Japanese politics

[barfo]

I've been reading about the Japanese election that is being held right now. It is widely expected that the bums will be thrown out - that is, the Liberal Democratic Party, which has been in power since the 1950s, will finally be dethroned by the Democratic Party of Japan.

Despite the name, the Liberal Democratic Party is the right-wing party in Japan, the DPJ is left-wing (although somewhat of a grab bag of anti-LDP politicians of all flavors).

There are some interesting parallels with the US elections last year, for example the incumbent prime minister, Aso, has very low approval ratings (about 20% in July, up from 11% earlier in the year).

barfo

 

[SlyPokerDog]

I've been reading about the Japanese election that is being held right now. It is widely expected that the bums will be thrown out - that is, the Liberal Democratic Party, which has been in power since the 1950s, will finally be dethroned by the Democratic Party of Japan.

Despite the name, the Liberal Democratic Party is the right-wing party in Japan, the DPJ is left-wing (although somewhat of a grab bag of anti-LDP politicians of all flavors).

There are some interesting parallels with the US elections last year, for example the incumbent prime minister, Aso, has very low approval ratings (about 20% in July, up from 11% earlier in the year).

barfo

The Liberal Democratic Party will be back into power next election because you know the Democratic Party of Japan is going to try and give illegal aliens free health care.

 

[barfo]

The Liberal Democratic Party will be back into power next election because you know the Democratic Party of Japan is going to try and give illegal aliens free health care.

That, plus the fact that the new Prime minister, Hatoyama, was born in Kenya.

barfo

 

[SlyPokerDog]

That, plus the fact that the new Prime minister, Hatoyama, was born in Kenya.

barfo

This is getting scary, these crazy Kenyans are everywhere. It's like a African version of The Manchurian Candidate.

"Queen of hearts! Queen of hearts!"

 

[yakbladder]

It doesn't matter because their inability to form a stable government for more than four years just means another ride on the ferris wheel.

Regarding health care, it's actually kind of interesting then that the right wing party in Japan put in a health care system with probably the strictest price controls in the entire world.

 

[bluefrog]

Definitely a big change in the political scene in Japan. I lived there for 6 years and saw flat growth, rising unemployment and declining influence on the asian and world scenes.

Japanese people in general are far less informed when it comes to politics compared to Americans. Until now, this climate has let the LDP maintain control despite the bad economy and rising social problems.

As yakblader said:

It doesn't matter because their inability to form a stable government for more than four years just means another ride on the ferris wheel.

The DPJ has a very short amount of time to win people over or they'll be out in the next election (or the public will continue to ignore politics and they will have control for the next 50 years)