Noda set to dissolve lower house as early as Friday

China should be invited to the TPP as should Russia, Taiwan, Philippines etc.

I think China should be invited to the election. Say what you will about the Chinese, but their politicians don't leave easily.

~

Good news I think. While many are expected to leave DPJ as result of Noda's commitment to include TPP in their manifesto, believe this is all in all the right move for him, enabling him to differentiate with LDP and others incl Hashimoto Ishihara and Ozawa who will all find some difficulty in clarifying their respective positions on this and may consequently face hurdles to unite/collaborate for the simple reason of creating a new political wave. Noda 's decision to move in this direction has added another interesting angle to the election - to TPP or not TPP.

An election defeat would mean Noda, who took office in September 2011, would become the sixth Japanese leader to leave the prime minister’s residence after spending roughly a year in office.

And yet the bureaucracy, the real power in Japan, remains intact throughout, shielded by the bumbling and inept politicians.

Oh no, here comes the LDP again...

TPP = "The Poison Pill" for the DPJ. In the end it'll be the farmers who'll be responsible Japan fading into economic insignifigance.

In the end it'll be the farmers who'll be responsible Japan fading into economic insignifigance.

Farmers are merely the public face of opposition. The real problems with the TPP are the investor-state dispute and IP provisions along with the financial services which will effectively expose Japanese savers, insurance companies, banks, and pension funds to Wall Street. Plus, it would be nice if the Japanese people knew the details of this secret agreement written by US corporations.

Hurry up and join TPP so I don't have to spend ¥300 on one bloody apple, or pay 800% tax on non-Japanese (and superior) rice!

Hurry up and join TPP so I don't have to spend ¥300 on one bloody apple, or pay 800% tax on non-Japanese (and superior) rice!

Last week on TV I saw this farmer standing alongside stacks of rice packages in his shed, lamenting to the reporter that currently he is able to sell each bag for 14800 yen, while he would only be able to sell it for 3000 (if he wants to remain competitive) if Japan joins TPP. I didn't get it... Do the Japanese viewers actually feel sorry for this thief?

bilderberg_2015 Nov. 13, 2012 - 04:20PM JST

Japan doesn't need to join the TPP to accomplish this. It can do it with legislation, something for which I advocate. Unfortunately, the TPP is full of content that has nothing to do with free trade and lower import prices.

yes, i think japan doesnt need to join TPP too,and i support LDP,

The prime minister's job is like one of those 3-month temp jobs!!

I have already been approached by a New Komeito guy who asked me and my wife to vote for his party in the election (being a foreigner, I can't vote ... as we foreigners know). Kind of jumping the gun ... but these people are already out in force in seeking votes for their unnamed candidates ...

Many Japanese are expecting Jiminto to regain power, but there are also many Japanese who hate the LDP and their corrupt members ... The Japanese still feel the sting of 10 years of LDP failures economically-wise and their just-concluded three years of doing NOTHING along with New Komeito.

If ex-Tokyo Gov. Ishikawa and Osaka's Hashimoto get their act together and form a party in time for the election, they should make things really interesting. Would they gain enough votes to shake up the election picture and prevent the LDP from regaining power ... ??

And what about Ozawa and his "babies" ... will they be able to influence the overall vote?

Then there's Minshuto itself ... which everyone believes will crumble ... If Minshuto can rebuild its image around its younger, smarter members, then it might have a chance to compete adequately.

Should be an interesting election ...

So ... bring it on ...

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Either Japan really is mentally handicapped when it comes to making decisions, or the current ruling party decided to join the TPP KNOWING that next month the party that will come into power will turn the clocks back and go against it, thereby squaring the blame on the then-to-be-in-power party.

Last week on TV I saw this farmer standing alongside stacks of rice packages in his shed, lamenting to the reporter that currently he is able to sell each bag for 14800 yen, while he would only be able to sell it for 3000 (if he wants to remain competitive) if Japan joins TPP. I didn't get it... Do the Japanese viewers actually feel sorry for this thief?

Yes they do feel sorry for him, because the sheeples have been led to believe (brainwashed) that ONLY rice produced in Japan is proper for a Japanese person to eat.

The same can be said about other vegetables and food products as well. Japanese in general are not taught to think critically, meaning they dont research "facts" for themselves and believe what they hear on TV or the radio.

China should be invited to the TPP as should Russia, Taiwan, Philippines etc.

Yes, but then it wouldn't be an exclusive and exclusionary agreement. Besides, if you expand it to that extent, you might as well just see if every state belonging to the WTO wants to revise the treaty...

The TPP is a suspect device.

The TPP will...effectively expose Japanese savers, insurance companies, banks, and pension funds to Wall Street.

Yes, and the Japanese public are so well served by their own pension funds and banks. Why would Japanese households want to deal with foreign financial services, which might actually give them a return on their investments?

Last week on TV I saw this farmer standing alongside stacks of rice packages in his shed, lamenting to the reporter that currently he is able to sell each bag for 14800 yen,

Combini,

You sure you have that right? The bags used are typically 30kgs, I buy direct as I live in the sticks, Y8000 for 30kgs of koshihikari, even if you factor in losing 5kgs when polishing thats Y320/kg so a 5kg bag wud cost about Y1600 BEFORE it gets to market.

Your Y14800 wud make it almost Y3000 for 5kgs BEFORE it leaves the farmers shed which wud mean by the time it passes through JA & distribution it wud easily double to Y6000 for 5kgs .................

So I think you missed something.

Folks need to remember farmers DONT control rice or its price after it leaves their fields, just saying.

Is there room for improvement, sure, but it isnt all farmers fault!

The TPP is a pill that Japan should not swallow and I for one will be glad to see Noda and his sickly party fade away. Japan needs a party with vision to move this nation passed the roadbloacks of the PRC supporters.

First get rid of Article 9, arm up with cruisers and get better prepared to face down the paper-tiger PRC's aggressions.

Next move all factories out of the PRC and into more civilized nations in Southeast Asia or move them back to Japan.

Those would be a great start to a better brighter future.

＞Yes, and the Japanese public are so well served by their own pension funds and banks. Why would Japanese households want to deal with foreign financial services, which might actually give them a return on their investments?

How has that worked out for American savers? Japan has a lot of problems but America holds no solutions. Even now it is repeating the mistakes of the Japanese.

Smith article #9 is important to Japan. It does not prevent us from defense but assures others of no Japanese aggression. The PM might last longer if people gave them some support. Instead it is a short honeymoon and then lets do everything possible to undermine their rule.

Last week on TV I saw this farmer standing alongside stacks of rice packages in his shed, lamenting to the reporter that currently he is able to sell each bag for 14800 yen, while he would only be able to sell it for 3000 (if he wants to remain competitive) if Japan joins TPP. I didn't get it... Do the Japanese viewers actually feel sorry for this thief?

The USA is the worst offender on the farm subsidies category. In Japan, wet-paddy rice culture is part and parcel of the landscape and has been for about 2,000 years. In that respect, it is an environmental and land usage issue. Then there is the question of food security, of which Japan has one of the lowest percentages of being able to produce enough food to feed the population of any country on the planet. Recall that Japan has basically half the population of the USA on a land mass 9/10ths the size of California.

no no no... everyone cannot understand,,,

ubikwit Nov. 14, 2012 - 12:42AM JST The USA is the worst offender on the farm subsidies category. In Japan, wet-paddy rice culture is part and parcel of the landscape and has been for about 2,000 years. In that respect, it is an environmental and land usage issue.

Japan has one of the worst farm subsidies in the world. If you look at the average land that these Japanese farmers are working on, Japan farm on average of 2 to 5 acres of land. If you compare with the U.S. farmers, they are 10 to 100 times bigger land space than Japan.

@ubikwit

You can't be serious, after all of the scandals?

Yes, "all the scandals." Yamaichi shock, the AIJ pension scandal, a public pension system that lost millions of records that were written on paper(!), a demographic timebomb, and the bursting of an economic bubble that happened 20 years ago that shrank the stock market to a quarter of its value -- a level that STILL hasn't recovered.

Smart investors in Japan went offshore a long, long time ago.

Back on topic please.