Liberal Democratic Party

How do you say "throw the bums out" in Japanese? That's what Japanese voters did on Sunday, booting the Liberal Democratic Party that has ruled almost continuously for more than half a century and leaves now with the world's second-largest economy in sorry shape. The newly elected Democratic Party of Japan is an eclectic mix of leftists and defectors from the ruling party. Its ability to run the country is untested, and its leaders have yet to explain how to pay for their populist campaign promises.

Newly minted Prime Minister Naoto Kan's beleaguered Democratic Party appeared to suffer a resounding defeat in Japan's parliamentary elections Sunday, a blow that threatened to further weaken Kan's already tenuous monthlong hold on power. The Democratic Party of Japan won fewer than 50 seats, well short of the 54 needed for the Democrats and their tiny coalition partner, the People's New Party, to keep their combined majority in parliament's upper house, according to exit polls conducted by Japan's public broadcaster and all major TV networks.

In a step aimed at establishing two-party politics in Japan, eight opposition parties Wednesday registered in Parliament as a unified negotiating group to deal with Socialist Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama's tripartite coalition. The new group, named Reform, contains 187 members of the powerful lower house of Parliament--14 fewer than the number in the Liberal Democratic Party that is now the major prop of the Murayama coalition.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama ended weeks of internal discontent with his leadership by announcing Wednesday that he would resign, a swift fall from grace for a politician who just eight months ago led his endemic opposition party to a historic victory. His collapse in approval ratings was prompted largely by his failure to deliver on a campaign promise to move a major U.S. military base off Okinawa's main island. The move was a centerpiece of Hatoyama's campaign for office last year, but its implementation would have required American consent to alter a painstakingly negotiated 2006 deal with the previous Japanese government before the base could be moved to another part of Okinawa.

Will the fracturing of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the call for new elections usher in a new era of politics more receptive to the needs of Japan's citizens, more internationally engaged and more willing to accede to U.S. demands that Japan should boost domestic spending even as it dismantles barriers to imports? The rumblings in Japan's Parliament may feel like a major political earthquake, but they may also be nothing more than surface temblors.

Before last fall, not many Americans had heard of Shintaro Ishihara, grand theoristof the new Japanese nationalism and supporter of the notion that racism underlies the two countries' trade tensions. He achieved overnight notoriety in the United States when a bootlegged translation of a book he co-authored, "A Japan That Can Say No," began circulating on Capitol Hill. Its biting tone re-energized congressional debate over trade policy. Rep. Sander M. Levin (D-Mich.

The former Liberal Democratic Party kingpin credited with picking three of Japan's last four prime ministers goes on trial Thursday on tax evasion charges that could force him to pay $18.3 million in fines. Shin Kanemaru, 78, and his former secretary, Masahisa Haibara, 49, are accused of evading taxes on a combined $19.2 million in income allegedly concealed between 1987 and 1991. Kanemaru's troubles, which began last August when he admitted accepting $4.

Japan's outgoing ruling Liberal Democratic Party staged its first protest against incoming coalition Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa today, delaying the opening of a lower house session in which Hosokawa was to be elected prime minister. The Liberal Democrats insisted that one of their number be elected Speaker of the house and that Parliament stay in session at least 20 days. Both demands were rejected by coalition aides.

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party decided to receive applications from candidates for the party presidency on Saturday and then hold a caucus Aug. 8 to choose a successor to outgoing Prime Minister Sosuke Uno.

Noboru Takeshita, leader of the governing Liberal Democratic Party's largest faction, will succeed Yasuhiro Nakasone as party president and thus as Japan's prime minister, party officials announced today. They said Nakasone, who is stepping down as party leader on Oct. 30 after five years in office, chose Takeshita after the three contenders--Takeshita, Shintaro Abe and Kiichi Miyazawa--were unable to decide among themselves whom to pick.

Britain went for a second day without a new government Saturday as the main parties haggled over possible power-sharing arrangements in a divided Parliament. All eyes were on the Liberal Democrats, the smaller party that holds the balance of power after neither of the "big two," Labor and the Conservatives, was able to achieve a majority of seats in the House of Commons in Thursday's general election. The Liberal Democrats' leader, Nick Clegg, met with senior party representatives and newly elected members of Parliament on Saturday to discuss an invitation by the Tories, as the Conservatives are known, to join them in some sort of coalition.

Yukari Sato sat in her quiet campaign office and stared at the one-eyed doll that was supposed to bring her luck. The roly-poly talisman, known as a daruma doll, traditionally comes with blank eyes. While making a wish, the doll's owner fills in the left eye. The right eye is drawn when the wish is granted. That didn't happen last week for Sato, who experienced a crushing defeat in her bid for a second term in parliament with the Liberal Democratic Party. "I'm hoping to fill in the other eye four years from now," Sato said.

How do you say "throw the bums out" in Japanese? That's what Japanese voters did on Sunday, booting the Liberal Democratic Party that has ruled almost continuously for more than half a century and leaves now with the world's second-largest economy in sorry shape. The newly elected Democratic Party of Japan is an eclectic mix of leftists and defectors from the ruling party. Its ability to run the country is untested, and its leaders have yet to explain how to pay for their populist campaign promises.

For the second time in a year, a struggling Japanese prime minister has unexpectedly quit, leaving the country politically adrift as it struggles to deal with a deadlocked parliament and worsening economy. Yasuo Fukuda, 72, appeared to blindside his party Monday, saying he would resign as soon as a new leader was picked. He blamed what he saw as an obstructionist opposition party for his departure, but offered no clear explanation for his timing. "I have decided to step down so as not to create a political vacuum," he told a hastily called news conference.

The nomination of Barack Obama isn't just America's story. More than 2,000 foreign journalists flocked to Denver to cover the Democratic National Convention. The reason for the foreign fascination? In part, it's the drama of American democracy. "Japanese people are more interested in this election than in domestic elections," said Fumitaka Susami, a political correspondent with Japanese news agency Kyodo News, which sent 23 staffers to Denver. "The ruling party in Japan [has been]

The most important aspect of this month's Duma elections was not the trouncing of the Russian Communist Party or the Liberal Democratic Party but the virtual elimination of the Yabloko group, led by Grigori Yavlinsky. Yabloko has been far and away the most consistent supporter of democratic values in Russian politics. Yavlinsky had stood up for universal human rights, for incorrupt politics and administration, for the rule of law and social justice.

As Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi marks his first anniversary in office today, the once-dashing figure who stormed into power with 80% popularity ratings, an open style and a sense of promise reminiscent of the early Kennedy years finds himself more and more beleaguered on all sides. The continued confusion has implications well beyond Nagatacho, Japan's political center.

Japan's long-running depression is widely regarded as a purely economic problem. It is not. The real cancer eating at Japan is the continuing dominance of one corrupt, ineffectual and faction-ridden political party. As long as the Liberal Democratic Party retains its hold on political power, an early economic recovery is out of the question.