Another political party is to be formed to contest the Dec 16 election. Shizuka Kamei, said Monday he and former Agriculture Minister Masahiko Yamada will set up an as-yet-unnamed party.
Kamei is a former head of the People's New Party, while Yamada announced Monday that he was leaving the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).
Yamada told a news conference that the new party's platform will have three pillars -- opposition to Japan joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks, ending Japan's reliance on nuclear power and a freeze on the consumption tax hike.
Kamei said the number of political parties that have sprung up this year shows that the current political structure in Japan has to change.
© Japan Today
23 Comments
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Michael Craig
Oh, NO....
minello7
Could JT enlighten us by providing us with, just how many political parties are now in the political arena in Japan.??
Moderator
It's hard to keep up but we believe it is 17.
Hiroicci
Kamei proposes good policies, but few people love his arrogant personality.
alliswellinjapan
Kamei's policies are unsurprisingly identical to Ozawa's. After having failed in intermediating talks between Ozawa and Ishihara earlier, likely to be contemplating formation of an alternative "third" force on the left (as opposed to Hashimito/Ishihara's on the right). Obviously seeking to add other lefty anti-TPP members to further flee from DPJ. Interesting to see what reactive actions Okiishi and Hatoyama (clearly with their own agendas and close to Ozawa) may take. Believe the situation to be rather critical for them in that unless they make their positions clear they are liable to lose the election.
minello7
JT , thank you .
wanderlust
Smart move by Kamei. He knows that he and his cronies won't get anywhere with any of the current parties, but by horse-trading representatives into a future coalition, he can get a position of some power, and of course access to the pork-barrel...
Michael Craig
I hope some politician or at least a civic group forms a bona fide Libertarian party! No left, right or center!
nath
Shizuka Kamei not very shizuka thesedays
samwatters
"It's hard to keep up but we believe it is 17." Thank you, Moderator! Your response was both informative and hilarious! You get my vote for post-of-the-day!
Hikozaemon
Kamei deserves some credit - in spite of setting up his Kokumin Shinto as an almost cynical fund for lobbying against postal reform, funded by the post office, he did prop up the DPJ and give it a leg to govern throughout the last three years (I always believed the DPJ should have tried to court Komeito instead). They were also a stabilizing force against the ramblings of the SDP which lowered its reputation further with Fukushima's performance as welfare minister.
I'll also credit Kamei - he broke with the DPJ on policy based principle, namely Kan's betrayal of the DPJ pledge not to raise the sales tax during his first term.
In the end of the day, the money behind his party spoke - when he tried to take Kokumin Shinto out of coalition, his party kicked them out (other members remembering their purpose being to get post office political funding to remain in power to oppose postal reform).
I'm guessing post office privatization is no longer a flagship issue for him because that banner remains with his mercenary party. Separated from postal reform, where Kamei has spoken out on policy issues, I've generally found he actually makes a lot of sense, even though I disagree with his TPP opposition.
In the end of the day, the new party is just a banner under which he will get directly reelected to his seat. That said, free of the LDP, and out of the pocket of the Post Office, I probably can actually say that for this first time, I actually find him likeable and wish him the best in the next election.
Hikozaemon
Michael Craig - Hatoyama and Ozawa ran the Liberal Party for a number of years that merged into the DPJ. It never polled very well, but they stood out to me as having a well thought out centrist list of policies they ran under - they basically aspired to be like an overseas political party. Just had the wrong people at the helm.
Serrano
marcelito - Are you sure you're not confusing Kamei with Yoshimi Watanabe of Your Party? Watanabe always looks like he is trying to look like Nagasawa kun on Chibi Maruko Chan.
sillygirl
what a bunch of babies pi$$in up the sandbox and the rest of us with the price tag.
alliswellinjapan
Hikozaemon: Agree Kamei has remained fairly consistent (including the time he was forced to go against Horiemon) and that he seems to be a likable and trustable in person, but still do not consider him as most apt to tackle the challenges the country faces in this day and age. Would wish for him to team up with Ozawa as early as possible just to simplify the situation for the voters.
MiuraAnjin
Kamei? Oh great.
Instead of joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), govt support will be diverted to the Yamaguchi-Sumiyoshi-Inagawa Partnership (YSIP). Static electricity generated by punks in nylon shell suits will replace nuclear power and we'll all have to pay our "weekly dues" to said punks instead of consumption tax.
smithinjapan
Ummm... nothing changes when a new party is simply composed of dropouts that didn't get their way in the last party.
Disillusioned
But, his platforms are only based on what the people want to hear. No sales tax hike and no nuclear power, but he is yet to enlighten anybody on how he intends to achieve them. I think he needs to be reminded the government is broke, the pension system has failed miserably and 3/4 of the N/E coast still lies in ruin. Just hollow promises to win voting favor. Then again, I guess it is no different to the rest of the hot air bags in Japanese politics.
HollisBrown
It's quite amazing that in the land of 'follow the group', once someone obtains some power/social position they expect to be listened to as an individual and lose the ability to work effectively as a member of the group. I see this everyday from the 'bully boss', to the 'know-all oyajis', to the politicians and the TV 'experts'. It's laughable that the politicians think that the solution is to just make new parties left, right and center (pun intended), expecting that people will listen to THEM simply because of the fact they are politicians. Japanese politics is just a big mess and it wont be sorted out for a very long time because it's a closed, self-serving industry. Things will only begin to change once the youth are taught to think more critically and the borders are opened up to allow more immigration - but look who it's up to to make those changes.
AustPaul
No wonder people in Japan are so apathetic about politics...I wonder when the last time a pollie in Japan ever listened to the people and what is important to them?!
Hide Suzuki
This guy is seriously so backward. At least he has very little chance of having big impact on J-politics any longer.
ogtob
We know what they are against, but what are they for?