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Japan's Ruling Party Must Bow to Reforms
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16650 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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10 / 1989 |
2,042 Words |
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Hiroyasu Tomaru
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Few people had expected that Japan Socialist Party (JSP) Chairwoman Takako Doi's dream would come true so quickly: The House of Councillors (upper house) on August 9 selected her as its choice for prime minister.
This dramatic development occurred as a result of the JSP's landslide victory over the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the July 23 House of Councillors election. Her ambition to become prime minister was blocked by the more powerful House of Representatives (lower house), however, which selected instead LDP President Toshiki Kaifu, 58.
The Diet (national assembly) settled on Kaifu, in keeping with the constitutional stipulation that the lower house prevails over the upper house in such situations. By the rules and regulations governing Diet proceedings, the lower house has a bigger voice in choosing prime ministers, making budgets, and ratifying treaties. But the two chambers carry equal weight on most other matters.
Doi, who stepped aside for Kaifu, said the day Kaifu formed his cabinet was "the beginning of the end of the LDP's control over Japanese politics."
Members of the LDP, which has been wracked by a series of scandals lately, see Kaifu as the fresh young leader needed to prop up the party's sagging fortunes, a party official said.
An elite politician and rising star, Kaifu became the second youngest prime minister after Kakuei Tanaka, who assumed the office at age 54. Kaifu had been the youngest member of the lower house when he won his first election in 1960 at 29.
The upper house's selection of Doi as prime minister was a triumph for the opposition camp and a harbinger of the tough times the LDP will face in the Diet and in politics in general.
The JSP and other opposition parties are said to have welcomed Kaifu's selection because they feel they can battle him more easily.
Unlike the 1988 upper house election that resulted in a landslide victory for the LDP, the July 23 election allowed the JSP-led opposition to acquire a majority in the upper house, which had been controlled by the LDP for the last 34 years.
Only Half a Step Behind
A key factor in the JSP's major election victory was the support of women, many of whom turned against the LDP. According to analysts, female voters became more politically conscious after the introduction in April of the unpopular 3 percent consumption tax, a product of the LDP's long-term tax policy. Housewives were said to be particularly unhappy about the new indirect tax, because taxable items and services include perishable foods, education, and the costs of hospitalization and childbirth.
The imposition of the consumption tax was aimed at meeting the government's growing spending for such entitlements as pensions, which are associated with an aging society. The Finance Ministry says it expects revenue from the new tax to total about $6 billion a
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