Japan’s Prime Minister, Taro Aso, has called an election which will likely bring the ruling Liberal Democratic Party government down. Yesterday’s local elections in Tokyo saw the defeat of the LDP, who have dominated the prefectural assembly since 1965. In the aftermath, Aso has called an election for the lower house of the national Parliament for August 30.
It is widely expected that the opposition Democratic Party, that already controls the upper house, to win the election. The LDP have held power since 1955 in Japan, with the exception of a short period in the early 1990s.
This will be interesting.
Why is Japan so attracted to the LDP?
What are the Communists up to?
The Communists got 8 seats in the prefectural assembly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_prefectural_election,_2009
Rationalist,
From what little I know of Japanese politics, it seems to be a combination of extreme rural malapportionment and the fact that the ‘opposition’ spends most of its time fighting among itself. The various left-wing parties are forever splintering off, disbanding or joining the LDP.
Effectively, Japan has been a one-party state for decades; the weak opposition has allowed the LDP to become monolithic, with its fingers in every pie. And the heavy rural bias leads to ridiculous pork-barrelling: I’ve read stories about the LDP building unnecessary roads, bridges, dams, etc in rural areas purely for the votes.
A non-LDP government might fix the malapportionment. The electoral system might also be changed. Japan still has a voting age of twenty.
Building unnecessary roads, bridges, dams, tunnels and more is a Japanese national sport. It’s not just in the rural areas.
Here’s but one tiny example
I believe that the pork barrelling has been reduced since the House of Councillors voted down part of the tax on petrol because it was used to fund road projects like that.