Japan opposition could win by a landslide: media

steven johnson

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Wed Aug-19-09 10:48 PM
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Japan opposition could win by a landslide: media

Looks like the Obama-phenomenon is spreading to Japan with the potential ousting of the PDP by the Democrats. This is the end of the country's longest recession since World War Two and I suspect the LDP is getting some of the blame for the mess.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's opposition Democratic Party may be headed for a landslide election victory, trouncing the conservative party that has ruled for most of the past half-century, a newspaper said on Thursday.

The Democrats could win 300 of the 480 seats in parliament's lower house while the long-ruling Liberal Democrats may be halved to around 150 seats, said the Asahi newspaper, based on a detailed survey of electoral districts ahead of the August 30 poll.

But the paper also said that around 30 to 40 percent of voters in its survey of electoral districts had not revealed how they would vote while 25 percent might change their minds, so results could shift significantly in the final days.

Opinion polls have for some time shown the Democrats well ahead of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), raising the prospect that the business-friendly LDP will lose power for only the second time in its 54-year history.

TJapan opposition could win by a landslide: media

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GreenPartyVoter

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Wed Aug-19-09 10:52 PM
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1. This is very interesting

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stuball111

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Thu Aug-20-09 01:49 AM
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2. Good.. I hope they stop the fuggin whaling....

Edited on Thu Aug-20-09 01:49 AM by stuball111

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DaveinJapan

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Thu Aug-20-09 05:45 AM
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6. Highly unlikely. Most Japanese are in favor of more whaling.

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stuball111

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Thu Aug-20-09 12:59 PM
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7. Then they have a problem... Watson ain't going away...

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Joe the Liberal

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Thu Aug-20-09 01:55 AM
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3. Sounds good.....

Edited on Thu Aug-20-09 01:55 AM by Joe the Liberal

but why does the conservative party over there call themselves the "LIBERAL Democratic Party"? Wouldn't it make more sense to call themselves the "Conservative Democratic Party" or something like that? Why call yourself something you're not?

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anigbrowl

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Thu Aug-20-09 01:59 AM
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4. Probably, but I wouldn't call it an Obama phenomenon

I've been following Japanese politics for almost 20 years (I used to be married to a Japanese person) and they're completely different from US politics in just about every way. Trying to draw direct comparisons will only result in confusion. The incumbent party (the LDP) is quite conservative, but in a completely different way from the Republicans, eg their idea of conservatism is to shovel billions of yesn to FDR-style construction programs that serve no actual purpose, so Japan is full of public works projects (like highways to nowhere) that were approved solely in order to kick money to the road-building industry in return for political contributions.

Japan has actually had an epidemic of too much government spending and industrial protection so spending on research has gone through the floor and it's very difficult to start a new business there and succeed by competing against established companies.

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Vidar

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Thu Aug-20-09 05:25 AM
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5. Good for the Japanese Democrats.

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