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politics

Hashimoto prepares to shake up political landscape

26 Comments

The regional political party headed by outspoken Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, which had been showing signs that it intended to establish itself as a national political party, has confirmed its plans to do so in mid-September, most likely Sept 12.

Hashimoto's Osaka Ishin no Kai (Osaka Restoration Group) plans to run in the next election of the House of Representatives, according to group executives, TBS reported.

The group said it currently has no plans to merge with other political groups.

Ishin no Kai hit headlines in recent months as it actively set about recruiting members of the National Diet, including Kentaro Matsunami of the Liberal Democratic Party and former Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yorihisa Matsuno of the Democratic Party of Japan. Hashimoto has also held talks with former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Political analysts say that Hashimoto hopes to get further support from those Diet members who voted against the bill to raise the consumption tax.

According to the Public Office Election Law, a political group can transform itself into a political party only once it has recruited five or more Diet members or has won at least two percent of ballots cast in the last Diet election.

An Ishin no Kai spokesperson said the party was planning a public recruitment drive at its political school, TBS reported. It hopes to screen around 900 students in the search for candidates to run in the lower house election.

The planned party also stressed the importance of its, as yet unpublished, eight-point policy platform. Secretary General Ichiro Matsui, who is also the governor of Osaka, said he hopes the policy outline will not only help the public understand the party's philosophy, but will also help identify new recruits who support the party's public line and not those who simply want to win Diet seats.

Hashimoto, 43, says he is in a war to change Japan’s political landscape. Since his election last November, he has moved to consolidate the administrative frameworks of the city and the prefecture to create a new Osaka to compete with Tokyo and other major cities around the world. On Monday, he said that one of his policy pledges will be to halve the number of Diet seats.

Hashimoto's brash style has provoked some derision from the main political parties. On Tuesday, LDP Secretary-General Nobuteru Ishihara likened Hashimoto to a fruit vendor selling bananas on the street.

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26 Comments
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Given how he's running Osaka, he's more Prince Fumimaro Konoe than Sakamoto Ryoma.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

this is one scary dude, beware Japan!

6 ( +7 / -1 )

He is handsome and that is about it.

-5 ( +3 / -8 )

Talk about political theater, what kind of idiots in the Diet would sign on for this charade?

What are they planning to do, parade that newly minted ideologues from the "political school" around town? Shouting slogans, like "decentralize now"!

Even the unemployed people in Osaka wouldn't fall for that.

Hopefully the circus that this tool is trying to lead will make it more readily apparent to the people at large that the politicos are doing nothing but staging a show that diverts attention from the mounting problems back stage.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

This is just like the shogun era when Japan wast ruled by several regional factions and war was common between the factions. Somebody should tell this old coot that there is no place for samurais in 21st century Japan.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

The problem is, people do not trust the LDP, .........................and they have witnessed the succession of broken promises, scandal, and downright incompetence of the DPJ .......................................... so Hashimoto looks pretty good for the jaded voters

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Somebody should tell this old coot

He's 43. I don't know exactly when old coot-ness begins, but I wouldn't really have thought he qualified.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

This grub should be barred from National politics due to his family yakuza connections.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

If Hashimoto can turn Japan into another Nanba, then he might be okay ...

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Hashimoto in Osaka and Ishihara in Tokyo,please tell me there are better leaders somewhere in Japan than these guys!

5 ( +5 / -0 )

THis guy is dangerous.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

LDP Secretary-General Nobuteru Ishihara likened Hashimoto to a fruit vendor selling bananas on the street

That was really a very no-taste analogy!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

.............LDP Secretary-General Nobuteru Ishihara likened Hashimoto to a fruit vendor selling bananas on the street.........

A rare gem from young Ishihara. Made me laugh.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Selling banana's is fine no problem, they are good for you!

Where as this twit hashimoto is nothing but bad news, pls dont slag banana vendors that way!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

So, Osaka is Birmingham and Hashimoto is Joseph Chamberlain?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Anyone looking in from the outside can see that Hashimoto is dangerous, but Japanese like him, and his party will do well. Especially if the trouble with Korea and China continues.

I just hope we aren't going to see a 1930's rerun.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

After the Great Depression, people in many countries elected Nationalist leaders and we ended up with the WWII.

Well, I believe Hashimonto and Ishihara are right wingers of Japan. I am afraid the history has been already forgotten and the history will be repeated unless Japanese get out from political apathy. I hope I am wrong on this.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@Jonathan Harston

that would not seem to be an appropriate analogy, as far as i can gather from wikipedia.

whether you approve of chamberlain or not, he seems to have been genuine, whereas hashimoto is just a tool with connections to organized crime, and perhaps the cia.

there is nothing of substance to any of his proposals. he has just been catapulted to prominence because there is a general lack of understanding as to what needs to be done, and his party-line echos that of the anti-big government rhetoric of the tea party in the usa, which is also funded by secret society connected cretins that likely have ties to the so-called "intelligence community"-- the koch brothers, etc.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

@ubikwit, you are right on the page.

This is what's going on in Europe, Japan and US by the Tea Party. The right winges have been trying to take over the world, and they may start the next WWIII,which I am very afraid.

The movement of Nationalists is very subtle, yet they are gaining the power as they wish.

They are not a peace maker.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

This grub should be barred from National politics due to his family yakuza connections.

Good idea! He shouldn't even had been a lawyer, either!!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Hashimoto is a nasty piece of work and teaming up with the nutcase Abe would be the worst possible, but most likely, outcome.

Abe is obsessed with changing the constitution. He wants to build up the armed forces, introduce conscription and get stuck in to the neighbours. A dangerous lunatic, yet people still vote for him. Loudmouth Hashimoto behaves like a gangster, which isn't surprising given his friends and family background.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

he's a very handsome man, but he's scary...

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

@Jonathan Harston

i meant to write inappropriate... as in not appropriate

because chamberlain doesn't seem to have been a shallow frontman, at any rate.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

sorry, delete that last correction, i did write the sentence correctly at first...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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