25 December 2012
The government of the aged, by the aged, for the aged?
16th December was the election day in Japan. The Democratic Party of Japan's(DPJ) about 3 years and half of ruling told the end, and back to the Liberal Democratic Party's(LDP) era.
This election held to elect lower house member and we elect 480 member of lower house. DPJ had 230 seats but reduced to 57 seats after this election. On the other hand, LDP won 294 seats that increased 176 seats from before the election. Also, the Japan Restoration Party(JRP) won 54 seats that increased 43 seats from before the election, and became the third largest party in Japanese political party.
Even in this major victory of LDP, the LDP leader Mr. Abe told reporter that "We recognize that this was not a restoration of confidence in the Liberal Democratic Party, but a rejection of three years of incompetent rule by the Democratic Party of Japan,". Some political analyzers analyzed that the LDP won because voters elected them by elimination.
Candidates
A record number of 1,504 candidates and 12 parties stood for this election.
Here's some short introduction of each party
- Liberal Democratic Party of Japan
(Centre-Right) Previously the party ruled the whole diet except recent 3 years. In this election they won 294 seats, and came back as ruling party. I thought they are tending to more right-wing biased. This is because they are thinking to reform JSDF(Japan Self Defense Force) into "regular" Defense Force.
- Democratic Party of Japan
(Centre-Left) From 2009, they used to be the ruling party, but now they decreased 173 seats in lower house. So I believe most of Japanese disappoint on 3 years and half of ruling, then they couldn't win this election.
- Japan Restoration Party
(Right) Former Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara became the leader of this party, and Osaka-city governor Toru Hashimoto founded this party as "Osaka Restoration Party". Well, some people might know about that but Shintaro Ishihara has strongly right-wing nationalist. This was the first election in lower house for this party, but they won 54 seats.
- New Komeito Party
(Centre-Right) The party was supporting LDP before and I believe the party will support them again because the LDP became ruling party. This party has strong support from the buddhist organization Soka-Gakkai. They won 31 seats because strong support from Soka-Gakkai.
- Your Party
(Centre-Right) In 2009, split from the LDP. Won 18 seats in this election.
- Tomorrow Party of Japan
(Centre-Left) Former chief secretary of DPJ Ichiro Ozawa and Shiga governor Yukiko Kada formed this party before the election. They won 9 seats, but they reduced seats in lower house. Some say the power of Ichiro Ozawa lost his power in politics.
- Japan Communist Party
(Left) The party have the longest history. They won 8 seats in this election.
- Social Democratic Party
(Centre-Left) They won 2 seats in this election.
- People's New Party
(Centre-Right) They were supporting the DPJ before, but they lost most of their seat and now they have only 1 seats in lower house.
- New Renaissance Party
(Centre-Right) In 2009, split from the LDP. But now there are no seats in lower house.
- New Party Daichi
(Left) I think, they are not working for whole Japan, they are working for Hokkaido. They have 1 seats in lower house.
- Happiness Realization Party
Currently they have no seats, they were supported by religious movement "Happy Science".That's 12 parties which stood for this election, but mostly they have weird party name. Also, their policies are a little difference in each other. I though, they are making Japanese politics much complicate one by themselves.
Voting rate
The voting rate of this election was 59.32% and it was the lowest voting rates after the World War 2. 9.96% decreased from previous election in 2009. Here's another interesting chart.
 |
| Age specific voting rate (from The Association for Promoting Fair Elections) |
In this chart, there are no statistics on the latest election's voting rate yet.
But mostly it didn't changed I believe. The young voters' don't vote, but aged voters' vote much more.
The Government of the Aged, by the Aged, for the Aged?
Because many aged voters tend to voting, most of political parties tend to take aged friendly policy, I though. For instance, the pension plan need to change drastically but aged people can get pension and they are not worried about that, then there are no political party which will reform the pension plan drastically.
I couldn't get enough references, but I think there are more aged politicians in Japan. In my opinion, we need age limit to become politician. The leader of JRP Shintaro Ishihara is already 80 years old! He suggest young Japanese people need to do military services in a few years, but I don't think so. Also here's word that I heard, "The war decided by aged, operated by middle age, and young dies".
Some say this is exactly the same theory that what happened in world war 2.
I though, young Japanese like me need to observe the politics, and we need to change to prevent to become the government of the aged, by the aged, for the aged.
Thanks
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