Japan PM dissolves parliament, calls elections

[Akoto]

Source: Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso dissolved the powerful lower house of parliament Tuesday, setting the stage for national elections next month that could transform the country's political power structure.

In Japan, the prime minister can decide when to disband parliament and call a general election. Aso had postponed doing so in the hope that his low approval ratings would recover, but after his party was routed in local elections last week he announced the elections for parliament's lower house would be held Aug. 30.

The country's political parties quickly shifted into election mode, holding rallies of their lawmakers. Japan's opposition leader vowed the elections would be "historic."

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has maintained a majority in the lower house for most of the past 50 years, allowing them to dominate the lawmaking process and select the prime minister and Cabinet members from party ranks.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_POLITICS?SITE=OKOKL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. and the nationalists have been on the uptick for a few years

great.

[Art_from_Ark]

3. Who are the nationalists in Japan?

The Communists? They'll never win a meaningful national election outside of the Osaka area.
The Komeito? They are the real right-wingers, but their support is also limited. And they always side with the LDP, which is likely going to lose this upcoming election.
The LDP, which is currently in power?
The Democratic Party of Japan, which seems to be continuously reorganizing itself?

But there's also a new party in town-- the Kofuku Jitsugen-to, or Happiness Realization Party. They're pledging an end to national sales and inheritance taxes. Happy Happy Joy Joy.

[rpannier]

4. The election will most likely be won by the Democratic Party of Japan and their coalition partners

the Communist Party -- the results from the Tokyo Prefecture Elections pretty much guarantee that.

The Komeito Party held up well in the Tokyo Elections, and two years ago signaled they'd be willing to partner with the Dem Party, ut the Dems did poorly and the Komeito jumped back with the LDP

The Communists in Japan should never be confused with PDK, China or the Soviet Union. They are the only true liberal party in Japan, with a platform that would mirror many Socialist Parties throughout Europe.

The Democratic Party is just a less conservative, corporatist party.

I get NHK-TV out of Japan (here in Korea)

[Art_from_Ark]

8. You are right about the Communist Party of Japan

They should really call themselves the Labour Party, because that's essentially what they are.

It's really hard to make an assessment of the Democratic Party of Japan, since they seem to be always reinventing themselves. Of course, they've also had two of their recent leaders tossed out for relatively minor scandals, so it is hard for them to have consistency (and I think that is by design).

[Wednesdays]

6. No sales tax = progressive

No inheritance tax, not so progressive.

It's a wash, I guess. :shrug:

What are they going to do to balance the reduction in revenue?

[Art_from_Ark]

7. "What are they going to do to balance the reduction in revenue?"

That's a good question. According to their web site http://www.hr-party.jp/about/#04 they are going to stimulate consumer spending by completely eliminating the national sales tax, the inheritance tax, and the gift tax. They're also going to reduce the income tax and the corporate tax over a 3-year period. They're also really heavily into deregulation and claim that by deregulating businesses, they will be able to achieve a yearly GDP growth rate of 3%. They're also claiming that they want to more than double Japan's population to 300,000,000 by 2030! That would be 300,000,000 people living in an area the size of California!

But I haven't seen anything yet about raising revenue.

[Fearless]

2. They're a little behind the times. We tried it. It didn't work.

But, I'm going to assume this has more to do with economics and regional politics than the US so I'll just watch.

[rpannier]

5. Economics, temporary worker laws, LDP corruption and incompetence

Three PM's have been chosen by the ruling party (LDP) since '05.