Japan election: now the hard part
It was the morning after the night before.
The opposition Democratic Party of Japan had won an unprecedented landslide victory - and MP Akihisa Nagashima was outside the local commuter station with a microphone in his hand, thanking voters for their support and promising to deliver on the party's election promises.
Create more jobs. Increase welfare benefits. Cut unnecessary infrastructure projects. Reduce the power of the civil service.
All that while Japan suffers the devastating chill winds of the global recession, with record unemployment levels and plummeting exports.
When he'd finished at the station, Mr Nagashima welcomed me to his office, served iced tea, and admitted being daunted by the scale of the task ahead of him. "Of course, I am excited," he said, "but I am aware of the huge responsibility we now have."
The DPJ is barely a decade old, formed from the old Socialist party and defectors from the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party, which yesterday suffered a catastrophic election defeat. It had ruled Japan almost uninterruptedly for more than half a century.
But the DPJ has never been in office. Some commentators say that's an advantage, because the new government will bring a fresh approach to the country's crisis. But with governments around the world still struggling to find a way out of global melt-down, there are those who fear this is not a good time for on-the-job training.
As the last votes were being cast last night, Tokyo was being lashed by rain brought in by a nearby typhoon. It's been raining non-stop ever since. Japan's new government is likely to face many more storms in the months to come.
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Robin:
The hard part following the Japanese Elections has, the governing style of the new party (that) won the poll.....
=Dennis Junior=
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While this new win definitely brings about "change" in Japan's leadership, it's still too early to say whether Japan will move away from it's strong U.S. ties, and towards stronger Asia regionalism. Asia Chronicle actually recently wrote about this historic election, which you can read at (http://asiachroniclenews.com/).
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The challenge for the Democratic Party is to overcome 55 or so years of post war management by the USA and the corporatism of the post war, I was going to write, 'consensus', but in reality I wonder if there was ever a genuine democracy in Japan since the war to have a 'consensus'.
The Japanese need to find out who they are. They need to get out from under the USA. The USA is in decline and its economic hegemony is in decline so perhaps it was inevitable that its outlying 'provinces' would fall from its sphere of influence (much like the earlier empires of Rome and Britain).
If this change of government actually changes anything for the better or worse we will have to wait and see. They seem to be speaking the 'talk' the problem is that, as always, it is easier to 'talk the walk' than to 'walk the walk'.
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Japan is a very conservative country and the changes in government is a new beginning. The demographics of Japan play a key role in all of this. Some resturcting of the workforce will be needed and probably encouragement for larger families. Japan has a unique world view and a people who have been able to combine as a nation to persue national goals. Bureaucratic power will be the biggest barrier, but hasn't this become the problem of most nations. The main issue for the DPJ will be that of corruption. Corruption has been a problem with each government and caused the downfall of most. If the DPJ can limit corruption it will make a big difference in Japan and the ability to impact the changes it has promised.
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