In a town meeting in Shinza City, Saitama Prefecture, Katsuya Okada (profile), president of the Democratic Party of Japan, Japan’s main opposition party, made a big claim among his usual policy statements: in the next election he thinks he can take the government.
“Our goal is regime change. When we overtake the Liberal Democratic Party in the next elections and take over the government, then it will be time to celebrate.”
On the recent [very close] passage of the postal privatization bills in the upper house, Okada said, “I was so excited.” He offered harsh criticism to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and LDP Secretary-General Tsutomu Takebe, calling their recent comments [threats to dissolve the Lower House] “incoherent.” He then restated his commitment that “the bills must not pass the Upper House [where they will enter deliberation next week].”
He then set his sights on the weakened LDP: “Right now the Koizumi government can’t do anything big without the approval of the New Komeito. He won’t be able to dissolve the Lower House.” But he did not rule it out, saying “I don’t know what will happen. I can’t deny the possibility of dissolution and a general election.”
About the DPJ’s prospects for the next election: “If we win in 170 single-member districts and combine those with proportional seats, we will be able to form a DPJ government.” When considering the prospects of a DPJ government, he added, “If we stayed in power for 2 terms (8 years) we could do quite a lot.”
Besides his big election hopes, the town meeting gave him the chance to repeat the DPJ’s populist platform, including the “Japan isn’t 100% at fault, but then neither are Korea or China” stance on the recent diplomatic troubles in the region (he called Koizumi’s stance “narrow-minded nationalism”), his continued stance against raising taxes (including the consumption tax), a push to reform the national pension system and the highway system.
Comment: That’s a tall order for the DPJ. They are now hurrying to prepare for the snap elections since they haven’t even fielded candidates in 42 of those districts. This meeting was likely an effort to promote DPJ Lower House candidate Hideo Kazuki and to accumulate election funds, an area in which the DPJ severely lags behind the LDP. But who knows, they might just be able to ride the anti-postal privatization sentiment to victory. 51 LDP members refused to side with the government out of fears that they would be voted out of office.
The sad thing is postal privatization is a painful but necessary step for Japan to rebuild its economy. The DPJ is being short-sighted in opposing it, and I don’t see much of an alternative plan coming from them. My next post on the DPJ will take a closer look at their policies.