Japanese Government Shakeup

Not sure if anyone's interested in the major political upheaval that just hit Japan a few days ago, but given FFXI is a Japanese game, some people might think it's tangentially relevant.

Japan is a one-party system. It's been controlled by a monolithic party called the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) for over half a century. Because political organizations tend to name themselves the opposite of what they really are (ex: Democratic People's Republic of [North] Korea, National Socialist German Workers' Party, People's Republic of China, etc), the LDP is a conservative party similar to the US Republicans.

The LDP has been under fire for the past few years, for reasons that parallel the 2008 US elections. They are taking the blame for the economic crisis, 8 years of support for the Bush administration's foreign policy, and eroding public support for conservative social issues. In fact, their opponents actually ran unedited Barack Obama speeches from the 2008 elections as a central part of their campaign.

The LDP lost badly -- for the first time in history -- giving up both houses of Parliament to the opposite Democratic Party of Japan, a left-leaning liberal political party similar to the US Democrats. Japan tends to be a very political apathetic country: voter turnout is frequently down around 20-30%, but this election is reporting a record turnout of anywhere from 70 to 80%.

The loss was so devastating, the DPJ now has a super majority and the Prime Minister's office. The new Democratic Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, will be sworn in within a few weeks. It is questionable if the LDP will be able to recover. Japan may be back to a one-party system, just on the other side of the political spectrum from now on.

Nobody yet knows what this really means for the country, but it's a major historic shake-up either way.

Jaerik has Whooshed the forums
Saw this coming after Abe and Fukada resigned.

and their symbol or whatever its called is lame...

I forsee them going to adopt Obama's policies more before they even see how effective it is in America first.

In times of crisis, the opposing party of the existing government has a tendency to rise up in a bid for power backed by the people. Nothing new here, though Japan's been pretty quiet from an internal political perspective for decades. The high voter turnout is surprising though, considering they're even more apathetic than Americans at the polling booth.

Man and I thought we didnt care about voting... wonder if this will affect gaming

I'm pretty certain that nothing will really change in Japan, even if the LDP lost, same political machine will remains.

Now the question is, do the DPJ have what it takes to lead?

50 years without exp isn't really all that comforting to know.

We need more Ron Pauls in this world.

We need more LBJs in the world, and less Nixons

Too bad for us the Obama administration has followed the same trend as the Bush admin. did. I think globally people are fed up with wasteful government spending and bailouts. What's bad is that Japan's "lost decade" was the result of quantative easing. This is the same thing that our Federal Reserve is doing now. I agree we do need more Ron Pauls.

I would not say Japan in one party system -- just one very dominant party for a very long time -- the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Democratic_Party_%28Japan%29

For the last 50 years, LDP only lost leadership twice (once in 1990s for 11 months, and this current last election). (India is also like this, one dominant party + other smaller party)

The big difference between this and last time LDP lost majority is that last time there was no one dominant party win as well. The collation fell apart in 1 year, and LDP returned to power.

This just last election LDP lost 2/3 of it seats (like from 300 to like 100 seats) -- far more how much the donkey toke from the Republicans last year in US in a fractional sense :P. And unlike that last time LDP lost election, there is a clear majority this time by another party -- Democratic Party of Japan.

Anyway, a significant fraction of the Japanese Democrats were part of LDP (including who will be in the future Japanese PM).

I find it kind of funny that their election turned out this way because national news in the US reported it as the reverse, I guess given the confusing party names. Am curious to see what it means for Japan's future.

Although not related to the OP I totally agree. Most likely would've voted for Paul had he won the Republican primary. D:

This is a good thing trust me, Jaerik.

LBJ is what gave us the Vietnam fiasco - check your history facts if you dont believe me. I guess what the Obamanation will do is pull a Nixon in regards to Afghanistan?

You have to get the train to stop first before you can get it going the other direction.

How would you know?