Seijigiri #59 - Real Politics in Japan! The Upcoming General Election

Filed under: Seijigiri Releases, Trans-Pacific Radio
Posted by Garrett DeOrio at 10:08 pm on Monday, August 24, 2009

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Be sure to spend election night with TPR. Adam Richards and Chris Gunson will be joining the Seijigiri guys on the evening (and late into the night) of Sunday, August 30th to announce, analyze, discuss, and otherwise have fun with the election results as they come in. Yes, as they come in. It’s a live video broadcast of Seijigiri.

In the current podcast:
Your hosts Ken Worsley and Garrett DeOrio return to disucss their favorite topic: elections. With a general election, and a real chance of someone other than the LDP really running the government for the first time since 1955, coming up on August 30th, there’s a lot to talk about.

Will the opposition DPJ win a majority? If so, how big might that majority be? (The numbers keep going up. While Garrett and Ken discuss the projections published by the Yomiuri Shimbun and Observing Japan, just after this was recorded, the Mainichi Shimbun blew Seijigiri’s collective mind by speculating that the DPJ might win as many as 320 of the 480 seats.)

How are the seats apportioned? What’s the difference between a single-seat district and proportional representation? How are lawmakers like the DPJ’s Akira Nagatsuma able to stay in the Diet even after they lose their races?

Perhaps most important of all, what’s going to happen if and when the DPJ wins? What pressures will they face? What will happen to the LDP?

All these questions and more are answered in this edition of Seijigiri.

Thanks for listening.

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4 Comments »

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Comment by Ken Worsley

August 25, 2009 @ 12:41 pm

Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano is sounding deperate, and hypocritical:

“The situation is tough. The angry waves of the Democratic Party are attacking all over Tokyo…If this momentum continues, there is a risk of one-party despotism.”

I guess he can only speak of what he knows.

Comment by Sara

August 27, 2009 @ 9:07 pm

Just wanted to say hi and thanks - listening to Seijigiri has made me a lot more interested in what’s going on politically in Japan. A faithful listener in Hyogo thanks you!

Comment by James

August 27, 2009 @ 10:02 pm

As soon as you come on Sun night the 30th

Please explain how PR seats are filled if the DPJ does not run enough candidates.

What happens if almost all DPJ single seats are won and the DPJ doesn’t have enough people left on its list to take all the PR spots it wins?

Comment by Garrett DeOrio

August 28, 2009 @ 11:37 am

Thanks for the input, James. We’ll address the nuts and bolts right off the bat.

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