Comments on: Japanese election called

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 05:58:10 +0000

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.

By: kme

kme — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 04:39:25 +0000

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

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:22:25 +0000

A non-LDP government might fix the malapportionment. The electoral system might also be changed. Japan still has a voting age of twenty.

By: MDMConnell

MDMConnell — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:17:30 +0000

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.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:02:56 +0000

The Communists got 8 seats in the prefectural assembly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_prefectural_election,_2009

By: Oz

Oz — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:23:15 +0000

What are the Communists up to?

By: Rationalist

Rationalist — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:57:14 +0000

This will be interesting.

Why is Japan so attracted to the LDP?