Posted on 12/22/2023 9:12:04 PM PST by FarCenter
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The drop in popularity occurred after it was revealed that LDP factions and the individual parliamentarians associated with them had failed to report all revenues from ticket sales at fundraising events. The slush fund, estimated to be millions of dollars, was used for political purposes, violating the Public Funds Control Law.
The Public Prosecutors Office has launched investigations into the LDP’s largest and most influential faction, the Seiwakai, commonly referred to as the Abe faction. Reports suggest that four other major factions, including the one led by Kishida, might also be implicated.
Kishida has replaced four key cabinet ministers from the Abe faction. The position of Chief Cabinet Secretary, which serves as the face of the government, has gone to Yoshimasa Hayashi.
Kishida had removed Hayashi from his position as foreign minister and, facing difficulty in persuading other colleagues to assume the Chief Cabinet Secretary position, Kishida opted for Hayashi, a member of his own faction. The other three ministerial positions went to factions led by Taro Aso, Toshimitsu Motegi and Hiroshi Moriyama.
The cabinet reshuffle does not address the core problem — money politics. Money politics remains endemic in Japan’s political system, despite past reforms.
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The current fundraising scandal and its scale are still unfolding. More resignations are likely. Many details regarding the unlawful accumulation of political funds remain unknown. The Public Prosecutors Office may shed light on the scandal after its investigation.
Regardless of the outcome of the investigation, Kishida’s position appears untenable. Though not directly implicated like Tanaka, Takeshita and Uno in the past, the public expects Kishida, as president of the LDP, to own up to the rot in the party and step down.
Kishida will resign, another descendant of the Meiji samurai will take his place, and nothing will change—which for us is a good thing, considering the alternative is Japanese socialism.
Japan will vote the DP in for a few years, things will get even worse, then they’ll go back to the LDP for a decade again.
The Japanese need a conservative party, not a bunch of RINOs like the LDP.
There will never be an Aristotelian/Burkean conservative party in Japan; the society is Confucian to the core. The best we can hope for is what the Abe faction of the LDP gives, which is Japan First without being militarist, and willing to continue the alliance with the US, along with the other rim countries, to protect themselves against Chinese hegemony.
>There will never be an Aristotelian/Burkean conservative party in Japan; the society is Confucian to the core. The best we can hope for is what the Abe faction of the LDP gives, which is Japan First without being militarist, and willing to continue the alliance with the US, along with the other rim countries, to protect themselves against Chinese hegemony.
I would have said that 10 years ago, but after trump and now with the high consumption tax and looming threat of huge amounts of ‘refugees’ getting dumped in Japan, there’s a lot of rightwing talk on Japanese Twitter and 2ch. If there was a person that could break through the normal crap politicking the Japanese do, you might see the ball start rolling. I mean, even the GET RID OF NHK guy got a set in parliament off a YouTube channel.
I agree that if the rest of the world tries to put undesirable gaijin in Japan, the backlash would be swift and strong.
You say it has changed in ten years, and I’ll take that since I haven’t been there in ten years, so all I know is what I hear from my own sources there and what I hear from the Nihonophiles here.
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