Wednesday, June 11, 2008

The House of Councilors Censure Motion Looks Like a Dud

If I am wrong on this one, I will seriously doubt my hold on my faculties…

The fireworks have been missing from Japanese politics the last couple of weeks, so the censure motion against Prime Minister Fukuda will get some play in the media, but the DPJ has fiddled around with it for so long that it is now little more than an anti-climax near the end of what was an eventful Diet session. What’s surprising is that Ichiro Ozawa pushed it, even though he must have known that Mr. Fukuda would never resign and in any case had already positioned the ruling coalition to avoid any serious fallout from the resulting paralysis. Which means that it’s no concern to anyone except political junkies like…

I can’t think of anything having a major political impact between now and the autumn battle over fiscal reform. Which is better than nothing for the incumbent, since the opposition will not have a Diet in session as a platform to torment the administration.

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