Heavy Rotation

One of the continuing plaints in the media is that the Democratic Party of Japan is on its third prime minister in the two years since it seized power, this despite the party's insistence it would not replicate the annual turnover in prime ministers that characterized the Liberal Democratic Party in its waning years in power.

However, if the speed at which the DPJ has sent prime ministers through the revolving door has been disconcerting, then the speed at which tossed through state ministers has been dizzying. In the two years since the DPJ came to power it has had 5 State Ministers for the Abductees Issue, 6 State Ministers for Declining Birthrate and Gender Equality and 7 State Ministers for Consumer Affairs and Food Safety (ja).

While the ostensible reason for the remarkable turnover in state ministers is the law limiting the number of formal members of the Cabinet, requiring a shuttling back and forth of these issues as ministers have resigned or cabinets have been shaken up, one cannot help but wonder whether the families of those abducted, women and consumer advocates think that the DPJ does not give a hoot about their interests.

Meanwhile, the only heavy rotation that most of the denizens of these blessed and currently very wet isles care about is this one. (WARNING: definitely NWSF, possibly causes irreparable brain damage.)