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Originally Posted by GUTB_
I guess Japan which doesn't have a long liberal tradition built up around popular uprisings, social revolutions, labor unions and other things like that is faced with complex social issues that aren't that easy to deal with. So, kj, what's the feeling out on the streets? Is there like a despressed apathy with everyone is complaining, or does it sound like people are ready to start hanging goverment officials and other high-level leaders of the economy?
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Slowly, Japan is moving towards from a multi-party system of the 1955 system (the LDP majority coalition vs the largest opposition led by the Socialists coalitions) to a "true" two-party system. The last lower house election that we had last month clearly showed the Japanese populace's irritation on how the government is being run. Although the LDP-Komeito coalition was still able to keep its majority with 275 seats, (need 240 to have a majority) it was still 11 seats lower than the previous election (they had 286 seats). An even more interesting aspect from this election is that we now see the "power shift" of the largest opposition group - the Democrats, which significantly increased its seats from 137 in the previous election to 177 seats this year. But the most dramatic poll results was the Socialists...the once-largest opposition group which had held over 155 seats at its peak...has weakened to a miserable 6 seats.
Before reviewing the data, please keep in mind that the LDP - "Liberal Democratic Party" is a very misleading name. It's party's name denotes "Liberal" but it cannot be so far to being conservative, and "Democratic" is more like "Republican." It's "Liberal Democratic" in name only - because it was a merger of two big parties "the Liberals" and "the Democrats" in the post war ashes of Japan.
A review of the election results this year (parenthesis denotes previous seats):
Majority coalition:
LDP [Liberal Democratic Party] - 237 (246)
Komeito [Komeito Buddhist Party] - 34 (31)
NCP [New Conservative Party] - 4 (9)
majority total - 275 (286)
Opposition coalition:
DPJ [Democratic Party of Japan] - 177 (137)
DSP [Democratic Socialist Party] - 6 (18)
JCP [Japan Communist Party] - 9 (20)
FA [Jiyuu Rengo/Freedom Alliance] 1 (1)
Independents - 12 (13)
opposition total - 205 (189)
five seats were added to the lower house of Parliament due to population growth.
What can be interpreted from this data:
1. This marks the first time in post-war Japanese history, where the incumbent majority coalition has dipped below the 60% scale.
2. We see a dramatic decrease in the seats that the minor parties have held, and a "changing of the opposition coalition leader" from the once mighty Socialists to the Democrats.
3. As the minor parties begin to fade and gobbled up by each of the coalition leading party, Japan is beginning to move from a multipartisan to a bipartisan government.
4. Clearly, the hugest gains were made by the Democratic Party - they've gained 40 seats from the previous election, marking the Japanese people's discontent on who's running the government for the last 50 years - the majority holding LDP.
In Japan, where the executive body lies within the legislative (the Prime Minister is basically the president of the major party), any government laws and economic "reforms" are made and passed (called "rammed through") by the majority. It's very interesting to go visit the Lower House assembly when a vote is made to pass a law - the opposition knows that any law made by the LDP are going to pass, so the opposition members retailiate by walking up to the podium VEEEEERY SLOWLY (Do I mean slow? I meant tiptoeing to the podium an inch each step, each opposition member not standing up until his fellow opposition member comes back to his/her seat, meanwhile the opposition member also tiptoes back to his/her seat after casting his/her vote) to cast in their "nay" votes. I guess it's kind of like the American "filibuster" system...only we can't do filibusters because the gichou (something like the House Speaker?) can stop an argument at any time. Of course, doing something like that only shows how our government is useless.