Japanese General Election, 11th September 2005

Résumé du document

11th September, 2005, date of the last general elections will stay as an historic date in the politics of Japan. With a majority of 326 seats out of 480 in shugiin, Prime Minister Junichino Koizumi and his party, the Liberal Democratic Party and its ally, the New Komeito, have acquired great powers within the Japanese political system, with a decisive majority exceeding the two third of the seats in the lower house .

Extraits

[...] A comparison with the German general election and Angela Merkel can be drawn. What will be the short, middle term consequences of this landslide victory? LDP in now able to pass legislative bills without the consent of the upper house. The Diet, a bicameral power composed of the House of Councillors and the House of Representatives composes the legislative power. The 1946 Japanese Constitution established a parliamentary system of government which stated that a bill passed in one house should go through exactly the same stages of deliberation in the other house. [...]

[...] Japanese General Election, 11th September Japanese general election: a national plebiscite of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's politics ? 11th September date of the last general elections will stay as an historic date in the politics of Japan. With a majority of 326 seats out of 480 in shugiin, Prime Minister Junichino Koizumi; his party, the Liberal Democratic Party and its ally the New Komeito, have acquired great powers within the Japanese political system with a decisive majority exceeding the two third of the seats in the lower house . [...]

[...] On the whole his new electorate is also younger. The personification of power: the influence of a charismatic PM This handsome politician in his early sixties has seduced a large part of the electorate with his tendency not to shy away from controversy, a rupture in Japanese politics where consensus is the rule, therefore succeeding in electrolysing a sleepy electorate. His reform agenda, composed of four main pillars (postal privatisation, economic revitalisation, fiscal decentralisation and humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to Iraq) has captured the imagination of the urban electorate. [...]

[...] A successful amendment is finally promulgated by the emperor, who can not veto it . Does the 2005 general election constitute a continuity or disruption in the politics of Japan? As a sign of modernisation, a new relationship seems to have arisen between the party and the electorate. Less seen as a defender of local interests, the party is slowly becoming the spokesman of PM. Koizumi Junichino has succeeded in gathering many powers between his hands, dramatically reducing the opposition within his own party and transforming the upper house into a simple check-in desk. [...]

[...] As a matter of fact, its main party, the Democratic Party, receiving support from blue collar and liberal middle class, only won 113 seats in 2005. If 300 Mps are elected on a single seat constituency basis, the 180 are elected out of proportional representation. There can be no doubt the proportional electoral system is favourable to the winner: with 47% of the votes, the LDP got 73% of the seats while DPJ got 17% of the seats with 36% of the vote . [...]