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NohopeSeriously
Joined: 17 Jan 2011
Location: The Christian Right-Wing Educational Republic of Korea
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 Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 6:12 am Post subject: Tea Party Movement Brewing in Japan? |
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Things are getting interesting over there.
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Political brouhahas in cities across Japan suggest a movement is slowly gaining steam� quiet, but but with a contempt for the political establishment reminiscent of the U.S. Tea Party movement.
Akune, a minuscule town in Kagoshima prefecture, is still caught in the operatic grip of Shinichi Takehara, the libertarian mayor who was booted from power in a recall referendum in December. The people there voted Sunday to dissolve the city assembly, the latest turn in the maze in which Akune�s politics have wandered since Mr. Takehara was elected in 2008.
The now ex-mayor and the assembly developed irreconcilable differences when he attempted to push through a series of aggressive measures�including a 50% cut in bonuses for the municipal staff and a new compensation system for the assembly itself�without consulting the body.
A month later Mr. Takehara lost his office by a slim margin of just over 800 votes to Yoshimasa Nishihira, a chicken-farm operator who led a civic group that campaigned to oust him. But Sunday�s outcome brings Mr. Takehara some redemption: Voters may have objected to his tactics enough to kick him out of office (in a close vote), but it seems they didn�t necessarily object to the policies he was pushing�in particular, his expressed wish to close the gap between public-and private-sector pay.
Akune-style drama is playing out in other places as well, most notably in Nagoya. Japan�s fourth-largest city has undergone a similar cycle of recalls, referendums and re-elections, except that flamboyant Mayor Takashi Kawamura, after resigning to give voters a chance to weigh in on his controversial policies, was then swept back into power in a 70% landslide early this month. A referendum that same day dissolved the city assembly; a new one will be elected March 13. The 62-year-old maverick mayor had locked horns with the assembly over his proposal to cut residential taxes by 10% and halving assembly members� base salary to eight million yen (about $96,000).
Mr. Kawamura shared victory that day with political ally Hideaki Omura, who won the Aichi gubernatorial race the same day, also with a pledge to slash residential taxes. Their success at the polls marked a rise in new local political parties that shun the establishment, much like the U.S. Tea Party movement. Mr. Kawamura, formerly a lawmaker with the Democratic Party of Japan, ran on the ticket of the party he created last April: Genzei Nippon, or �Tax Cut Japan,� a stronger nod to the U.S. Tea Partiers. Mr. Omura, previously attached to the Liberal Democratic Party, also established his own party, �Nippon Ichi Aichi no Kai� (Japan�s No. 1 Aichi Group) shortly before the election.
To help push his key policies through, Mr. Kawamura wants 40 members of his own party in the next 75-member Nagoya city assembly, being elected March 13. The mayor, who has the job until April 2013, said he aims to take his tax-cut campaign national. He plans to field at least five candidates from his political group in the next lower-house election, which could occur as early as April.
�In a bid to realize tax cuts in Nagoya and in Aichi Prefecture, we will try to expand our influence at the national level,� said Mr. Kawamura on Feb. 17, according to Japanese news agency Kyodo.
The recent results don�t bode well for the ruling DPJ, which faces a pack of local elections in April. Gubernatorial elections, including ones for major urban jungles like Tokyo and Osaka, take place on April 10 and 13. Mayoral and municipal assembly elections follow on April 24. |
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/02/21/tea-party-movement-brewing-in-japan/?mod=WSJBlog |
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visitorq
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 9:18 am Post subject: |
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| Many Japanese I speak with aren't even sure who their Prime Minister is at the moment. No joke. The level of apathy towards politics there is really unbelievable (though perhaps warranted, given the sheer hopelessness of the political system). |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 12:42 pm Post subject: |
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| visitorq wrote: |
| Many Japanese I speak with aren't even sure who their Prime Minister is at the moment. No joke. The level of apathy towards politics there is really unbelievable (though perhaps warranted, given the sheer hopelessness of the political system). |
Yeah, when the system is rigged for one party to dominate, it makes one complacent. While it was altered back in the 90s, it clearly wasn't radical enough to encourage rapid changes in the political system. Koizumi illustrated how a political leader can take advantage of the new system but sadly no one has had the courage to follow in his footsteps. |
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