Vol. 73/No. 35      September 14, 2009

The DPJ is expected to win 308 of 480 seats, displacing the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the more powerful of Japan’s two legislative bodies. With the victory the DJP will take the office of prime minister.

In 2007 upper house elections, the DPJ captured a plurality in the 242-member body, holding 109 seats against the LDP’s 83. With the exception of 11 months in 1993-94, the LDP had controlled both houses since 1955.

The official unemployment rate has risen for six straight months and now stands at 5.7 percent—the highest in Japan’s post-World War II history. The rate is nearly 10 percent for workers under 25. Deflationary pressures are mounting, as the consumer price index has fallen for five consecutive months. The decline in each of the last three months has set a new record since these figures were first recorded in 1971.

The former ruling party has taken much of the blame for the economic crisis in Japan. The country’s massive speculative bubble in real estate and stock prices was the first to pop, foreshadowing what was to come in the rest of the world.

Throughout the 1990s commercial land prices fell by more than 75 percent and stock prices dropped by nearly two-thirds, throwing Japan’s economy into its worst recession of the post-World War II era.

Since the recession of the late 1990s, Japan’s economy has continued to decline relative to other imperialist powers. Its gross domestic product rank in the world fell from fifth in 2001 to 19th in 2007. Now it is caught in a crisis that is gripping the entire globe.  
 
Democratic Party promises
The DPJ, formed in 1998, has promised to alleviate the grind through social spending. Among the party’s promises: a raise in the hourly minimum wage to 1,000 yen ($10.70), elimination of highway tolls, a guaranteed minimum pensions payment of 70,000 yen per month, income compensation for farming households, free public high school education, and stimulus payments to families with children, designed to address the country’s declining birth rate and rising age. The new ruling party has said it will do this without raising consumption taxes or increasing the issuance of government bonds.

The DPJ has also sought to differentiate itself by calling for a “more equal” relationship with the U.S. government and better relations with other countries in East Asia, including recognition of Japan’s military aggression against them in World War II.

DPJ president Yukio Hatoyama said in July that his party would not extend Japan’s refueling mission in the Indian Ocean—set to expire in January—for U.S. and allied naval forces engaged in the Afghan-Pakistan war.

In response, U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton told Japan’s foreign ministry that Washington expected Japan to continue the refueling.

Hatoyama has also suggested Tokyo should review agreements with Washington to support the U.S. marine air base in Okinawa.

The ousted LDP stressed maintaining Tokyo’s close relationship with Washington and calls for legislation to expand the use of Japanese military forces abroad. The DPJ has been somewhat silent on that controversial issue while supporting involvement in missions led by the United Nations.

The LDP has placed great importance in continued cooperation with Washington on the deployment of Tokyo’s antiballistic missile system. Japan’s defense ministry announced in August its request to include three more Patriot missile installations in next year’s budget, doubling the number of antiballistic missile facilities in the country.

The DPJ has not commented on the antiballistic system, while calling for legislation to explicitly ban possessing, producing, or allowing nuclear weapons on Japanese soil.

Both parties pledge to continue the pressure on Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program, while the DPJ has called on Washington to renounce any preemptive nuclear strike on North Korea.
 
 
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