Seijigiri #41: The Budget is Passed, and Fukuda is Feeling the Pressure
This edition of Seijigiri is a day late, but hopefully less than a dollar short (what’s the dollar worth now anyway?)
Co-hosts Garrett DeOrio and Ken Worsley begin with a brief discussion on Friday’s passing of the national budget by the lower house, which guarantees that it will be set to go into effect when the new fiscal year starts in April.
From there, the discussion moves to focus on Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, and the reasons why his approval ratings are dropping (as well as why his disapproval ratings are falling). Like his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, Fukuda took the helm during an extraordinary Diet session and seems to have run into trouble early in his first regular session. With the public unhappy over his administration’s response to the poison gyoza scandal, the sinking of a fishing vessel by an MSDF destroyer, and political gridlock arising from the opposition’s control of the upper house, our hosts ponder how Fukuda could survive, and what pressures he’s going to encounter in the runup to this summer’s G-8 conference in Hokkaido.
Related Posts:
- Seijigiri #40: The MSDF heads out, Gasoline and Capital Gains Taxes, Fukuda’s Policy Speech, and the 2008 National Budget
- Seijigiri #36: Ozawa’s Melodrama, Japan’s Mission in the Indian Ocean, Abe’s Concessions on the Comfort Women Issue, and Wasteful Government Spending
- Seijigiri #34: Fukuda keeps the Faction Heads Happy and Koizumi’s “Great Mane of Richard Gere-ness” (with Adam Richards)
- Seijigiri #43: Diplomatic Affairs, Fukuda’s Falling Approval Ratings, and “Gridlock” in the Diet
- Seijigiri #32: Foreign Policy and the US-Japan Relationship in the Age of Fukuda (with Tobias Harris)
