politics

Japan's weak opposition no match for ruling LDP, say observers

38 Comments
By MARI YAMAGUCHI

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.


38 Comments
Login to comment

People always say they want democracy, but when they vote, what they really want is a benevolent monarch

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Kyo wa heiwa dayo neToday  06:14 am JST

The LDP are so cruel , rude and insulting and don't truly care for the public welfare and needs.

Of course they don't. They clearly see themselves as the new daimyo in Japan's feudal hierarchy, and while direct hereditary succession wouldn't chime well with the "democratic" values of their Republican and CIA enablers rigged elections serve just as well to keep them and their worthless offspring on top.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

gabrial888Today  01:41 am JST

I sometimes wonder if the present electoral system is good for Japan. Most people don't get involved in politics. They don't read about politics and have very limited knowledge about history. The voter turnout is very low and only 10-20% of young people vote. Political discussion among ordinary people is almost nonexistent. It just seems like a cycle of irresponsibility where politicians' job performances are not measured rigorously.

All of which suits the LDP just fine.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Yrall: you clearly don't know the difference between a monarchy and a Republic, and that of Head of State and a Prime Minster.

Don't think there is anywhere in the (real) world that votes for a Prime Minister directly.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

The LDP are so cruel , rude and insulting and don't truly care for the public welfare and needs.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Bit of a jump and a bush-eque "if you're not with us, you're the enemy" talk. I think the commenter your replied to was trying to say that japan (and other countries) should take care of their own family (residents & citizens) before helping others.

Good thing the democratic nations of the world weren't that apathetic during WWII.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

The last time was when non-LDP parties won the nation or anything that harmed US interests in Japan. The US immediately struck them down.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Socialist_Party

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-05/29/content_602335.htm

https://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2007/02/28/papers_tie_us_to_1950s_japan_coup_plot/

Of course, the infamous palace coup against Yukio Hatoyama and the Opposition.

The CIA created the 1955 systems to ensure LDP supremacy in Japanese politics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_System

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Quote: nearly a dozen opposition parties are trying to topple the Liberal Democratic Party

Thereby splitting the opposition vote into lots of tiny bits. Someone buy these folks a book on politics.

@Strangerland. Zelensky should have sent snipers to Moscow, week 1, to target Putin. As things stand, he is merely overseeing the progressive destruction of his country.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I sometimes wonder if the present electoral system is good for Japan. Most people don't get involved in politics. They don't read about politics and have very limited knowledge about history. The voter turnout is very low and only 10-20% of young people vote. Political discussion among ordinary people is almost nonexistent. It just seems like a cycle of irresponsibility where politicians' job performances are not measured rigorously.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Japanese leaders are afraid of giving Japanese an election in which they choose the prime minister themselves instead of the party

How could they give them an election like that, when their electoral system doesn't work like that?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

CrickyToday  05:38 pm JST

Another North Korean style election by Japan. Wages retarded, cost of living rising but the best bet is the LDP. Come one, Are voters that mentality impaired? Are they thinking after 70 years it will get better? I am thinking they need a total occupation again from a functioning democratic power. Because what’s happening is neither democratic or functioning. Forget articulate 9 let’s get the population to actually think.

Yes, the electorate IS that mentally impaired or straight up obtuse. It's comprised of a bunch of jiji's that don't really care about anything and their sole goal in life is to kick the can down the road until THEY keel over. Time to make a law of over 67 or drawing pension? No more voting for you. Voting is about the future. They are the past

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Japanese leaders are afraid of giving Japanese an election in which they choose the prime minister themselves instead of the party

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

Weak? Weak? I think any opposition that can’t get its act together in 70 years is pathetic.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Anyone who thinks the LDP has achieved their dominance on their own is lacking a basic understanding of what occurred in Japan after the war.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

I think what needs to be remembered is that running for office in Japan is expensive, and that due to loopholes in the Political Funds Control Law the LDP is swimming in cash passed down through generations of political families. They can afford to field candidates in every constituency, the opposition parties just can't.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Don't blame the politicians for change!!! Blame the PEOPLE who continue to care not to vote and the PEOPLE who do vote to continue putting the same people in power. I have read many times the young people aren't interested in politics and then I read the old people vote. The logic is simple the old people are continuing to vote with the mind set that worked for them for years and perhaps this is the reason why there is no change. On the other hand the young people aren't voting but want change and the reason why this change isn't taking place is the old mindset is already entrenched and year after year all you hear is the complaints. If Japan wants change the young people need to vote old ideas rest in place new ideas bring change!!!

2 ( +4 / -2 )

This is how the system has been designed by the LDP, being in the power for so long has let them manipulate the situation to their benefit so completely there is probably not much point in the elections right now. It will take a lot of time to level the field again, time and some opposition that are actually worth of attention.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Hey, China. You can have a one-party system while maintaining some semblance of democracy (free speech, even if it criticizes you, etc) without your country imploding. No need to kill, disappear, or have re-education camps. Let the people grumble and there will be no rumble.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

The LDP is rife with crooks and scandals, but for some weird reason noone seems to care. Work to die still as popular a mantra as ever in Japan it seems

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

nearly a dozen opposition parties are trying to topple the Liberal Democratic Party

There's the first problem. The opposition doesn't stand a chance until it gets properly organised and provides a united front with a coherent message.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

I'm going for the Burdock Root Party, anything is better than the LDP.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Talk is cheap. Those cheap talkers have been wasting voters' bloody tax money for how long?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Yet another 'don't bother voting coz the LDP's going to win' article.

Because they are. Just because you and I don't like it doesn't mean it's not true.

I have been here not quite (but nearly) as long as Laguna and he speaks the truth. The only exception I would offer is that the opposition seems PARTICULARLY happless, feeble, pathetic (insert an adjective of your own here) this time around.

Nope, after the DJP screwed the pooch on their one chance to show that another party could be a steady hand on the rudder, the public said, "Um, we will go back to the other guys."

I don't particularly care for it but it is what it is and anyone who dreams that opposition parties too numerous to count (I was a political junkie in University and even I cannot be bothered to follow or even to count them anymore) has a chance in hell of overtaking the LDP's grip on power.... well, perhaps you would care to bet on my hometown Royals (Internal motto: At least we are not Oakland!) winning the World Series this year.

One would think that in the market place of ideas, Ideas (and their respective parites: looking at you, JCP) best left to the ash-heap of history would be guided there by the invisible hand of market forces and that fewer, but more powerful opposition parties would replace them.

That seems to happen in economics. In politics - not so much.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

“Opposition parties are hopeless now,” says Masato Kamikubo, a policy science professor at Ritsumeikan University. 

….

Why are they ‘hopeless’ ?

Why has Masato given up or is he just part of the dictatorial system?

Is that what he tells his students, it is ….hopeless?

Oh dear!

-2 ( +6 / -8 )

As long as LDP rule continues, experts say that gender equality and diversity issues, such as legalizing same sex marriage and allowing married couples to keep two surnames, will continue to stall because of the party’s small but vocal ultra-rightwing members.

By media-led surveys prior to the election, the LDP has made clear of its "neutrality" on some progressive agendas alongside the opposition camp. "Neutrality" means a big change. I think that reformist legislation will be approved despite LDP-harkish opposition.

You should never miss or underestimate intra-party dynamics within the LDP. Political orientation is diverse among LDP lawmakers as well as their support bases.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

"So of course this kind of article isn't a barefaced manipulation by an LDP mouthpiece designed to pursuade waverers to stay home and not vote against the LDP, is it?"

" 'Course not! Whatever gave you that impression?"

5 ( +9 / -4 )

People find the liberal opposition incompetent and impractical.

Oddly some opposition parties are hardline-conservative or reform-resistant such as on constitutional issues. The communist party leader Kazuo Shii (in the photos above) has served the party chairperson for more than 2 decades without any open and serious in-party leadership competitions.

-6 ( +3 / -9 )

There is something very, very suspicious in the way the LDP has been there so long and there is no opposition. How I wish there were a Japanese Wikileaks!

14 ( +21 / -7 )

Another LDP backed article telling the Japanese electorate, it doesnt matter, we are going to win no matter what anyone says or does.

Kishida could grab some person by the crotch and lay them out on the Shibuya scramble crossing in broad daylight and he'd still win by a landslide!

5 ( +13 / -8 )

Whenever I have the misfortune of stumbling upon one of these communist party oyajis all I hear is the same bs, they promise you the heavens "for free". I dont know how they even allow a communist party in Japan.

-10 ( +5 / -15 )

Another North Korean style election by Japan. Wages retarded, cost of living rising but the best bet is the LDP. Come one, Are voters that mentality impaired? Are they thinking after 70 years it will get better? I am thinking they need a total occupation again from a functioning democratic power. Because what’s happening is neither democratic or functioning. Forget articulate 9 let’s get the population to actually think.

-4 ( +17 / -21 )

Opposition parties!?

There is no opposition.

5 ( +11 / -6 )

I've lived in Japan for 30 years, and this article could have been written in any of them.

11 ( +24 / -13 )

Yet another 'don't bother voting coz the LDP's going to win' article. This time it's Mari Yamaguchi of AP attempting to influence the outcome of the election by dissuading people from voting by pretending it's a done deal already. Why isn't the AP twitter site marked as LDP-affiliated media?

27 ( +31 / -4 )

There really is no choice in Japan.

That is why everyone votes for the awful LDP who have driven down wages and don't give 2 figs for their electorate.

5 ( +12 / -7 )

Already did my part in voting. I know it won't be much, but as long as I make even the slightest impact to not have the LDP remain in the powerful state they are in.

18 ( +20 / -2 )

Just awful ojisan. Is that the only choice???

7 ( +13 / -6 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites