politics

Japan's biggest opposition party shuns merger with rival ahead of election

29 Comments
By Linda Sieg and Ami Miyazaki

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29 Comments
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Edano is playing it smart here. Sure joining together may be the right thing in the short term, but in the long term their policy differences would end up splitting them apart!

8 ( +8 / -0 )

I agree that even tough Japan is in dire need of a stronger opposition to counter LDP's current reign merging together without having much common ground doesn't seem like a smart decision.

I would rather hope for the severly fractured right political parties of Japan to hold a conference in order to launch a competent nationalist party which tries to restore the balance between protectionism and globalism.

Recent years have shown that prime minister Shinzo Abe is a prominent member of the globalist faction and his primary interest is not Japan and its citizens but rather his own and that of his benefactors such as Keidanren.

I bet everybody is just thrilled about the mass tourism and immigration policy LDP has worked out for Japan in the years to come...

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Really nothing will change for Japan's one party state. A foreign invasion might make a change to a different one party. Untill the public actually care/understand that politicians are there to represent them rather than being from the right family and entitled.

Respect is earned should not be given. That's what is missing in Japan's political landscape.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

cricky- spot on!

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Edano has the right idea here to reject it, but merging and forming coalitions is part of Japanese political culture.

We have certainly not heard the last of ridiculous calls for disjointed parties to merge and "fight together".

2 ( +2 / -0 )

The Democratic Party Japan has decided to raise the consumption tax (8% to 10%). The political party derived from the Democratic Party Japan is trying to forgive people with unrealizable policies. But many Japanese people are not deceived. The LDP in the future may be a bit more exciting in diplomacy. Many Japanese admire and enjoy this case. Patients Japanese expect even more change (retaliation plan is 100 in all, only one is still shown).

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

What a easy going comments! Basically the number of Japanese center-left and left people is obviously decreasing. The ruling partys can really do easygoing in such a no tension political situation.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

DPFP leader Yuichiro Tamaki told Reuters last week the best way forward was for the opposition to unite, adding he feared a future in which Japan's political sphere was divided into a permanent ruling bloc versus a permanent opposition camp.

That just proves how clueless he is. The best way to create a permanent opposition is to continue with the kind of pointless mergers that he advocates. The CDPJ are ahead because they're going it alone. They don't need dead weight like aging conservatives who should be trying to get into the LDP.

TravelmasterToday  10:03 am JST

The Democratic Party Japan has decided to raise the consumption tax (8% to 10%). The political party derived from the Democratic Party Japan is trying to forgive people with unrealizable policies. 

The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan is against increasing the tax. The Liberal Democratic Party wants to increase it, having agreed with the Democratic Party of Japan in 2012 that it should be increased to 8% and then later 10%. So whatever you're criticising the DPJ for, the LDP were fully complicit in it.

The LDP in the future may be a bit more exciting in diplomacy.

That sounds a bit vague.

Many Japanese admire and enjoy this case.

I doubt it. I don't think many Japanese will vote LDP because of its diplomatic achievements because there haven't really been any.

 (retaliation plan is 100 in all, only one is still shown).

What does that mean?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Yet another party merger designed from the beginning to destroy actual opposition from having a voice in politics.

Japan is effectively a dictatorship. How many times have we seen this scenario play out with Abe in power?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Aside from call for merger of CDPJ with DPFP, they are cooperating with the communist party as well to win the upper house election. I cannot vote for them.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Wow, a Japanese politician actually showing some modicum of integrity-- this is newsworthy indeed. Good on Edano for deciding not to water down his party's platform with LDP rejects.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

On the political spectrum the stupidly named Communist party are the only party to actually have policies that are beneficial for tax payers. Yet the LDP with nothing except company tax cuts will with 28% at best coast home.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

vanityofvanitiesToday  01:05 pm JST

Aside from call for merger of CDPJ with DPFP, they are cooperating with the communist party as well to win the upper house election. I cannot vote for them

I don't have any time for the DPP but I would vote for just about anyone except the LDP.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

I don't have any time for the DPP but I would vote for just about anyone except the LDP.

What about OPP? You down with that?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Does Japan actually have an opposition party?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Cricky

JCP agreed passing the budget bill of NHK in the diet and NHK successfully raised TV watching fees double when they introduced BS broadcasting. There is no freedom of choice - watch BS or not. We have to pay double automatically if you have a TV set and BS receptable outlet. They increased watching fees from 1,000 yen to 2,000 yen a month. I live in a danchi house and it has outlet capable of receiving BS. JCP is not beneficial for tax payers. They are hypocrite. They agreed to the budget since there have JCP members inside NHK.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Can't trust any of them.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@Simon Foston

I will answer your question. It is a pity that you have not understood the Japanese people at all. :P

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Edano is correct. That is exactly how we got the old Minshuto party, a joining of three totally seperate groups with competing agendas, and one snake in the grass, Ichiro Ozawa, who was bent on destroying everything.

I would like to see more members from the DPFP move over to the CDPJ and not bring with them any agenda, but ready to try and defeat Abe and his cronies.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The Party of Hope had this exact problem, due to a lack of proper candidates in time for the election they just accepted any reject and has-beens from the other opposition parties and it made sure that they didn't have any kind of unified message or platform leading to guaranteed defeat. It may take time, but doing a proper grassroots party and building it from the ground up is the only way to also create a message that resonates with the public.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

StrangerlandToday  02:37 pm JST

What about OPP? You down with that?

I said "just about" anyone, not anyone. I would never vote for any of those raving old lunatics that Shintaro Ishihara was involved with. But are you sure the OPP are a party?

DisillusionedToday  02:48 pm JST

Does Japan actually have an opposition party?

The problem is it has too many.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

TravelmasterToday  04:14 pm JST

@Simon Foston

I will answer your question.

Go on, then.

It is a pity that you have not understood the Japanese people at all. :P

People around the world aren't so very different. For instance, aging, bigoted country folk everywhere tend to vote for right-wing conservative parties, and the LDP have made sure that their votes are worth more than those of more liberal-minded urbanites. The same doddery old yokels seem to have a feudal peasant mentality and have happily swapped daimyo for hereditary LDP oligarchs, being dumb enough to think that a family name like Abe is a guarantee of integrity and competence.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Simon Foston

The opposition parties always speak nice and Japanese people gave administrative power to them some years ago. What was the result? It was a big disappointment.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

vanityofvanitiesToday  06:06 pm JST

Simon Foston

The opposition parties always speak nice and Japanese people gave administrative power to them some years ago. What was the result? It was a big disappointment.

No excuse for electing the LDP. Abe's subsequent six years in power have all been a big disappointment. They're just as incompetent, out-of-touch and corrupt as they were before they got kicked out in 2009.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

I'm glad he's taken knowledge from the major failure on how it went with the merger of Kib No To and Democratic Party in 2017. We finally have a leader who is actually smart enough to see the benefits of not merging!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Strikebreaker555Today  12:49 am JST

I'm glad he's taken knowledge from the major failure on how it went with the merger of Kib No To and Democratic Party in 2017. 

Yuriko Koike kind of had the right idea when she wouldn't admit left-leaning or centrist DP members but it backfired. Japan needs a viable centre or left of centre alternative to the LDP as its main opposition party, not an LDP clone.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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