Abe is in for the long haul.
Japan's ruling party for over fifty years, the Liberal Democratic Party, has been declared this term's minor party as they will soon give up many of their seats in the House of Representatives to the Democratic Party amidst scandals over current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration.Abe, a LDP member himself will most certainly face resignation requests now, especially since it may become more difficult to pass legislation through opposing parties through the House, coupled with the growing list of scandals attributed to Abe and his party.
The LDP, the more conservative of Japan's competing parties survived in the house after it was discovered that secret American agencies were funding the party overseas to combat the popular Socialist and Communist Parties after it was exposed in a New York Times article.
Abe has also lost popularity since he began calling for constitutional changes and his current privatization of the postal system, which has recently caused an increase in costs for most of the system.
He was voted into power in 2005 and took the office of former PM, Junichiro Koizumi.
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posted by Anonymous @ 7:46 PM
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Thank you Kip... where to start...
I doubt he'll be asked to resign, because that would leave things deadlocked until an election... as I recall DJP's head didn't even make an appearance for health reasons... Heart Problems if I'm correct... I'll check on it.
I had NO idea about the funding... I'm very surprised to hear it. LDP always has had a lot of Right Wing backing... including myself... I just might have to do some re-evaluating on them...
I'm pretty sure the postal privatization was Koizumi's doing... although I think Abe was the minister heading that up at the time... again... I'll check on that if you'd like.
I'm personally was a BiG fan of the idea for the constitutional change... be nice to have something that is Japanese, if it kept the same pacifist values... I'm in favour.
I think the major down fall was problems in the cabinet... 2 ministers resigned, 1 killed himself... a lot with the Lost Pension problems... although I think there may be a connection between that and the random amounts of money being found in mailboxes in garbage, which if I'm correct, police originally said it was wrong to keep the money as it was "Misappropriation of Funds"... I'm not sure if anyone has actually kept any of the money... In Japan, you find money on the floor, especially a large amount, you brought it to the nearest police box... which is why there have been so many reports... people don't know what to do.
Abe DID increase relations with China and kept a calm head during the problems with North Korea... he stuck to what he said he was going to do... and did it... Unfortunately, many people thought he was out of touch with current day Japan.
Thanks Again for the Post :)
It's funny when you mirror this to American politics:
Scandals abound, a separate ruling party from the Parliament, an unfavorable approval rating of the leader. I don't think there are any suicides yet (which was a little surprising to hear).
The problem is, people rally too much behind the big problems to see the governments big strides in this administration.
For example, President bush has been blamed for a poor economy, which we have, yet, he promised he would take steps to keep the US out of a depression and reverse the cycle. At this time, we are in a limbo state; rampant joblesness and inflation, yet the stock market is at a record-high even though it was beginning to decline pre-September 11.
I suppose our biggest issue our leader faces is his handling of the war. True, the Iraq war hasn't progressed quite as planned, but the big thing most people miss is that this is a different breed of "soliders" fighting the allied troops. Terrorists will continue fighting weather we call a stalemate, withdraw, or surrender, and then they will attack the homefront. Right now they are being kept at bay in their own land.
A lot of people who don't understand politics are beginning to lead people away from the president's handling of issues, claiming that he is doing his job wrong.
While this has little to do with Japanese policies, government, and its leaders, it's the best correlation I can make between two governments. I don't follow Japanese politics as well as others might, but I do understand that in the Japaneses' [bad pluralization] eyes, Abe is doing a poor job, but this perception comes from collective public rabble and a shallow understanding of how government works. Abe has some great ideas and has implimented some, but I believe people won't come to understand them until farther down the line. Hindsight is 20/20 after all. Hopefully history will be good to him.
But that's how I feel.
I should mention that I don't make this political assessment as a Bush or Abe supporter myself, but as an independent in my own government's right and on the affairs abroad.
Thanks for the comments Kami. Any further information you can add to this article is more than welcomed.
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