Japanese Election and Manifesto Update

The Japanese election season is in full swing, with the two major parties — the currently ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the upstart Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) — campaigning hard to try to win enough votes to form the next government. Unlike the U.S. with its two-party system, several of the smaller political parties enjoy quite a lot of influence for their size, and you see (and hear) candidates representing the Japan Communist Party and New Komeito (a party related to the Sokka Gakkai Buddhist religion which has nothing to do with any religious organization at all, nope) quite a lot. It’s interesting to observe the election, as issues like the low birthrate and economic recession are fervently discussed. While I can’t say that the LDP has impressed me with its leadership (far from it), I don’t think that much good will come of the DPJ victory that everyone seems to be expecting. The party is only eleven years old, formed in 1998 by members of smaller parties, most of whom defected from the LDP at some point. The platform — or “manifesto” — of the DPJ was formed when the group was the minority party, and while it’s easy for politicians to make statements about making all the freeways actually free, or about Japan’s military relationship with the U.S., things change when you’re suddenly in power. If the DPJ does win on August 30, I don’t expect a lot to change, since the vast majority of Japan’s bureaucracy remains in place even if the party in power changes.

Some Japanese politicians really like the word “manifesto.”