A guide to Japan’s general election
1 month ago
Marginalia on Japanese politics and society
The Supreme Court is the court of last resort with power to determine the constitutionality of any law, order, regulation or official act.
"The Emperor or the Regent as well as Ministers of State, members of the Diet, judges, and all other public officials have the obligation to respect and uphold this Constitution."
"The Diet shall be the highest organ of state power, and shall be the sole law-making organ of the State."
Article 95: A special law, applicable only to one local public entity, cannot be enacted by the Diet without the consent of the majority of the voters of the local public entity concerned, obtained in accordance with law.
Article 65 - Executive power shall be vested in the Cabinet.
a) Asada Mao fell down in the short program in the women's singles figure skating.
b) She fell down because she felt pressure.
c) She felt pressure because she felt responsible for the poor showing of Japan in the team competition.
d) Mao fell down in the team competition, skating the women's short program segment.
SKIP
x) The Reed siblings live in the United States.
y) The Reed siblings are mediocre ice dancers who had no chance at representing the United States.
y) The Reed siblings represent Japan because Japan has no ice dancers.
SKIP
Ergo: Asada Mao fell down in the singles competition because the Reed siblings are not really Japanese?
(Link - J)
Ask me no more questions.It has been an angry morning in the Diet Budget Committee. NHK president Momii Katsuto has been called to the microphone time and time again (Does the chair really have to say "Nippon hoso kyokai" every time, when just saying "NHK" would save three to five seconds?). Momii was asked time and time again to grapple with simple logic. Time and time again, logic came out looking the worse for wear.
I’ll tell you no more lies.
- “Miss Suzy" (traditional)
Well let me tell you 'bout the way she looked
The way she'd act and the colour of her hair
Her voice was soft and cool
Her eyes were clear and bright
But she's not there.
- Rod Argent, "She's Not There" (1964)
"Shusuke Nomura gave his life to the Divine in front of a lot who do not believe that a human being can communicate with the Divine through one's life," Hasegawa stated. She added, "No matter what the (late Emperor Showa's) Humanity Declaration said, and no matter what the Constitution states, our Emperor once again became a living god" through Nomura's act, effectively rejecting the Constitutional stipulation that the Emperor is a symbolic monarch.Nomura Shusuke was an ultra-right activist and party leader. On 20 October 1993 he committed suicide in the guest reception room on the 15th floor of the headquarters of The Asahi Shimbun. He had demanded a meeting with the persons responsible for the publication of a derogatory drawing depicting his Association of the Wind (風の会) as The Louse Party (虱の党). Not getting the attention he felt he deserved, he shot himself.
Hashimoto Toru is resigning as mayor of Osaka City in order to win reelection to office. He wants to claim a mandate for his One Osaka plan.
Holding a by-election will cost the taxpayers money.
If we all pull together and agree to refuse to run candidates in this by-election, Hashimoto can be reelected without an actual vote, saving the taxpayers their money.
This automatic reelection will solve nothing because the situation in the assemblies will be as they were. Furthermore, since there was no actual polling of the electorate, Hashimoto will not be able to claim a mandate.
If we hang together on this we come out looking like fiscally prudent, sober folks. Hashimoto comes out looking like the petulant child.
What is he going to do? Call another election to replace the one we would not let him have?
Let us stay focused on the goal: getting him to resign and not run for reelection.
If we stick together on this we can send him back to daytime television, where he belongs.
Tokyo governor election to spell trouble for the LDP?(Continue Reading)
On 9 February, voters in the richest municipality in the world, the Tokyo Metropolitan District, will elect a new governor. Despite the job's many attractions, Japan's stultified political parties were unable to find candidates within their own ranks. Instead, they have had to line themselves up behind independents — all men (there are no women running) who have either burned their bridges with the established parties or never had any bridges at all...
"In terms of investor flows into and out of equities, Japan behaves very much like an emerging market, even though it's an advanced industrialized region," said Norihiro Fujito, senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
(Link)
Firebrand Osaka Mayor Calls It Quits, to Seek Re-electionAs for "and to do a lot of talking" he certainly did do that -- as the Martin post notes, the Hashimoto press conference lasted longer than the supposedly eternal Chris Christie press GW bridge conference. Hashimoto also managed to churn out a blizzard of over 60 Twitter tweets -- after having said nada via his favorite social media platform since January 18.
JapanRealTime
His days as Japan's rising political star may be over, but you can still count on Toru Hashimoto to cause a stir...and do a lot of talking.
Osaka's firebrand mayor officially announced his resignation Monday to seek reelection in a perplexing move he described was necessary to break the political logjam hindering one of his key policy goals.
(Link)
The news slowsThe candidacy of former Chief of Staff of the Air Self Defense Forces Tamogami Toshio for the post of governor of Tokyo has been a thing of wonder. First that the general, who lives a very comfortable life off not only his taxpayer-funded pension but also off the revenues generated by his, and this is the organization's real name, “Fight Hard Japan! - All Nation Action Committee” (Ganbare Nippon - Zenkoku Kodo Iinkai) -- the umbrella under which all of Japan's xenophobes and paranoids seem to seek shelter -- is not the smartest in terms of personal cash flow. That he should come out of retirement to take on the job of running the Tokyo Metropolitan District, a place crammed with the very sort of folks his followers want expelled from Japan or locked up in prison, in his first attempt to ever run for anything (the other three main candidates having run and won election to some kind of office in the past) challenges the boundaries of "hubris" and "chutzpah" (the closest Japanese-language equivalent being jishin no kajo, an "excess of confidence").
People forget
The shares crash, hopes are dashed
People forget
Forget they're hiding.
Behind an eminence front
An eminence front - it's a put-on
Come and join the party
Dress to kill
- Pete Townsend, "Eminence Front" (1982)