politics

LDP loses 2 lower house by-elections in Osaka, Okinawa

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Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party suffered a crushing defeat in Sunday's lower house by-elections in Okinawa and Osaka prefectures seen as a harbinger for an upper house election only a few months away.

Oh come on! They lost two seats, one Okinawa's, they never had a real chance to regain, not to mention that the LDP has not had a representative from Okinawa in something like 3 elections now. Okinawa is the only prefecture, or at least was, gotta check again, that didnt have anyone from the LDP.

This is no "crushing" defeat, if anything it's a hiccup, and a slap on the back, to the LDP to focus a little more.

Oh if the LDP was really worried, they would have gotten people out to vote.

Final voter turnouts in the Okinawa and Osaka by-elections were both the lowest ever for the two constituencies, at 43.99 percent and 47 percent, respectively, according to local authorities.

Apathy, strikes once again!

7 ( +9 / -2 )

I want to live in Osaka and Okinawa in an attempt to know how people feel and think different from other Japanese.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

I agree with Yubaru. These were not winnable seats, if they had won, well lets say the apocalypse would have started. The LDP will will its majority again in the Upper House election as the people here don't feel they have a choice. So when they go to the ballot box, they will do as they usually do and elected anybody who has LDP beside their name.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

I want to live in Osaka and Okinawa in an attempt to know how people feel and think different from other Japanese.

Cripes, you dont need to come here to live to understand how we think, read the papers, if you are intelligent enough to understand what you read in the LOCAL press you can understand the differences between "here" and where ever you are politically.

And you have got to have your head in the sand if you dont know what is up in Osaka, and what's been going on there now for close to a decade with the Osaka Isshin-no-kai and what they want to do there!

Pay attention to regional news more, and you will get it!

8 ( +9 / -1 )

Well, I shouldn't genralize, but, I was once in a bar in Osaka while the TV was replaying Ishin-no-kai founder and then Mayor Hashimoto's comments about "comfort women were necessary in a time of war," and was shocked to see the men around me riveted to the screen. When I asked one of them, "don't you see a problem with this?" he said, "He's saying what we all feel but can't say." Now that's just one little example, and has nothing to do with Osaka's economic problems, but it suggests that there are some parallels with Trump channelling the resentment of the people toward the establishment. But, the aging population, overall, supports the establishment (I think) so it might be a while before LDP feels real heat....

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Tomohiro Yara's win is a natural consequence satisfying our expectation.

His opponent, Aiko Shimajiri, held a ministerial post in charge of Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs in the Abe cabinet. She also held various posts in Dietary committees, and so, naturally, her name value was better than newcomer Yara's.

And yet she lost to Yara.  What does it mean?

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Any loss for the LDP no matter how small is good news.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

her name value was better than newcomer Yara's.

Hardly....Yara's name's has plenty of "value" in Okinawa!

He won because he was anti-base, and not to mention that he is running to replace Denny, and there is no way Okinawa 3ku is going to elect an LDP candidate in today's political world!

It's no surprise, and anyone that thinks its a crushing defeat for the LDP is just plain ignorant!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

So even with a record low turn out the LDP still lost? That's embarrassing. Might be time for some tax payer funded vouchers to spur the apathetic into voting.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I smell a tax increase going away now...…………………………………….AGAIN!

8 ( +8 / -0 )

This is no "crushing" defeat, if anything it's a hiccup, and a slap on the back, to the LDP to focus a little more.

Well stated by Yubaru. LDP has zero reason to panic. Nationally, they will easily win a majority in the Upper House later this year. People are interested in results: record jobs and the biggest economic boom in past 30 years. The opposition parties are tiny and incapable of ruling, and will be destroyed by LDP.

-6 ( +3 / -9 )

Yubaru,

He won because he was anti-base ...

You've acknowledged in spite of yourself that any candidate on an anti-base, anti-Henoko platform can win elections because the public consensus here is more than 70% anti-base and anti-Hnoko.

No pork-barrel tactics won't work here at all.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

You've acknowledged in spite of yourself that any candidate on an anti-base, anti-Henoko platform can win elections because the public consensus here is more than 70% anti-base and anti-Henoko. No pork-barrel tactics won't work here at all.

Boy you really do not know nor understand Okinawan politics if you think for a second there are no pork-barrel politics here.

And you also dont understand Okinawan politics if you think a candidate can not win without being anti-base either.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Voting for the LDP is voting to continue the American military occupation of Okinawa.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Yubaru,

If you think there's no pork-barrel politics here, you are really an innocent old man.

One of Shimajiri's campaign promises was revitalization of the economy through cooperation with the central government. That's what LDP-backed candidates usually harp on because, they claim, they have strong connections with the government. Opposition candidates don't have such thick pipes and therefore they appeal to voters that if opposition were elected the economy would spiral down miserably.

Don't you think such campaign promises smack of pork barrel politics?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Hehehe. It’s a nice day

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I want to live in Osaka and Okinawa in an attempt to know how people feel and think different from other Japanese.

Yes, it is always refreshing to be reminded that not all Japanese are sheep.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Very good results for Nippon Ishin no Kai in Osaka.

I see hope that there may at last be an opposition party that can defeat Abe's LDP.

That's what my childhood friend who lives in Osaka told me. A party with liberal modernist ideas led by very young people. With a program to reduce public spending as well as debt. A realistic program for Japan.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

LDP oyajis doesn't care about such small losses.

Japan has red thread fate linked with LDP

0 ( +0 / -0 )

dougthehead13Today  03:58 am JST

I see hope that there may at last be an opposition party that can defeat Abe's LDP.

Really? How many candidates do you think they can manage to field?

That's what my childhood friend who lives in Osaka told me. A party with liberal modernist ideas led by very young people

That's not how they're usually described. One of their leaders is a former LDP hack who was born in 1935.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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