Japan ruling party warns voters against change

[Coventina]

Source: Associated Press

TOKYO — Kicking off a month of campaigning for Japan's parliament, senior ruling party lawmakers warned voters Wednesday they should not abandon the party that has governed their nation for most of the post-World War II era.

Analysts are predicting the elections for parliament's powerful lower house, to be held Aug. 30, could be disastrous for the Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed Japan with only a short break since its founding in 1955.

But in a theme likely to be repeated often in the upcoming election campaigns, several prominent ruling party lawmakers told a news conference Wednesday the opposition Democratic Party of Japan is inexperienced and cannot be trusted with control of the world's second-largest economy.

"I would welcome the DPJ to grow up to constitute one of the pillars of a two-party system," said lawmaker Kuniko Inoguchi. "But this season, this summer, they are not well prepared."

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hlQO-kyvIEyrc0I90V5l0LFN7JTwD99JH0582

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Sound familiar?

[David__77]

1. DPJ is too eclectic.

It has no coherent ideology. That is problematic. The left of Japan, with the notable exception of the communists, have dissolved themselves into a amorphous "big tent" lacking principles. I'd vote JCP.