing the greatest crisis in Japan since WWII, with half of a party he has disenfranchised and told to screw themselves.
And now, those chickens are coming home to roost. If you support the DPJ, you don't want Kan as party leader - in govt or opposition anyway. Take a look at the DPJ's election performance in opposition and in govt with him as leader, including the recent avalanche against the party in local elections.
The guy is almost like a professional loser of elections.
I'm sure he's a nice enough guy and all, but he is a crap politician and he is destroying Japan's first chance in 15 years at establishing a viable 2 party system by being selfish. Serves him damn well right.
Peace
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Hikozaemon
Sarge - Ozawa gave Kan the minister of finance post when Hatoyama was in govt. He was quite inclusive of Kan's former socialist factions.
Kan is the guy not playing ball and threatening the DPJ.
Posted in: Ozawa shows his disloyalty to Kan
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Hikozaemon
I agree that it is nice to see some quality writing on this site once in a while, but it is disappointing that the author has gone the easy route on basically following the Kisha-club/LDP/beaurocracy line of continuing to demonize him in the press.
First up, let's be clear - Ozawa isn't exactly Jack Kennedy reborn. He lacks charisma and general popular appeal, and his ability to survive in Japanese politics for so long is in part due to his ability to understand and play the game of Japanese politics arguably better than anyone else.
He has also survived because he isn't greedy. In spite of having had chances to lead the Democrats, Liberals and LDP in the past in the typical fly by night way that most PMs do, having a brief stint in leadership and then going into quiet semi-retirement, he has survived by being willing to step back and allow others to take the top posts in order to continue to maintain a position of influence and authority within his party.
Now, I like Ozawa, basically because he is the only person who I believe is capable of (1) ensuring that the DPJ can survive another election, (2) instituting the reforms necessary to remove the beaurocratic stranglehold over policymaking, (3) forming policies free of administrative guidance that Japan needs to modernize and reform its economic and political system, in the ways that he understands need to be done. He also understand the cold hard realities about Japan's relations with China and the US.
Kan strikes me as being generally probably a much nicer guy, but the author talks about factionalism like it is all coming from Ozawa and conveniently overlooked several facts, such as the fact that the DPJ is basically half made up of Liberal Party members, including Hatoyama who personally is the financial anchor of the party - Hatoyama and Ozawa understood the need for cross factional cooperation in the Hatoyama government with posts being awarded to ex socialists like Kan as well as more conservative former Liberal party members.
Kan used Hatoyama's demise opportunistically to disenfranchise nearly 50% of his party shutting out all ex-Liberal members from leading party posts and backpeddalling on the policies masterminded by Ozawa that got the DPJ elected into power. Take a look at the last DPJ conference and how proposals to update the manifesto were railroaded through the party (even with Ozawa absent) and the chaos that happened with worried DPJ members from those factions asking how they were supposed to go back and explain that the party was unwinding the platforms they had been elected on.
Then look further at the complete disaster of the last upper house election under Kan, who used his brief time campaigning to break or recant most of the party's popular existing manifesto policies and speculate out loud about raising sales tax. Ozawa is a professional election campaigner responsible for getting the DPJ into power. Look at Kan's record. The man is a professional loser of elections. He has always been competent given a ministerial post, as he was in the ministry of finance under Hatoyama - but he shows next to zero leadership. Most people think Japan has been run by Edano throughout the recent crisis.
Kan somehow decided, as he has in the past, that he could get away with excluding half his party and giving all posts only to his good friends, and somehow they would all make it work and he would be successful at the next election. That has never happened before and it is not happening now - Kan is proving to be a train wreck of party leadership and is endangering the faint promise of Japan having a viable party to swap power periodically with the LDP.
Then take the funds law prosecution of Ozawa - the author seems well informed enough to understand that scandals don't get broken in the mainstream media spontaneously in Japan. They get broken because the Kanryo in kasumigaseki pull the file on someone they think is getting too uppity. And they fear what might happen to their power base if Ozawa gets into too much of a position of power within the government.
In spite of prosecutors deciding 3 times that he had no case to answer, the trial by media was already over and a grand jury decided to proceed regardless. His number was up and the institution was doing what was necessary to stop him shaking things up, as is so desperately needed.
Instead of Kan supporting the leader of the conservative half of his party, he threw him, and all the young new DPJ politicians that give them their tenuous majority in the Diet under the bus. Who is being factional and opportunistic?
I agree with the author that now is as good a time as any to "end" factionalism in Japanese politics, but it should be done through inclusion, not by declaring the former socialists winners and demanding everyone else keep their views to themselves.
I will agree with the author that I think this is a time that the government does need to pull together for better or worse. LDP said yesterday that they would submit a motion of no confidence in the PM over his performance in the crisis - I think the time for any such motion should come after the crisis is more resolved. Ozawa could certainly be said to have chosen damaging timing to make his criticisms.
However, if the government wants to solidify and reassert internal consensus, the factional games need to stop from those in power and they need to start listening to their constituents and young members who are responsible for getting them into power. And these political charades with the prosecution of Ozawa need to end soon as well.
Ozawa isn't much, but I think within Japanese politics, he is the best hope for someone capable of instituting real and necessary reform that exists.
Peace
Posted in: Ozawa shows his disloyalty to Kan
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Hikozaemon
Always Adachi....
Posted in: 2 men arrested for growing hemp in Tokyo park