Former Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone was selected Wednesday leader of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Upper House caucus after a tie vote with an opponent backed by many senior lawmakers of the opposition party.
Asian News and Business
Former Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone was selected Wednesday leader of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Upper House caucus after a tie vote with an opponent backed by many senior lawmakers of the opposition party.
The outcome of the July 11 Upper House election symbolized voters’ distrust of national politics in Japan. The ruling Democratic Party of Japan led by Prime Minister Naoto Kan took only 44 of the 121 contested seats against its pre-election share of 54 seats due for contention and the DPJ-led coalition lost a majority in the 242-seat chamber by a large margin
The Kan administration and the Democratic Party of Japan, which was beaten in the July 11 Upper House election, will be on the defensive during an extraordinary Diet session from Friday. Opposition forces, which now have 132 seats against the ruling coalition’s 110 seats, control the Upper House in the divided Diet. In the ordinary Diet session that preceded the election, the DPJ forced voting without giving the opposition sufficient time for deliberations
The primary goal of the Liberal Democratic Party is to force the ruling Democratic Party of Japan to dissolve the Lower House and call a snap election, although it is open to dialogue on issues where consensus is possible, LDP President Sadakazu Tanigaki said Tuesday.
A panel of Cabinet ministers and other officials studying the pension system laid out seven ground rules Tuesday for carrying out reforms, calling on the opposition camp to hold a debate on the issue.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan called Monday on the opposition camp to back his plans to launch a joint panel to discuss ways to restore the nation’s battered finances, but he also came under fire. The opposition camp grilled Kan over his involvement in the previous administration’s flip-flops on relocating the U.S
New Prime Minister Naoto Kan never hid his ambition to one day take up the post and empower ordinary citizens by ousting the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party. His long-held goal finally came true Friday, but in a way he probably never imagined while serving for three decades in the opposition ranks
Back when it was still in the opposition camp, the Democratic Party of Japan used to criticize the then ruling Liberal Democratic Party for its frequent shuffling of prime ministers, without an election. Then came Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s sudden resignation announcement after only being in office some eight months since his party won last summer’s general election in a historic landslide, sending the LDP packing.
By Park Si-soo Staff reporter Rep. Choi Moon-soon of the opposition Democratic Party said Tuesday he will submit a bill to the National Assembly next week banning the monopolistic broadcasting of …
PARIS — In September 2007, when Chinese President Hu Jintao was visiting Australia, he was pleasantly surprised to encounter the leader of the opposition Labor Party, Kevin Rudd, who upstaged Prime Minister John Howard by delivering a welcoming address at a state lunch in fluent Chinese.