Hereditary Hedgemony

In the DPJ manifesto which was released prior to the election, in a section entitled ‘Policies to end Wasteful Spending’ there was a curious sentence which said simply:

We will ban “hereditary” Diet seats.

Apparently this doesn’t apply to the highest governmental post in the land, because tomorrow Hatoyama Yukio will become the fourth consecutive ‘hereditary’ Prime Minister after Aso Taro, Fukuda Yasuo and Shinzo Abe. Admitedly, in three of the four cases, it was the grandfather, and not the father, that held the Prime Ministership. But its still an interesting record, in a day and age where such dynasties would be thought to have been done away with.

I don’t have a problem, per se, with children seeking the seats of their progenitors. After all, this is a democracy, and if the people choose to vote for them, then the people ‘deserve’ them… And I still don’t really understand how, and by what means the DPJ intend to ‘ban hereditary Diet seats’. Nor how this is supposed to be a measure which will bring an end to wasteful spending…

All of that being said, there is a certain amount of history and, dare I say it, gravitas, which is brought to the occasion when you consider that a man will be following in the footsteps of his grandfather in taking over the Prime Ministership. An intensely personal experience I’m sure for Hatoyama himself.

Hatoyama Ichiro, grandfather of the future Prime Minister, was in office for just over 2 years from 1954-1956. He was Japan’s third Christian Prime Minister (being a Protestant). On the day that he was announced as Prime Minister, William J. Jorden of the NY Times ran the following story, datelined Tokyo, Dec. 9:

The Japanese Parliament picked Ichiro Hatoyama, a conservative politician, tonight to serve as Japan’s Premier until national elections are held in the spring.

Hatoyama Ichiro helped merge the two conservative parties, the Liberal and Democratic parties (history is interesting isn’t it… in America today no self-respecting conservative would be caught dead with the title Liberal or Democrat….) in 1955, to form Japan’s first conservative government, taking over power from the Japan Socialist Party. So in effect, the grandfather built the party that the grandson had to defeat in order to take power.

Hatoyama is credited with being the first Japanese politician to use radio and television in campaigning, and also helped resume trade with the Soviet Union. His grandson will have plenty of challenges of his own as he takes office tomorrow, as the 93rd Prime Minister of Japan, and the 60th man to hold the post.

References:

Wiki: History of the Liberal Democratic Party

Britannica: Hatoyama Ichiro

Japan Today: Hatoyama to be Voted in as Premier

Wiki: Ichiro Hatoyama

Japan Times: Hatoyama to be fourth consecutive ‘Hereditary’ Leader