Yesterday, a council made of up policy affairs chiefs from ten parties met in order to discuss “the pros and cons of using Web sites, blogs, e-mail and the microblogging service Twitter” during election campaigns. The council is called the 「インターネットを使った選挙運動の解禁についての各党協議会」 in Japanese, so let’s call it “The Multiparty Council Concerning Lifting the Ban on the Use of the Internet in Election Campaigns.”

According to the Yomiuri, the council decided that web sites and blogs could be updated during campaigns, but stopped short of lifting the ban on email and Twitter, as it was feared that the latter two could be used to slander people. However, it is expected that the ban on email and Twitter will also be lifted in the near future.

Obviously it makes little sense to allow blogs and then disallow Twitter on the grounds that it might lead to slander. That said, I don’t think anyone expects the group of ten policy chiefs to have a full understanding of the services they’re discussing.

The ban is expected to be lifted in time for this summer’s Upper House election. When the LDP was still the ruling party, the DPJ unsuccessfully submitted legislation to have the ban lifted four times.

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It’s good to be back. Thanks to everyone who kept in touch during Seijigiri’s absence from the airwaves, or the series of tubes, or whatever it is.

In this edition of what remains perhaps Japan’s only political podcast, your hosts Ken Worsley and Garrett DeOrio take a look at what’s in store for the DPJ in its first regular Diet session. The statute of limitations for murder looks like it may be on its way out, sufferage for Special Permanent Residents is on the horizon again (but Shizuka Kamei doesn’t like it), and the fate of the relocation plan for USMC Air Station Futenma remains in question, especially as the election of new Nago Mayor Inamine would seem to uphold the views of those Okinawans who’d rather not have the Marines in their neighborhood.

All of this, though, is happening under the shadow of the scandals surrounding political fund donations to Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and shday land purchases by the political fund of DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa.

Exciting times have returned.

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Former Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa, who lost his Hokkaido Diet seat on August 30th, after his drunken appearance at a Rome G8 conference in February led to his resignation from the Cabinet, was found dead in his Setagaya home by his wife at about 8:15 this morning.So far, Tokyo police say suicide is unlikely, but are conducting an autopsy to determine the cause of death, which they believe may be related to prescription a sleeping medication he was taking.

Foul play has been ruled out.

The Kyodo report contains one interesting line:

When Nakagawa’s 50-year-old wife came home at around 9 p.m. Saturday, she saw him sleeping with his upper body leaning against the bed, his face down, but did not sense anything was wrong, they said.

The way that’s phrased makes it sound like an unusual posture, but perhaps not that unusual considering the number of even more unusual sleeping positions in which Mrs. Nakagawa must have seen her husband over the years. (Read on …)

As expected, Yukio Hatoyama officially became Japan’s 93rd Prime Minister yesterday and just the second since the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party was founded not to belong to it. Just as importantly, after roughly two weeks of managing to keep the press at bay and leaking little, if anything about the make-up of the new Cabinet, the new Prime Minister formed the first Cabinet since 1955 to contain no LDP members.

In fact, as promised, the new Cabinet is made up entirely of elected representatives. Every portfolio went to a DPJ member, with only two positions going to the DPJ’s partners: State Minister in Charge of Consumer Affairs and the Declining Birthrate to SDP head Mizuho Fukushima and State Minister in Charge of Financial and Postal Issues to People’s New Party chief Shizuka Kamei.

So, without further ado, the Cabinet: (Read on …)

Continuing on with the Kinki region, we reach Kyoto (which, just in case no one’s told you in the last few minutes, is historical), home of some big names. Sadakazu Tanigaki, a likely leader of the newly-chastened LDP, held on to his district 5 seat while former Education Minister and LDP Secretary General Ibuki Bunmei lost his district 1 seat, but remained in the Diet through proportional representation. On the DPJ side, heavyweight Seiji Maehara won his seat for the sixth time.

KYOTO

(Read on …)

Continuing with Hyogo, district 8 was fairly interesting: neither a DPJ nor and LDP candidate ran as both deferred to smaller allies - the New Party Nippon in the case of the DPJ and the New Komeito in the case of the LDP. The NK candidate, who lost his seat, was the powerful Tetsuzo Fuyushiba, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport under PM Yasuo Fukuda.
District 9 also saw the DPJ defer to the postal rebel People’s New Party and not run a candidate.

HYOGO

(Read on …)

Continuing with the second most-represented prefecture Kinki region. . .

HYOGO

(Read on …)

In the DPJ’s routing of the LDP-New Komeito ruling camp, they not only pushed out the ruling party, but swept out one of the tiniest parties to have an incumbent Diet member. Take a look at district 17, where, amazingly, there was no HRP candidate. (Yes, I know. I’m obsessed with parties so minor as to be trifling.)

OSAKA

(Read on …)

Moving on to Japan’s second-largest metropolitan area and the site of some interesting possible harbinger races. . .

OSAKA

(Read on …)

While former Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda won his district 4 seat for the seventh time, former Finance Minister (under PM Shinzo Abe), Education Minister (under PM Junichiro Koizumi), and Director of the Economic Planning Agency Koji Omi lost his seat in district 1, a significant upset as, even in this table-turning election, real LDP heavyweights generally found their way back into the Diet, either by winning or through proportional representation. No such luck for Mr. Omi, who, given his advanced age, might now be looking at retirement.

On the whole, though, Gunma was a relative bright spot for the former ruling party, with big name Yuko Obuchi also winning her district 5 seat for the fourth time (albeit without running head to head against a DPJ candidate.)

GUNMA

(Read on …)