Japan Opposition wins third poll

[bekka]

Link here: BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Japan opposition wins third poll

Basically, the opposition DPJ has been on a roll, most recently winning the post of mayor in the city of Chiba.

Does this spell the end of the ruling LDP? Or just merely a blip in their fortunes at the moment?

I personally think that we are looking at a sea change in Japanese politics, with possible positive implications for Japan at large.

What do all of you think?

[boddah87]

I think it would be good if it was a more competitive environment in Japanese politics rather than just the LDP winning everything no matter how terrible they are. I think that this is unlikely to be a permanent change though, just as we saw in America and are seeing in the U.K. People are angry at their government due to the economic crisis and it's a temperory reaction to that.

I don't think people in Japan are all that bothered about radical political change, they are happy to keep political roles in family lines. People in Britain are complaining cause we didn't vote for our current PM but Japan are on their like 3rd or 4th without a vote. Not many places where that would be acceptable...

[natcaasi]

Here's to hoping any change will be constructive
However i hope it does not come to the point where both sides will have equal amounts of political clout resulting in stalemates in most issues that the DIET? deals with (Take the example of the naval support mission to Somalia... they sure took a long time to settle such )... although I think that has more to do with intra party politics than with resistance from the opposition ...

In any case I hope that a party will come to power with a parliamentary majority without a need for a multi-party coalition