I do so enjoy historic elections....
Today, Japan held a general election for the Lower House, which is the house that determines who controls the government. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has been in power pretty much since the end of the War, with a brief interruption in the late 80s. In today's election, they've been spanked by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), reflecting the public's dissatisfaction with the way the country has been run the last few years, including a pension scandal where millions of public pensions were lost, and a succession of weak and ineffectual Prime Ministers, all wrapped up under the influence of the worldwide economic crisis.
Out of a total 480 seats, the DPJ is projected to win 315 of them, far above the simple majority they need. LDP is projected to win only 106. The minor coalition parties and independents will pick up the rest, with overwhelming support in the Lower House going to the DPJ. What makes this especially interesting is the turnaround - just four years ago, the LDP won the general election with an overwhelming majority, which was 296 seats, significantly less than what the DPJ is expected to win tonight.
Some interesting races results: Shinzo Abe and Taro Aso, former and current Prime Ministers respectively, have both been re-elected, though I have no idea why. How did they campaign: "I was a total failure as the leader of the government - vote for me!" Also elected was Shinjiro Koizumi, son of occasionally popular Prime Minister (and Dubya's Japanese BFF) Junichiro Koizumi. No idea if he'll be any good, but he's a Legacy Politician, taking his own father's district, so there's points against right there, in my book.
Shoichi Nakagawa, the ex-foreign minister who was taped being three sheets to the wind at the G7 last year is out, and good riddance to him. Former PM Yasuo Fukuda's seat is still undecided, though like his fellow disposable PMs, I can't imagine why this should even be in dispute. More interesting is Yoshio Mori, who was the abysmally bad Prime Minister before Koizumi. He's been widely regarded as the real power in the LDP, a kind of kingmaker figure, and as of this writing, his race is pretty close to seeing him voted out.
So what does all this mean? Well, the highways will be free of charge in about four years, if the DPJ gets that through and isn't pressured to fold by the companies that run ETC, the electronic toll collection system that is used across the country and which rakes in a lot of money as a bloated government project. That is now marked for death. Their manifesto (PDF) calls for some interesting plans - giving a "child allowance" of 315,000 yen per annum for kids until they graduate from junior high school, and a guaranteed pension of at least 70,000 yen a month. Basically the usual line: end wasteful spending and use tax money to actually benefit people. One line from the manifesto struck me: "This may seem mere common sense: people's lives matter, taxes shouldn't be wasted." A wonderfully vague statement, but I can imagine it struck home.
Of course, they say they're going to end "amakudari," which is where civil servants get to retire and land cushy jobs in the very industries they used to oversee. They also claim they're going to ban hereditary Diet seats, the means of which I'd be interested to see. And there's not one word in that Manifesto about immigration. So we'll see how that goes.
In any case, it's fun to see this kind of turnaround. I hope the DPJ proves itself worthy of the public's overwhelming trust, and that the LDP doesn't follow the GOP and decide that it can best spend its energy trying to undermine progress.
Out of a total 480 seats, the DPJ is projected to win 315 of them, far above the simple majority they need. LDP is projected to win only 106. The minor coalition parties and independents will pick up the rest, with overwhelming support in the Lower House going to the DPJ. What makes this especially interesting is the turnaround - just four years ago, the LDP won the general election with an overwhelming majority, which was 296 seats, significantly less than what the DPJ is expected to win tonight.
Some interesting races results: Shinzo Abe and Taro Aso, former and current Prime Ministers respectively, have both been re-elected, though I have no idea why. How did they campaign: "I was a total failure as the leader of the government - vote for me!" Also elected was Shinjiro Koizumi, son of occasionally popular Prime Minister (and Dubya's Japanese BFF) Junichiro Koizumi. No idea if he'll be any good, but he's a Legacy Politician, taking his own father's district, so there's points against right there, in my book.
Shoichi Nakagawa, the ex-foreign minister who was taped being three sheets to the wind at the G7 last year is out, and good riddance to him. Former PM Yasuo Fukuda's seat is still undecided, though like his fellow disposable PMs, I can't imagine why this should even be in dispute. More interesting is Yoshio Mori, who was the abysmally bad Prime Minister before Koizumi. He's been widely regarded as the real power in the LDP, a kind of kingmaker figure, and as of this writing, his race is pretty close to seeing him voted out.
So what does all this mean? Well, the highways will be free of charge in about four years, if the DPJ gets that through and isn't pressured to fold by the companies that run ETC, the electronic toll collection system that is used across the country and which rakes in a lot of money as a bloated government project. That is now marked for death. Their manifesto (PDF) calls for some interesting plans - giving a "child allowance" of 315,000 yen per annum for kids until they graduate from junior high school, and a guaranteed pension of at least 70,000 yen a month. Basically the usual line: end wasteful spending and use tax money to actually benefit people. One line from the manifesto struck me: "This may seem mere common sense: people's lives matter, taxes shouldn't be wasted." A wonderfully vague statement, but I can imagine it struck home.
Of course, they say they're going to end "amakudari," which is where civil servants get to retire and land cushy jobs in the very industries they used to oversee. They also claim they're going to ban hereditary Diet seats, the means of which I'd be interested to see. And there's not one word in that Manifesto about immigration. So we'll see how that goes.
In any case, it's fun to see this kind of turnaround. I hope the DPJ proves itself worthy of the public's overwhelming trust, and that the LDP doesn't follow the GOP and decide that it can best spend its energy trying to undermine progress.