politics japan

Politics in Japan is as interesting, though perhaps more perplexing, as anywhere else. When we lived there, I did my best to take an interest in what was going on, though my main source for a long time was the conservative Yomuiri Shinbun. I also gleaned a little from the nightly NHK news, though it seemed to me that the latter simply reported what it was told to.

I remember in out first working outing in Sanda - very early on - being take to lunch with our boss Stephanie and a Japanese friend of hers, who was prominent in local government. He also has links to, um, other more fringe groups, as well as access to the ruling party, the LDP. I mentioned over lunch that I really liked the election poster of Junichiro Koisumi with his sleeves rolled up. One phone call later and to my considerable surprise, I had said poster in my possession. The exercise of influence can be fascinating.

The Democratic Party is now in government and one Prime Minister has already resigned. The pattern of rotating PM's that followed the retirement of Koisumi has been repeated in the the new Government. Timidity or business as usual appear to be the hallmarks of the present time, and new parties with enterprising names are forming on the back of the political vacuum that is emerging.

And you can't blame them to for trying. Who wouldn't feel the desire to cast a vote for the Stand Up Japan Party, the New Renaissance Party, the Spirit of Japan Party, and the most popular, Your Party? Your place or mine, I wonder?

I sent a PDF to a friend in 2001 that purported to explain, or at least shed light, on the development of Japanese political parties in the 1990's. And truly, by way of a desire for sheer illumination, I reprint it above. Good luck.