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A lot of ground is covered in this edition of Seijigiri. We have a new Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, as Yukio Hatoyama has stepped down and taken Ichiro Ozawa with him. How will this affect the DPJ going into next month’s Upper House election?

The role of Futenma in the downfall of Yukio Hatoyama is discussed in the show, as well as some possible new cabinet members.

Another issue is support numbers for all parties, as it seems the voting public is tired of all political parties at this stage in time.

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More bad turns for the ruling coalition, dealings with the neighbors, and a rare bit of sports dominate this edition of TPR News for an unusually chilly last week of May.

Sports

We don’t normally cover sports (although you can keep up with Japanese baseball at our sister site Tsubamegun), but this was too good to resist: with the World Cup finals in South Africa set to begin this month, Japan’s national team played a friendly against soccer powerhouse England in Graz, Austria, and scored three goals, allowing their heavily favored opponents none. (Read on …)

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First of all, this edition of Seijigiri has been released a few days late due to editing difficulties. Batteries ran out, memory cards filled and mics made strange line noise during recording. So, I decided to release this edition of the show largely unedited. The edits I remember removing are a few coughs, a mic falling over and one loud belch.

This edition of the show begins with a look at Prime Minister Hatoyama’s falling approval ratings (which has become an ongoing theme) and turns to a discussion of the Futenma issue and Hillary Clinton’s (then) upcoming visit to Japan.

After that, discussion turns to the candidacy of Ryoko Tani and we are blessed with a rant from Mr DeOrio.

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In this edition of TPR News: TPR News is back and a bit slimmed down; Futenma causes headaches for Hatoyama; Ozawa’s still in trouble; and political parties go for star power to win votes.

Politics

With the Upper House elections only two months away, the most recent Jiji poll shows that public approval of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s Cabinet has begun to drop below the 20% mark, the point of sure demise for LDP governments, which means all but one of Hatoyama’s predecessors in the past 55 years. A Yomiuri poll of last weekend presents almost equally dire figures with the Cabinet garnering the approval of just 24% of respondents, a drop of nine points since the previous poll. The Jiji and Yomiuri polls showed disapproval of the Cabinet at 64% and 67%, respectively. (Read on …)

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As April comes to a close, it’s time for another edition of Seijigiri. This week, co-hosts Garrett DeOrio and Ken Worsley start by talking about Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s approval ratings, which had dropped to about 24% at the time of recording (and have since fallen to 20% in one poll). The disappearance of his wife Miyuki from the public eye is discussed and the role of Ichiro Ozawa once again rears its head.

Talk then swings back to Futenma, as Hatoyama has staked his job on finding a solution to the base issue by his self-appointed deadline at the end of May. Finally, our co-hosts discuss yet another vanity party emerging from the ashes of the LDP, as former Health, Welfare and Labor Minister Yoichi Masuzoe has founded the Shinto Kaikaku. Will he be looking to join forces with other newly established parties such as Yoshimi Watanabe’s Your Party (Minna no To) and the Sunrise Party of Japan (Tachiagare Nippon) headed by Takeo Hiranuma and Kaoru Yosano?

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Welcome back, Seijigiri listeners! In this edition of the show, co-hosts Garrett DeOrio and Ken Worsley begin by taking a look at the LDP’s campaign manifesto, which was recently leaked to Kyodo. That leads to a discussion of the upcoming Upper House election, the challenges facing Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, the Futenma issue and the perception that cracks are forming in the US-Japan alliance.

Talk then turns to the formation of the Tachiagare Nippon party, which translates as “Stand Up, Japan” and is being called the “Sunrise Party” in English language media. The final issue discussed is the inability of the DPJ cabinet to get through a bill allowing married couples to keep separate family names after marriage.

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This edition of Seijigiri begins with a look at a recent Washington Post article entitled “A leading Japanese politician espouses a 9/11 fantasy.” This bizarre unsigned editorial has been dragged over the coals by many bloggers, and co-hosts Garrett DeOrio and Ken Worsley offer their thoughts on the piece.

Also brought into question is a recent Japan Times editorial entitled “Yet another ‘Battle of Okinawa’.” In that editorial the author writes, “[The Guam Treaty] was unconstitutional since under Article 95 of the Japanese Constitution any law applicable only to one local public entity requires the consent of the majority of the voters of that district and the Okinawan wishes were clearly ignored in the Guam Treaty.”

We checked the Japanese Constitution and it does indeed say, “A special law, applicable only to one local public entity, cannot be enacted by the Diet without the consent of the majority of the voters of the local public entity concerned, obtained in accordance with law.” However, it says nothing about treaties or construction projects, which the Guam Treaty essentially amounts to.

The show winds up with a discussion of ongoing funding scandals at the DPJ and a quick turn back to the Washington Post editorial.

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In this edition of Seijigiri, co-hosts Garrett DeOrio and Ken Worsley take a look at the 2010 budget, which was recently passed by the lower house and is thus guaranteed to become the official budget.

From there, the show moves on to examine the ongoing campaign finance scandals that threaten to undermine DPJ leadership. This leads to a discussion of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s plummeting approval ratings and his soaring disapproval ratings.

Up next is a quick look at the LDP and what they are doing as an opposition party amidst calls for their leader to resign. Will the LDP itself survive as a party?

The show ends with short discussions on the decision to shelve the bill the would allow permanent residents the right to vote in local elections and the recently proposed idea that troubles at Toyota would undermine Japan’s soft power influence.

Futenma and whaling, unfortunately, will have to wait until next time.

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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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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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