Word: ozawa
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...majority in the Diet, will take years to accomplish. Expending that kind of energy on a constitutional issue while the opposition DPJ focuses on bread-and-butter economic matters doesn't make a lot of political sense in an election year. "What should politicians do now?" DPJ head Ichiro Ozawa asked in the Diet last month. "Amend the constitution or improve people's lives...
...Soon, Abe will need to find some steel. The opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is now led by Ichiro Ozawa, an ex-LDP leader and veteran of the long campaign to shake up Japanese politics. There will be elections for the Diet's upper house next summer, and Ozawa has few equals as a campaigner. He has been courting politicians in the countryside, where the LDP's stranglehold on power has been eroded by Koizumi's reforms. "We have a great chance to challenge the LDP, especially in the rural areas," says Takeaki Matsumoto, the DPJ's policy chair...
...undertake a similar transformation, rebuilding itself from the ground up. Ozawa needs to strengthen the party media machine, assemble large and vocal grassroots support organizations and nurture third-party advocacy programs that reinforce the DPJ's own programs and policies...
...With an April by-election looming, voters still don't know where the party stands on important issues?nor do many of its members. That's because efforts to forge internal consensus among diverse factions have left the DPJ manifesto vague and diluted. Ozawa must repackage that platform into clear messages that resonate with voters. Does "tax reform" mean tax increases or more money in taxpayers' pockets? Tell the voters which. People want elected officials who say what they mean and do what they say. Ozawa's recent denunciation of Koizumi's controversial annual visits to Yasukuni Shrine...
...Democracy requires partisan debate and conflict. Voters choose between clear alternatives. If the DPJ embraces this concept, it could one day become Japan's ruling party and finally demonstrate how a genuine bipartite political system can work in Japan. In his acceptance speech, Ozawa said: "I will reform myself as well as the party." Although Japanese voters have heard this type of pablum from politicians countless times in the past, it is vitally important for Ozawa to keep his word. For without the DPJ to keep the LDP on its toes, Japan suffers...