Election Day

Yesterday was election day here in Japan. As many of you may have read in the news, Japan changed leading political party for the first time since the present government system was established after WWII. Not only did the party change, they were crushed by the opposition. Why? Economic crisis, record unemployment, a prime minister who had no common sense when speaking, and a charismatic opposing leader.

Actually, in spite of the fact that the Obama administration was not altogether keen on the party that has now taken power, I think they partly rode into power on Obama's tailcoats. They used a very similar slogan of change and I heard a lot of people liken the situation to the recent American election.

The cool thing about being around during an election, is that you get to learn something about another country's politics. I in no way can claim to actually understand the Japanese system, but here's what I think may be true based on various things I've heard. Keep in mind, the following could all be hooey.

From what we can tell, you do not vote for prime minister when you vote in Japan, you vote for a political party. Each political party puts forward a certain number of names (100? something like that) in rank order. The guy at the top will presumably become prime minister, but during the term, he is free to step down and make way for another PM selected from within the party by the party. The other ranking party folk fill in the - what? - cabinet? senate? This is where things break down for me.

In any case, the only party to ever win an election in Japan just lost 3-1 to a different party. Early on, the voting was something like 144 to 7. Russell's conversation partner was over at our place last night, and pointed out that its probably not good for Japan to have given this new party quite THAT much power.

It will be interesting to see what comes next.