Before the election, I looked at the party’s members of both houses of the Japanese Diet by party origin: Socialist Party, 14; Social Democratic Party 2 (i.e., they stayed in the SP long enough for its name change to the SDPJ); assorted “right wing” socialist 10; Komeito 1; Japan Renewal Party 3; Japan New Party/Sakigake 11; New Frontier Party 12; Liberal Party 4; LDP 20; and Independents 4. The remaining 134 members have spent their entire careers in the DPJ, a number that has of course swollen now that the party won 308 seats in the lower house.

Additionally, it is worth asking whether it matters where some of the other members began their careers. Take Hatoyama, for instance. First elected to the Diet in 1983 as an LDP member, he spent ten years in the party and sixteen years out of it. Why should the former be what defines him as a politician, especially considering that a number of politicians who left the LDP in 1993 eventually drifted back? Does the fact that he stayed away and built a new opposition party from scratch in 1996 count for nothing? The same goes for former party leader Ozawa Ichiro. While he spent a far longer period in the LDP and was at the heart of its most powerful faction, he has made no secret of his desire to destroy LDP politics and usher in “normal” politics. Does that count for nothing? Finally, many of the former Socialists were present at the creation of the “former” DPJ in 1996 (the party dissolved and reformed in a merger in 1998). Does that not count for something?

It seems to be much easier for journalists to repeat the canard than to look inside the party and actually discover its internal dynamics.

Maybe unclear. My image of loudspeaker trucks in Japanese politics is one of loudly blaring, male voices with a message (as translated in the images I’ve seen) of (mostly rightwing) extremism. In this case, the voice was neither strident nor male.

“El Cantare is from the 9th dimensional heavenly realm”.

Methinks I smell a Japanese L. Ron Hubbard.

http://irh-intl.sakura.ne.jp/india/?page_id=637

“Ryuho Okawa: the core consciousness of El Cantare is incarnated for the first time in 150 million years.”

This reminds me of the Blackadder episode, “Election”: ‘Prince George, whose election pamphlet describes him as a great spiritual and moral leader of the nation, but who is described, by almost everyone else, as a fat, flatulent git…”

Random nonsystematic observations: Japan really is in a ‘throw the bums out’ mode, though of course it’s very softly spoken. My wife said, “It’s about time for a change. The Minshuto isn’t much better, but still it’s not the Jiminto”.

There’s also a bizarre religious sect called “The Science of Happiness” trying to break into the Diet. Their political arm is called The Happiness Realization Party. They have some truly unique stances, like eliminating all consumer taxes which they say will eliminate the budget deficit (or maybe I’m just reading the blurbs wrong). In our neighborhood however, they do seem to have a lot of women running for office.

The workers sleeping in internet cafes gets me. I hope things change for the better.

http://japanfocus.org/

My Japanese friends and colleagues all have a level of involvement in politics far below the expected involvement level in Europe. However, the fact that their prime minister could not read 傷跡 properly in the context of a speech on the Nagasaki bombing really made them cringe (the sign above means “scar” and even I can read it, though only because of Harry Potter).

Got it. Not an appealing choice, but I’d definitely go for Brendan and Billy. At least there’s a chance of breaking the existing machine stranglehold and paving the way for something better.

I have no real faith in the DPJ cohesiveness on any issue of social welfare or anti cronyism or anything except not being the LDP.
All issues of left and right and social democracy vs liberalism vs conservatism are misleading when seeing the parties. In truth, you have only a machine, whose continuation is it’s sole reason for being, and a party whose sole defining factor is not being of that machine, in the case of most of the leadership, because the machine did not serve their ambitions.

In Australian terms, it’s the party of Joe Tripodi and the NSW right vs a party of Brendan Nelsons and Billy Hugheses.

The two basic post-election issues will probably be first, how much effect the DPJ will have in the face of the entrenched bureaucracy (Wednesday’s Times article stresses this) and second, whether the LDP will be able to get rid of factionalism and reform itself.