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JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 18, 2012

Nothing left for the election-gutted DPJ to do but rebuild

The drubbing taken by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's Democratic Party of Japan on Sunday left it with just 57 seats and one option: to rebuild.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 15, 2012

Idled reactors' fate holds center stage in nuclear hub Fukui

On a snowy afternoon just a few days before the general election, local politicians and many residents of Fukui Prefecture were in a state of shock and wondering what the future holds, after a team of nuclear experts declared it is highly likely that a fault under the Tsuruga nuclear plant's reactor...
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2012

DPJ fix for vote-value gap wins panel nod

The ruling Democratic Party of Japan voted Monday in an opposition-boycotted Lower House committee to back its legislation aimed at rectifying the national disparity in vote values, which is threatening the constitutionality of Japan's elections.
COMMENTARY
May 16, 2012

Lords' reform creating tension in U.K. coalition

Last Wednesday's Queen's Speech saw Britain's hereditary monarch announcing government plans to effectively abolish the House of Lords, the British Parliament's unelected second chamber. It is hard to imagine that the queen did not feel the irony. But she may still have the last laugh, as proposals to...
EDITORIALS
Feb 24, 2012

Disappointing delay in vote reform

The political parties will likely miss an important deadline in their efforts to reapportion Lower House seats. In March 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that the August 2009 Lower House election was held unconstitutionally because of a large disparity in the value of one vote between depopulated rural...
EDITORIALS
Jan 26, 2012

Tax plan ill-timed and ill-thought

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda made a policy speech before the Diet on Tuesday as it started a regular session for 2012. His main theme was a raise of the consumption tax and he called on opposition parties to take part in consultations on the matter with his ruling Democratic Party of Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
May 11, 2011

Britain's adversity to A.V.

Britain's rejection of a new electoral system in last Thursday's referendum comes as no surprise. Nor does the predictably low turnout of 42 percent. Alternative Vote (A.V.), the system proposed to replace the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) method of electing ministers of Parliament (MPs) to Westminster,...
COMMENTARY
Aug 11, 2010

Can Japan's politics change people's despair to hope?

The outcome of the July 11 Upper House election symbolized voters' distrust of national politics in Japan. The ruling Democratic Party of Japan led by Prime Minister Naoto Kan took only 44 of the 121 contested seats against its pre-election share of 54 seats due for contention and the DPJ-led coalition...
EDITORIALS
Jul 30, 2010

Ferment within the SDP

Ms. Kiyomi Tsujimoto, a Social Democratic Party stalwart and a star politician as much as party chief Mizuho Fukushima is, announced her departure from the party Tuesday. This could seriously damage the SDP unless it makes strenuous efforts to pursue idealism based on political realism — a difficult...
EDITORIALS
Jun 17, 2010

Fund irregularities cost a Diet seat

Ms. Chiyomi Kobayashi, a former saleswoman for a bread company who was first elected to the Lower House by proportional representation in 2003, was touted as a symbol of the Democratic Party of Japan's massive win in the Aug. 30 Lower House election. She routed former Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka...
EDITORIALS
Apr 21, 2010

Uphold Upper House ideals

The Upper House election is expected to be held July 11, with half of the chamber's seats up for grabs. Political parties would do well to keep in mind an ideal held by many voters: The Upper House should not operate like a second Lower House, where partisan interests take precedence over everything,...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Feb 15, 2010

LDP flailing for relevance

The once dominant Liberal Democratic Party is said to be trying to re-establish its identity as a genuine conservative force, but the LDP leadership appears to be doing nothing more than working desperately to maintain the status quo.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2009

Komeito, LDP crash in Kansai

OSAKA — The Kansai region's most prominent members in the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito lost their seats to younger challengers Sunday, part of the overwhelming national trend in favor of the Democratic Party of Japan and the other opposition parties.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years