As bad as the drubbing was in Sunday's Upper House election, the Democratic Party of Japan faces an even bigger, not to say familiar, problem — disharmony and lack of governance.
The schism was again evident Wednesday when party members failed to decide whether to punish former Prime Minister Naoto Kan for supporting a candidate in the Tokyo electoral district who had lost the party's endorsement. Kan's backing is thought to have contributed to the crushing defeat the party's favorite suffered.
At the same meeting, members also discussed how to discipline Kan's predecessor, Yukio Hatoyama, for recent comments that ran counter to the government's official position on the Senkaku Islands and appeared to sympathize with China's claim.