I'm sick of american politics, lets talk japanese politics!

[Bronze MFP]

Browsing the news this morning I saw this article:

http://www.wbt.com/news/detail...KG101

I was curious as to how this will affect Japan. I am completly ignorant about their whole political system, but it sounds like this is a pretty big upset. If any of our members stationed in japan could chime in, it would be great to hear about this.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Japanese politics still get to go in the politics forum.

[themadscientist]

The dissolving of parliment is standard procedure leading up to general elections. The exact time it can be done is somewhat flexible though and timing it right can be crucial. The general opinion is Aso waited too long and things are going to go badly for his party.

The Liberal Democratic Party has been in power since the modern Japanese government was formed after world war 2 and that may change next month. Aso has been a complete train wreck, Fukuda before him was a bad joke and Abe would have had to improve a lot to even qualify as inept. I foresee the LDP losing power to the Democratic Party of Japan this august. This has serious ramifications on me as my job is based on American military presence in Okinawa, something the DPJ is keen on tinkering with. The communist party is gaining ground as well but I don't think will have a tremendous impact.

Some english media sources in Japan that may help you follow this potentially historic event.http://www.japantimes.co.jp/http://mdn.mainichi.jp/

The websites for the major parties.Liberal Democratic Partyhttp://www.jimin.jp/jimin/english/

Democratic Party of Japanhttp://www.dpj.or.jp/english/

New Komeitohttp://www.komei.or.jp/en/

Communist Partyhttp://www.jcp.or.jp/english/

[Bronze MFP]

Sorry MOD, my bad!

Interesting stuff. I have a lot of free time at work to read, so the links will be good. thanks!

I never like to hear communists gaining ground anywhere. What is the Japanese political climate like? Are there any conservative type members or is the country prettly left leaning? I don't even know if those terms apply over there. I've just got to use terms I'm familiar with

I take it the DPJ is against having an american military presence in japan?

[VersaMG08]

The dissolving of parliment is standard procedure leading up to general elections. The exact time it can be done is somewhat flexible though and timing it right can be crucial. The general opinion is Aso waited too long and things are going to go badly for his party.

The Liberal Democratic Party has been in power since the modern Japanese government was formed after world war 2 and that may change next month. Aso has been a complete train wreck, Fukuda before him was a bad joke and Abe would have had to improve a lot to even qualify as inept. I foresee the LDP losing power to the Democratic Party of Japan this august. This has serious ramifications on me as my job is based on American military presence in Okinawa, something the DPJ is keen on tinkering with. The communist party is gaining ground as well but I don't think will have a tremendous impact.

Some english media sources in Japan that may help you follow this potentially historic event.http://www.japantimes.co.jp/http://mdn.mainichi.jp/

The websites for the major parties.Liberal Democratic Partyhttp://www.jimin.jp/jimin/english/

Democratic Party of Japanhttp://www.dpj.or.jp/english/

New Komeitohttp://www.komei.or.jp/en/

Communist Partyhttp://www.jcp.or.jp/english/

Let me guess, I read a bit about Japanese politics. Seems interesting indeed. I can relate the parties to US political parties.

Liberal Democrat Party= Republican PartyDemocrat Party of Japan= Democrat PartyNew Komeito= Constitution Party?Communist Party= Socialist Workers Party

I believe that is how they translate over to the US if so. What do you guys think?

[themadscientist]

The first two, yeah, I think that's true. The next two, I don't know enough about them to say for sure.