Word: ldp
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...taught DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa to play the chess-like game of Go, will now wear three hats in Aso's government, running the ministries of economy and finance and the Financial Services Agency, which oversees banking. A fiscal conservative, Yosano was runner-up to Aso in the LDP elections last September. If things get much worse for the Prime Minister, there is even talk that Yosano could become the new head of the party and lead it into upcoming general elections. How well this bodes for the struggling LDP remains to be seen; the last time that Yosano...
...ready for the party. Japan's economy continues to shrivel, the government remains gridlocked as elections loom, and public approval for Aso's administration is plunging. Even influential former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is criticizing Aso's performance, though both are members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP...
...huge postal savings system - a key financial reform that Koizumi pushed through in 2005. Koizumi said on Feb. 12 that Aso's comments made him "flabbergasted to the point that I want to laugh." Koizumi also expressed doubts about Aso's stimulus package and his ability to lead the LDP in upcoming parliamentary elections. Gerald Curtis, professor of political science at Columbia University, says there is an obvious rift in the LDP. Koizumi's attack on Aso was a way of "throwing down the gauntlet," he says...
...Curtis adds that if Aso resigns, the LDP would need to find someone to lead the party into the general election. "But who wants that job now when they know they're going to lose the next election?" Curtis says. "Either way, you have to assume the chances are very good that the LDP will get absolutely blasted in the next election and that the [opposition Democratic Party of Japan] will come to power," he says...
...Building Checks and Balances Traditional Asian deference makes it easier for one party to keep a stranglehold on politics, its power feeding on itself and undermining real opposition. Malaysia and Singapore have each been controlled by one party since independence, while the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) dominates Japan. "The LDP has been in power for more than 50 years," says Arne Fahje, a constitutional expert in Tokyo. "That doesn't work in a democracy, and it's not good for the country...