Change of guard in Japan
Andrei Kuznetsov
A new wave of the "collective unconscious" has swept Japan. In the
last few days before the August 30 election to the lower house of
Japan's parliament, a growing number of voters said they would vote for
the largest opposition Democratic Party of Japan and against the ruling
Liberal Democratic Party. As a result, the Democratic Party has won the
election.
At first, the Democratic Party was fighting for a simple majority
(over 241 seats), but by August 30 it was aiming for a qualified
majority or more than 320 seats. As a result, the party won 308 seats,
while the Liberal Democratic Party has only 119 seats in the new
parliament.
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Eriko Fukuda, a candidate of Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ),
smiles as she receives flower bouquets after she defeated ruling
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) heavyweight politician former
Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma in the general elections at Isahaya
city in Nagasaki prefecture, Japan’s outhern island of Kyushu,
on August 30, 2009. Japanese voters swept to power an untested
centre-left party August 30 in an electoral avalanche that ended
more than half a century of almost unbroken conservative rule,
according to exit polls. AFP |
The LDP has been in power since its establishment in 1955, with the
exception of 10 months in 1993-1994, when a coalition of eight parties
and groups ruled the country, without much success. Therefore, the
defeat at this year's elections came as a very hard blow for it,
signifying the demise of a once very powerful party.
DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama will be elected Prime Minister at a special
meeting of the parliament in the middle of September, ushering in a
Government that has promised to develop 'a fraternal society founded on
a policy of love' toward families, the unemployed and pensioners.
According to the DPJ, the first three months will be the most
difficult for the new Government. If it formulates a 2010 budget by the
end of the year and ensures its approval in the parliament, this will
serve as the foundation for a lengthy period of the DPJ rule in Japan
after a 62-year pause.
The Liberal Democratic Party ineffectively played during the election
campaign on the subject of 'responsibility', and claimed that the DPJ
has no experience of running the country and no funds to attain the
proclaimed goals. The LDP also said that the growth of GDP has resumed,
and the country has approached the end of the economic tunnel in the
past months when the party was running the country.
However, the electorate refused to listen to these reasonable
arguments, and the number of DPJ supporters grew fast.
Meanwhile, the DPJ was relying hard on the populist promises to cut
short bureaucrats, cancel high-speed toll road fees, introduce monthly
allowances to families, and improve the social security system.
Hatoyama was bound to make these logical moves, because his party,
unlike the LDP, has no experience in the sphere of foreign or domestic
policy. He plans to call, preferably jointly with US President Barack
Obama, for a nuclear-free world at the UN General Assembly in late
September.
This could be an instant hit, the world's first victim of nuclear
bombing and the world's first country that dropped a nuclear bomb
joining forces to call for a ban on nuclear weapons. However, a source
at the US State Department said on the condition of anonymity that they
would not like to listen to fairytales during a summit meeting between
the US and the Japanese leaders.
The new Government is likely to maintain allied relations with the
United States, with a minor decrease in military operations abroad.
(RIA Novosti.) |
