Word: ldp
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...When Ozawa's Liberal Party joined forces with the DPJ in 2003, many believed that Japan's opposition had finally gained the critical mass it needed to challenge the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has had a chokehold on power for nearly half a century. Commentators boldly predicted that true two-party politics had finally arrived in Japan. They were wrong. The DPJ has not yet proven to be a political equal of the LDP. It has consistently missed opportunities, failed to define a coherent message, staked its reputation on trivial issues and repeatedly imploded amid avoidable public embarrassments. Seiji...
...Once an LDP member himself, Ozawa's 37 years in national politics demonstrate that he is a survivor. He has reigned for years as one of the country's most prominent political outsiders. In 1993, he engineered the formation of the only non-LDP government in Japan's postwar history (though it crumbled in less than a year). In 1993, he wrote Blueprint for a New Japan, a book espousing the "normal nation" theory?now very much in vogue?asserting that Japan needs to develop the political, military and diplomatic power commensurate with its economic might in order to become...
...make the party viable, Ozawa has more serious work to do than maintain unity and continuity. He must now transform the DPJ from an organization with a very large and fractured platform into a focused campaign-victory juggernaut. Like Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who set out to reinvigorate the LDP by destroying it, Ozawa may need to demolish his party to make it competitive. Koizumi showed that political campaigns can be more than party functionaries reciting platitudes or minivans packed with white-gloved young women waving at pedestrians. He proved that policy can be made and victories achieved not through...
...what they mean and do what they say. Ozawa's recent denunciation of Koizumi's controversial annual visits to Yasukuni Shrine is a start. But to regain credibility and win, Ozawa must imbue the party with an identity and a sense of purpose that is greater than official LDP nagging...
...would have been unfathomable even five years ago. After a postelection cabinet reshuffle in November, Koizumi's newly appointed Foreign Affairs Minister, Taro Aso, said "Japan should first continue to build strong relations with America and, based on this, deepen relations with other Asian nations." That same month, the LDP drafted a plan to alter Article 9, the constitutional clause that famously renounces war, while Tokyo announced a sweeping realignment of the Japan-U.S. alliance, one that emphasized greater Japanese involvement in its own defense...