July 17, 2012
How many political parties does the Diet have, including the newly born “Kokumin no Seikatsu ga Daiichi (people’s livelihoods first)” headed by former Democratic Party of Japan leader Ozawa Ichiro? The answer is 13.
The situation resembles what it was in the 1990s when key parties kept changing their alignments producing a number of minor parties.
A veteran Diet employee pointed out, “Except for the Japanese Communist Party, existing parties and the two major parties are incapable of responding to the people’s will. The new party has just created ‘fragments’ of former parties rather than multiparty politics.”
This Diet staff said, “As young mothers with baby strollers appear in front of the prime minister’s office to participate in weekly anti-nuke demonstrations, many people now have an increased political awareness. To go to the next step, an existence of a party capable of translating this move into political talks and policies is necessary. The very structure of party politics itself is being questioned.”
The People’s New Party, the Sunrise Party of Japan, and the New Renaissance Party are intrinsically Liberal Democratic Party forces. The Kizuna Party and the “Kokumin no Seikatsu ga Daiichi” are DPJ spinoffs. The Your Party consists of former DPJ and LDP members. The Komei Party plays a supplementary role to the LDP. The Social Democratic Party cooperates with the DPJ in elections.
What brought about the rapid collapse of the 2-party system is the backroom agreement between the DPJ and the LDP plus the Komei, in effect a grand coalition, on the consumption tax increase and weakening of the social services system.
The emergence of the DPJ and the LDP-Komei combo is trampling on the people’s expectations for political change.
Kamiwaki Hiroshi, professor at Kobe Gakuin University said, “The 2-party system is obviously crumbling.”
“However,” he continues, “it still has the strength to hold back progressive forces centering on the JCP at any cost.”
That is why the power-leaning groups uniformly “seek to maintain the single-seat constituency system and try to spotlight Ozawa’s new party and the ‘Osaka Ishin-no Kai (Osaka restoration group)’,” he added.
Kamiwaki emphasized, “A shift away from politics prioritizing business circles and the Japan-U.S. alliance is the genuine challenge to politics as it stands. The situation is reaching a critical stage at which it is essential to win the understanding of the public.”
The situation resembles what it was in the 1990s when key parties kept changing their alignments producing a number of minor parties.
A veteran Diet employee pointed out, “Except for the Japanese Communist Party, existing parties and the two major parties are incapable of responding to the people’s will. The new party has just created ‘fragments’ of former parties rather than multiparty politics.”
This Diet staff said, “As young mothers with baby strollers appear in front of the prime minister’s office to participate in weekly anti-nuke demonstrations, many people now have an increased political awareness. To go to the next step, an existence of a party capable of translating this move into political talks and policies is necessary. The very structure of party politics itself is being questioned.”
The People’s New Party, the Sunrise Party of Japan, and the New Renaissance Party are intrinsically Liberal Democratic Party forces. The Kizuna Party and the “Kokumin no Seikatsu ga Daiichi” are DPJ spinoffs. The Your Party consists of former DPJ and LDP members. The Komei Party plays a supplementary role to the LDP. The Social Democratic Party cooperates with the DPJ in elections.
What brought about the rapid collapse of the 2-party system is the backroom agreement between the DPJ and the LDP plus the Komei, in effect a grand coalition, on the consumption tax increase and weakening of the social services system.
The emergence of the DPJ and the LDP-Komei combo is trampling on the people’s expectations for political change.
Kamiwaki Hiroshi, professor at Kobe Gakuin University said, “The 2-party system is obviously crumbling.”
“However,” he continues, “it still has the strength to hold back progressive forces centering on the JCP at any cost.”
That is why the power-leaning groups uniformly “seek to maintain the single-seat constituency system and try to spotlight Ozawa’s new party and the ‘Osaka Ishin-no Kai (Osaka restoration group)’,” he added.
Kamiwaki emphasized, “A shift away from politics prioritizing business circles and the Japan-U.S. alliance is the genuine challenge to politics as it stands. The situation is reaching a critical stage at which it is essential to win the understanding of the public.”
