Kenzo Uchida - The Japan Times

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Kenzo Uchida

COMMENTARY

Feb 10, 2001

Upheaval on the horizon

Diet debate started Tuesday on the fiscal 2001 government budget. The debate is likely to see head-on confrontation between the ruling and opposition forces. The government and the ruling coalition are hoping to pass the budget before fiscal 2000 ends March 31 in order to prepare for an Upper House election...

COMMENTARY

Jan 27, 2001

KSD places Mori in peril

Dark clouds hang over Japanese politics. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has been jolted by allegations that some of its leading members took payoffs from the mutual-aid organization KSD. The scandal came after Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori reshuffled his Cabinet last month and the restructured central...

COMMENTARY

Jan 14, 2001

New Cabinet does little to boost Mori

Japan is enveloped in gloom at the dawn of the 21st century, as is much of the rest of the world. The administration of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori continues to suffer from dismally low public-approval ratings, despite the major Cabinet reshuffle he carried out last month. The reorganization of the central...

COMMENTARY

Dec 23, 2000

Cabinet reshuffle solves little

Just a week remains until the curtain comes down on the 20th century. We are, in the true sense of the phrase, at the end of a century. Words like fin de siecle and millennium tend to be tossed about, but this year really can only be described as one of end-of-the-century blues.

COMMENTARY

Dec 8, 2000

Mori's prospects remain dim

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori Tuesday inaugurated his new Cabinet, which includes two former prime ministers. Mori retained Kiichi Miyazawa as finance minister and named Ryutaro Hashimoto as special minister for administrative reform and chief of the Okinawa Development Agency. Effective Jan. 6, Hashimoto...

COMMENTARY

Nov 17, 2000

Kato challenge divides LDP

A political drama is unfolding over the fate of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's administration, and it is anybody's guess how it will end.

COMMENTARY

Nov 4, 2000

Mori fumbles, Japan drifts

The government of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori faces another political crisis after a furor over a controversial electoral-reform bill died down with the Diet passage of the legislation. The law introduces a new voting system in the proportional-representation section of Upper House polls.

COMMENTARY

Oct 20, 2000

Still no respite from turmoil

The world is reeling from severe turmoil. The Middle East situation remains volatile after an emergency summit in Egypt ended with a shaky pact to halt violence between Israelis and Palestinians, skyrocketing crude-oil prices are threatening a new oil crisis and the U.S. economy is showing signs of trouble...

COMMENTARY

Oct 6, 2000

Stymied by electoral reform

Confusion reigns in the current extraordinary Diet session, with the opposition forces boycotting debate to protest the ruling bloc's forcible move to revise the Upper House election system.

COMMENTARY

Sep 23, 2000

Politicians face a busy fall

The 72-day extraordinary Diet session opened Thursday. It will last until Dec. 1, which is unusually long for an extra session. The political schedule will be very tight in December: The government will compile a fiscal 2001 budget and lay the groundwork for the reorganization of the central bureaucracy...

COMMENTARY

Sep 9, 2000

Parties plan for the 2001 vote

A new political season begins in Japan when an extraordinary Diet session starts later this month.

COMMENTARY

Aug 25, 2000

Turbulent times await Mori

Japan's new political season will open in late September, when an extraordinary Diet session starts after the summer recess. Politics in the upcoming year will be marked by three potential turning points.

COMMENTARY

Aug 11, 2000

Mori reign remains shaky

It has been four months since Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori launched his coalition government. Mori's first Cabinet, inaugurated April 5, remained in office for less than three months before the general election was held June 25. He established his second Cabinet July 3.

COMMENTARY

Jul 14, 2000

Rough start for Mori Cabinet

On July 4, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori launched his new coalition Cabinet consisting of the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party. The event, following the June 25 general election, would have been an occasion for celebration and hope under ordinary circumstances but was...

COMMENTARY

Jun 30, 2000

Setback for ruling coalition

The June 25 Lower House election ended with a voter turnout of only 62.49 percent. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party suffered a sharp setback, with its strength decreasing to 233 seats from a pre-election figure of 271. On the other hand, the top opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, saw...

COMMENTARY

Jun 16, 2000

Voter turnout key to election

Official campaigning is under way for the June 25 general election. This will be the first Japanese general election to be held in three years and eight months, following the last poll in October 1996. The new Lower House, whose term will run to 2004, will be the center of national politics as Japan...

COMMENTARY

May 19, 2000

The right leader for Japan?

Former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi died last Sunday, 42 days after suffering a stroke and falling into a coma. He was 62.

COMMENTARY

Apr 22, 2000

June ballot is in the works

Two weeks have already passed since the reins of government shifted from Keizo Obuchi to Yoshiro Mori. Nothing surprising has come out of recent opinion polls, which have generally shown that the new government is approved by about 40 percent of the public and disapproved by some 30 percent. A survey...

COMMENTARY

Apr 7, 2000

New leader, same policies

Yoshiro Mori, who replaced a comatose Keizo Obuchi as prime minister, inaugurated his Cabinet April 5. The Obuchi Cabinet resigned en masse April 4, after Obuchi suffered a stroke and was hospitalized. All Cabinet members, except Obuchi, retained their posts.

COMMENTARY

Mar 12, 2000

Timing the general election

All proceedings in the current ordinary Diet session are going smoothly. The lull is in stark contrast to a period of turmoil from late January to early February triggered by the opposition boycott of the Diet over the ruling bloc's railroading of a bill for cutting the number of Lower House seats by...

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By Stephen Mansfield

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there

Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there

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