Minoru Tada - The Japan Times

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Minoru Tada

For Minoru Tada's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

COMMENTARY

Jul 7, 2000

Election results are disappointing

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori launched his new Cabinet Tuesday on the strength of an absolute majority won by the coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the Conservative Party in the June 25 Lower House election.

COMMENTARY

Jun 23, 2000

Victory predicted for LDP

The major Japanese newspapers that conducted polls on the June 25 Lower House election this week made these stunning forecasts:

COMMENTARY

Jun 9, 2000

Mori lands in hot water again

Gaffe-prone Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori put his foot in his mouth again, plunging his Cabinet's popularity ratings to record lows just as Japan is gearing up for a June 25 general election.

COMMENTARY

May 26, 2000

No time for anachronisms

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's controversial remark that Japan is "a divine nation centering on the Emperor" reminded me of a group of people I saw at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which is dedicated to Japan's war dead. As a veteran who survived the battle of Iwo Jima, I occasionally visit the shrine with relatives of fellow Japanese reserve officers who died in the battle.

COMMENTARY

May 12, 2000

LDP members pass the baton

The general election to be held in June will provide an opportunity for the rejuvenation of the Lower House. About 30 Lower House members have already announced -- or are moving to announce before the election -- their retirement from politics. They cite old age, illness and family reasons for retiring.

COMMENTARY

Apr 28, 2000

Ichiro Ozawa now isolated

The recent change of government in Japan, resulting from Yoshiro Mori's replacement of the ailing Keizo Obuchi as prime minister, was accompanied by another important development: the end of a conflict between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's Secretary General Hiromu Nonaka and Liberal Party leader Ichiro Ozawa. The behind-the-scenes battle that had continued for several years ended in a total victory for Nonaka when Ozawa was forced to leave the governing coalition made up of the LDP, LP and New Komeito. After rocking Japanese politics with his strong-arm tactics for years, Ozawa is now politically isolated.

COMMENTARY

Apr 14, 2000

General elections loom large

Keizo Obuchi, who looked like a paragon of health as prime minister, suddenly collapsed last week when he suffered a stroke and was replaced by LDP Secretary General Yoshiro Mori. The episode made me think of a saying often quoted in the Japanese political world: "The future is all darkness."

COMMENTARY

Mar 31, 2000

Obuchi heading for trouble

The sun may be setting on the administration of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi. Recent polls indicate that the Obuchi Cabinet's approval ratings have fallen sharply while its disapproval ratings have risen. The phenomenon is generally blamed on the continuing recession, a growing public-debt burden stemming from the government's free-spending policies and the questionable ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party, the Liberal Party and New Komeito.

COMMENTARY

Mar 3, 2000

Tide turning against coalition

Only three weeks ago, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's tripartite coalition was in a celebratory mood after the opposition forces ended their boycott of the Diet and all proceedings returned to normal.

COMMENTARY

Feb 18, 2000

Aftermath of Diet debacle

The Diet returned to normal last week, after the opposition forces ended their boycott of the ordinary session over the tripartite ruling bloc's handling of a controversial bill for reducing the number of Diet seats.

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 5, 2000

The odd debacle in the Diet

In an unprecedented development in Japanese political history, the opposition forces are boycotting all Diet proceedings to protest the ruling coalition's handling of the controversial legislation for reducing the number of Lower House seats. The Democratic Party of Japan, the Japan Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party launched the boycott in an ordinary Diet session that began Jan. . Only the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its partners -- the Liberal Party and New Komeito -- are taking part in both Houses' proceedings.

COMMENTARY

Jan 22, 2000

Close the bases, start again

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's Cabinet deserves praise for changing Japan's policy stance regarding the Japan-U.S. security system. First, the Cabinet recently proposed a 15-year time limit on U.S. use of the facility that would take over operations of the U.S. Futenma Marine Air Station in Okinawa, which is to be returned to Japanese control. Second, it reduced Japan's host-nation financial support of U.S. military bases by 2.5 billion yen under a fiscal 2000 government budget. These changes would have been inconceivable under the previous Japanese governments led by the Liberal Democratic Party.

COMMENTARY

Jan 7, 2000

Eyeing Lower House elections

It looks like 2000 will be a year of politics in the world and in Japan as well. In the United States and Russia, there will be presidential elections; in Japan, the Lower House will be dissolved for a snap election before its sitting members complete their four-year terms in October.

COMMENTARY

Nov 27, 1999

Tough times again for Ozawa

While I was away from Japan on a recent overseas trip, the nation was plunged into political confusion following Liberal Party leader Ichiro Ozawa's threat to leave the ruling three-party coalition. Ozawa suggested that his party could quit the alliance -- which also includes the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito -- over policy differences.

COMMENTARY

Aug 28, 1999

Politicians go head to head

Political chaos in August ended when the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, the Liberal Party, agreed to form an alliance with New Komeito, despite widespread fears that the tripartite negotiations would fail because of policy differences. By successfully playing a political numbers game, the administration of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi tightened its grip on power. The LP, which was on the verge of breakup over whether it should stay in the alliance, managed to avoid that fate. This was the second time that a Komeito group, supported by the lay Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai, would join a ruling coalition. All public opinion polls show, however, widespread opposition to the three-way alliance.

COMMENTARY

Aug 13, 1999

Ozawa's future appears bleak

Japan is engulfed in severe political turmoil as the Diet session closes today. Things have turned out as I have been predicting since last fall regarding the coalition strategies of Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka, the chief strategist in Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's administration.

COMMENTARY

Jul 30, 1999

Selling out in Nagata-cho

"Japanese politics today lacks principles," former Health and Welfare Minister Junichiro Koizumi said when I met him recently as a member of a journalists' group. Koizumi also criticized government budget outlays of 80 trillion yen, against national and local tax revenues of only 50 trillion yen. He lamented that the government is covering the deficit by issuing bonds. The outstanding balance of government bond issues has climbed to a record 300 trillion yen.

COMMENTARY

Jun 4, 1999

Obuchi set for one more term

Following the Diet's enactment last week of a legislative package covering the updated guidelines for Japan-U.S. defense cooperation, the Lower House on Tuesday passed bills that will allow wiretapping in investigations into organized crime. The administration of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi has thus cleared the major legislative hurdles in the current Diet session, now in its final phase.

COMMENTARY

Apr 9, 1999

National security put to test

Two suspected North Korean spy boats recently invaded Japanese territorial waters in the Sea of Japan. A national controversy still rages over the incident, which came at a time when the Diet was debating legislation covering the new Japan-U.S. defense cooperation guidelines. The intrusion sparked a Cabinet order to the Maritime Self-Defense Force to stop and inspect the ships -- the first such order issued under the postwar Constitution. Japanese destroyers fired a number of warning shots and aircraft dropped warning bombs in a vain attempt to try to stop the boats.

COMMENTARY

Mar 13, 1999

LDP strategy hits and misses

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka, the government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party are pursuing a political strategy for 1999 with these objectives:

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