Election

There was a general election held yesterday. The elections are held on a weekend so that everyone has the chance to vote without missing work or school. People are eligible to vote at 20 years of age here. There are 3 elections held at a time.

The current ruling party called the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), or 民主党 in Japanese, was defeated by the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP) - or 自民党. The LDP has basically ruled Japan since 1955 except for the past three year period. The names are fairly close in English, which makes distinction between them difficult. The DPJ is more liberal; the LDP is more conservative.

The head of the DPJ - at least for now, is Prime Minister Noda, though he will likely step down after the results of this election. The LDP is headed by Shinzou Abe. Abe favors the continued use of nuclear energy, and has been vocal in his support of the Senkaku Islands. He has proposed changing the Japanese Constitution to allow for Japan to develop both a military and nuclear weapons.

Does his party's election really mean that people support Abe though? This is up for some debate. Japanese politics is largely dysfunctional. Leaders change every couple years, sometimes more often than that. There is largely the feeling that one's vote does not count, and the politicians are all so hopeless that people do not want to vote at all.

For example, the candidates will neglect to wear suits, their comments will be completely off-the-wall, and voters are left wondering who exactly is the so-called 'lesser evil' among their choices. Therefore, this is just my opinion but I doubt that the DPJ will go through on all of its intentions. It is well aware of the fact that it won because people dislike the LDP, not because they like the DPJ. Japan is also in a perilous state economically. It has to rely on foreign economies for imports/exports, so it cannot just completely do away with its foreign relations.

What this election means, if anything, will be seen in the coming year. Japan's leadership changes so frequently that nothing is definite yet.