Kyodo news carried out a telephone poll of 1,025 registered voters over the weekend, and found that support for the Hatoyama Cabinet had fallen 10.2% since a similar poll a few weeks after the election. In spite of the fall, support is still relatively high, at 61.8%.

On a party basis, 43.2% of [...]

I just read an interesting editorial at Japan Today, which apparently first appeard at Metropolis (although I was unable to find that link). The writer, CB Liddell, argued that the emergence of a two party system in Japan would raise new dangers. He claims that:

“As we see in the West, it is likely to lead [...]

A few days ago, I posted about the plans of the incoming Hatoyama government to cut ‘greenhouse emissions’ by 25% over 1990 levels. By the way, I put ‘greenhouse emissions’ in inverted commas because this is a strange term that doesn’t really mean anything… Greenhouse emissions are a natural part of the [...]

Prime Minister to be, Hatoyama Yukio today again mentioned his ‘Hatoyama Initiative’ to be detailed at the UN later this month, which includes ambitious targets for environmental reform, including cuts in ‘emissions’ of 25% from 1990 levels by 2020. This is the same target that was included in the DPJ’s Bill [...]

A lot has already been said and written about the difficulties that will be faced by the DPJ in governing. Its only been a week since their big victory, and already the honeymoon is over, long before leader Hatoyama Yukio is even officially installed as Prime Minister. Arguments abound over whether or not the DPJ [...]

Wrapping up the election coverage for the time being, the Japan Times has a rundown of some interesting statistics of elected members of the Diet:

* 158 first time lawmakers were elected, including 143 from the DPJ (almost half of their total number).

* The average age of elected members is 52 years, with the DPJ averaging [...]

Well, the election is over, and as shown in the post below, the results were a massive win to the opposition DPJ. Just how big that win was gives rise to the title of this post…

With the result of the election in no doubt minutes after the polls closed (actually they haven’t been in [...]

TV Asahi have called the election for DPJ – 315 seats to 106 according to exit polls…

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Heading in to the election tonight, here is a brief summary of the positions of the various parties in the lower house prior to the election:

House of Representatives:

LDP          296 seats

DPJ          113 seats

NKP          31 seats

JCP            9 seats

SDP            7 seats

PNP            4 seats

NPN            1 seat

NPD            1 seat

After the 2007 Upper House election, the DPJ hold 109 of the [...]

Today Japan go to the polls, and all expectations are that some time tonight we will see a new government elected. Could it be that Japan has finally developed a two-party system of government…?

I first came to Japan in 1992, and I was here for the short-lived attempt by Hosokawa to take over the government [...]