Further to the Election Report

Left: In this rare session sponsored by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan on July 9, a professor of physics at the University of Virginia and an associate professor in international politics at Johns Hopkins University argued that the official report on the Cheonan sinking was fake. But usually members of the FCCJ keep scratching the surface of things happening here to cater to largely biased editorial positions of their head-offices.
Center: Ichiro Ozawa still remains the Shadow Shogun and is getting prepared for a comeback
Right: Yoshimi Watanabe is up and coming now

This is to follow up the flash report I posted when the election returns were being finalized.

Western Media's Take

Once again they are responding to the results of the Sunday poll in a breathtakingly stupid way.

They say in concert that the outcome of the election will once again destabilize the situation here. It's as though they think Hatoyama's resignation early last month had once stabilized it.

Stabilized for 5 weeks? Don't be silly.

These guys also attribute DPJ's defeat to the fact that amid the election campaign, Kan started to say the consumption tax (Japan's VAT) might have to be raised from 5% to 10% to prevent Japan from treading the path similar to Greece's.

Reportedly Japan's prime minister had hinted at a consumer tax hike in the G20 meeting in Canada to prevent budget deficits from further ballooning. At the same time he seems to have promised the leaders from other countries that he would lower corporate tax rates so as to ensure economic growth. It's appalling to know the former finance minister didn't know the value-added taxes in Greece were already in the range of 8-19% when the crisis broke out there.

It is true that Kan himself attributed DPJ's defeat, in retrospect, to the fact that he had once again broke his previous campaign pledge by carelessly mentioning the tax hike. But this doesn't explain why then the major opposition LDP, which also made it clear that doubling the tax rate would be necessary, could regain part of lost ground.

The fact remains that the real cause of the setback suffered by his party is that he didn't really address, let alone propose any solution to, the key issues ranging from corruption that persists, to the U.S.-Japanese security treaty that increasingly proves irrelevant in the post-Cold War era, to the dole-out policy that has gone over the top by now.

The consumption tax was just a decoy.

Needless to say Tokyo correspondents of foreign media are at a loss what to make of the sudden rise of the fledgling Your Party.

When will the media in the West ever learn they are largely misguided by their empty-headed Tokyo correspondents?

Committee for Inquest of Prosecution

At this moment Ozawa's fate all hinges on the Committee's second verdict due at the end of this month and Prosecutors Office's response to it.

The Committee consists of eleven members who are periodically picked "randomly" from among "ordinary citizens." For an obvious reason, occupations, genders and ages of those who are picked at random remain undisclosed on the pretext of protection of privacy.

Of course "at random" can mean anything. At best it's a roulette, Russian or not. And at worst, it can mean that the committee is totally fictitious and nonexistent in the first place.

It still remains to be seen whether or not Ozawa can make a comeback in style at the plenary convention of the party scheduled for September. But I am reasonably sure there is no chance for Kan to get reelected at the convention and that although Ozawa can't even run if he is indicted, that's not the end of his political career.

As some have already started speculating, it's fairly likely that the most powerful intra-party faction headed by Ozawa seeks to spin off from the DPJ to form yet another new party. Time and again has he come out of similar crises by resorting to this tactic.

Not a single one can outmaneuver the Shadow Shogun.

Rapid Rise of the Your Party

Admittedly the strong showing of the Your Party was really phenomenal. Head of the newborn party Yoshimi Watanabe has been able to convince millions of voters that it can serve as the real alternative to the old parties all bound by strings of particular interest groups. He kept saying the only way out of the deepening crisis is to drastically downsize the legislature and restructure the bureaucracy. Only by these measures, he said, the Japanese can bring their nation back on the right track.

Yet it is important to note Watanabe's prescription for sustainable growth still falls way short of reinvigorating the failing nation.

His father, Michio Watanabe, was the Minister of Agriculture and Fishery (1978-79,) the Minister of Finance (1980-82,) the Minister of International Trade and Industry (1985-86) and the Foreign Minister (1991-93.) In those days, his ministries were solely mandated to protect the private sector, especially major financial institutions and other key industries, from foreign competitors.

Although he looks to be an adamant advocate of small-government, Yoshimi has inherited the same protectionist mindset from his father. If he had really believed in private sector-driven growth, he would have realized by now that the only workable way to vitalize people's spontaneity is for the government to do nothing at all.

Small wonder that when launching his party practically all by himself, he recruited many business executives to join forces with him. But actually businesspeople should exert their talents in business, not in politics. He should bear in mind that the most effective way to kill inventiveness some, if not all, of businesspeople potentially have is to tell them what to do all the time.

If he really wants to be a change agent, he should concentrate solely on subverting the "modern two-party system" which is supported by industries and labor unions, including the huge ones formed by 4-million government employees, rather than establishing a "post-modern tripolar regime." ·