Word: ldp
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...reform bill that will attempt to make children more patriotic, and may bring back physical punishment to schools. "I'm not sure that constitutional revision should be the No. 1 issue," says Sadakazu Tanigaki, a former Finance Minister who ran against Abe in September's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) presidential election. "There are so many issues that people are more concerned about, like social security or the low birthrate." LDP Diet member Taro Kono is blunter: "Constitutional amendments? Who cares...
...Koizumi, and his own advisers privately admit that the Prime Minister-who often seems scripted and ill at ease in public-is suffering in comparison to the remarkably mediagenic Koizumi. It doesn't help that Abe's young and inexperienced team lacks influence within its own party. With the LDP and its ruling coalition partner the New Komeito Party in danger of losing control of the upper house of the Diet in July elections, the Oriental Economist Report, a newsletter, recently wondered if Japan was already "on the verge of the 'post...
...reality, Abe is unlikely to fall so quickly. The LDP holds an unassailable majority in the Diet's lower house, and approval ratings for the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) are even worse than the Prime Minister's. Abe's supporters also argue that he remains relatively popular by the lackluster historical standards of most Japanese leaders, and that he hasn't received enough credit for repairing Japan's often fractious relations with its Asian neighbors. Shoichi Nakagawa, the LDP's powerful policy chief, asserts that the Abe Cabinet takes everyday issues just as seriously as it does...
...issue of poverty and social disparity more seriously than Koizumi did, appointing a special minister to take charge of a program designed to help the unemployed and underemployed refine their job skills. "We're hardly disregarding people's kitchens," says Nobutaka Machimura, a former Foreign Minister and influential LDP Diet member. But when Abe's feel-good rhetoric clashes with the economic realities of Japan today, he can look disingenuous or simply ineffective. At the LDP convention in January, Abe declared that "economic growth is not for business enterprises, it is for the public," and later called on Keidanren, Japan...
...revision is a bold move that will enable Japan to take control of its destiny and reimagine itself as a nation. "Many systems in Japan haven't changed since the Meiji period, and they're not suited to today's situation," says Hidenao Nakagawa, the secretary-general of the LDP. Revision "will help the everyday issues, the small politics...