JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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Simon_Foston
When you say "gaikoku" I assume you're referring specifically to Bill Clinton and the US Democrats.
As for Minshuto and opposition, do you honestly think the LDP could have sustained itself in power indefintely? People were getting sick of them even when economic conditions were substantially better than they have been recently. Koizumi turned the tide for a while, but after he quit they tried to go back to pork-barrel politics as usual and they finally paid the price. The simple fact is that the LDP went overboard with the supply-side economics, so desperate were individual legislators to reward local businessmen who'd kept donating to their campaign funds. They were too short-sighted and stupid to realise there cannot be supply without demand to match it.
At least the DPJ are willing to do something to increase ordinary people's spending power. All the LDP could manage in the circumstances was more pork-barrel spending and a one-off handout that basically made no positive difference whatsoever.
Posted in: Hatoyama to create economic recovery post
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Simon_Foston
Well, Aso was quite popular until he became Prime Minister and then he suffered the same monumental drop in support as Abe and Fukuda. Obviously he did himself no favours at all, but I think a lot of people were just as sick of the LDP as they were of him, as some comments from LDP leaders themselves indicate:
I agree with this reflection, personally. After all, it was the LDP Diet members who picked Aso for the job.
Posted in: Calls already coming in for fast action after DPJ sweeps LDP out of power
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Simon_Foston
The DPJ will indeed need to move fast. The House of Councillors election is coming up next year, and if the voters don't feel some positive changes by then the LDP could make a recovery and regain the majority they lost in 2007. Then Japan would be stuck with the same divided Diet mess it's been in for the past two years.
Posted in: Calls already coming in for fast action after DPJ sweeps LDP out of power
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Simon_Foston
Right. Every healthy political party needs at least one period in opposition to stay competitive. The LDP are long overdue theirs, but it's starting today.
Posted in: Voting under way in general election with DPJ favored to end LDP rule
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Simon_Foston
First, the LDP became useless 20-30 years ago. Second, if you had something in your kitchen that was way past its expiration date, would you eat it? Basically, I think that anyone who thought that only the LDP could return Japan to its pre-1990 glory has realised their mistake, and voted accordingly.
Posted in: Voting under way in general election with DPJ favored to end LDP rule
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Simon_Foston
Sarge said,
I thought you might have noticed that I replied to it in my first post on this thread. You obviously had nothing to say about that and you didn't answer the question in my second post about haircuts. Nevetheless, judging by the way the exit polls are going, it looks as if hairdos are the last thing on people's minds.
Moderator: Forget about hairdos, please.
Posted in: Voting under way in general election with DPJ favored to end LDP rule
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Simon_Foston
With all due respect and without wanting to sound like I'm telling you what or what not to say, if you can't say anything more substantial or informed than that I really wish you wouldn't bother. If it was an attempt at humour, you might have noticed that no one thought it was funny enough to comment on the first time you said it, so repeating yourself is a bit pointless. But seeing as we're on the topic, would you say the same thing about your hero Dubya's great pal Koizumi? He kind of needed a haircut too, but unlike the half-wits who succeeded him, specifically Abe and Aso, he knew a thing or two about winning elections.
Posted in: Voting under way in general election with DPJ favored to end LDP rule
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Simon_Foston
Unfortunately the glory days of the LDP are far behind it. The Japanese public aren't voting for the men and women who helped Japan become so successful, but their mediocre sons and grandsons, whose frequently vague, contradictory and ultimately self-serving policies led to 5.7 million people unemployed and a public deficit that may soon hit 200% of GDP. Nowadays the LDP's achievements include projects such as the "Makoto Bridge" in Fukuoka, finished in 2000 at a cost of ¥4.3 billion and expected to have about 2000 cars crossing it every day, whereas the actual number is more like 200. So...
Bad news Sarge, it's already happened.
Posted in: Voting under way in general election with DPJ favored to end LDP rule
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Simon_Foston
Here's The Great Helmsman, Comrade Taro himself:
It's like he's saying, "You're angry and looking for change? Can't say I blame you, we're rubbish."
Posted in: Voters angry and looking for change
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Simon_Foston
The LDP leaders don't even think that themselves, hence comments like:
"I'm battling a terrible headwind, please help me,"(Shizuoka LDP candidate Satsuki Katayama)
"It's not a headwind, it's a tornado. We could be blown away," (Junichiro Koizumi)
"A huge wave of the DPJ is sweeping over Tokyo. It looks like they could control the parliament under a one-party dictatorship." (Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano)
These people simply reek of defeatism. They haven't even got it in them to muster a bit of bravado and say they'll prove the polls wrong (even if they know they won't). If the LDP aren't getting everything handed to them on a plate as has always been the case in the past, they clearly have no idea how to handle it. Still, if they want to make comments like that I see no reason to doubt them, much less vote for them.
5 million unemployed, government spending spiralling out of control, boarded up shops everywhere you look, schools that teach failure and mediocrity, a bankrupted national pension scheme and a political crisis caused by a hopelessly divided legislature? How much worse do you think things have to get?
Posted in: Voters angry and looking for change
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Simon_Foston
Quite right. But I take comfort from knowing that the people who start revolutions often don't actually want to change very much. The very fact that the DPJ have, at the very least, a strong chance of winning, is a big enough change in itself. Whether it's conservative, liberal, radical or whatever, no party in a democracy should be able to arrange matters so that it can stay in power for half a century.
Posted in: Voters angry and looking for change
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Simon_Foston
I haven't seen Hatoyama in any dumb photo ops like this one, though.
Posted in: Campaigning
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Simon_Foston
Sarge said,
What makes you think he'd be a worse one? Oh wait, let me guess. The DPJ's foreign policy isn't as Republican-friendly?
Anyway, given that this is a man who probably hasn't had to drive himself anywhere since before he was conceived, seeing him pretending to be an ordinary joe on a commuter train is pretty laughable.
Posted in: Campaigning
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Simon_Foston
Judging by that picture I'd guess he'd already knocked back a few by the time you saw him.
Posted in: Campaigning
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Simon_Foston
In the good old days of LDP rule he wouldn't have needed experience, a record or any passion. With three generations of cabinet ministers behind him he'd be on the fast track for a cabinet post himself, and then all he'd have to do was whatever the bureaucrats in his ministry told him to.
Posted in: I have no record. I have no experience. But I have the passion to create a better Japan.
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Simon_Foston
Unfortunately no he isn't. A lot of dental treatment isn't paid for on the NHS, and dentists are charging sky-high fees. As a result you get stories in the news from time to time about people doing DIY dental work on themselves in their back gardens. This is what you get when you have governments who claim to support the NHS but don't want to spend the money to make it work properly. The UK government is all about hiring private consultants to set performance targets for public institutions, but not giving them enough money to meet those targets because it's all been spent on the consultants' fees.
Posted in: Health care is a hot topic for debate in many countries. What do you think is the best system?
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Simon_Foston
Good. That programme absolutely stinks. It's hammy, over-acted, melodramatic, over-scored and intensely irritating, just like all the other garbage they have the insolence to call TV drama in this country.
Posted in: Yukie Nakama draws curtain on trademark 'Gokusen' tracksuit
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Simon_Foston
I think that also describes the LDP's manifesto pretty well. As for what the LDP has to offer, seeing as they haven't managed to fulfill much more than half of their 2005 pledges, I'm not confident they can follow through on whatever they're promising this time.
Posted in: Aso asks voters to stick with LDP because it has produced results
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Simon_Foston
I think there will be a lot more LDP people bailing out after August 30th when the blame game begins.
Posted in: Watanabe launches Your Party ahead of general election
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Simon_Foston
One big problem is that there are just SO many hotels, especially business hotels. I just fail to see how they could all be turning decent profits, when it's easy to find at least a dozen in a 1km radius in city centres, not to mention construction sites where they're busy building even more of the damn things.
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