Dumb & Dumber

crazygaijin — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:00:59 +0000

Some of you will recall my earlier blog post about the DPJ defeating the LDP in the recent election. In that post I said something to the effect of “we will have to wait and see if the DPJ ends up being any better than the LDP.” Well if the past few days are any indication that question is still very much up in the air.

On the one-hand, you have DPJ’s Ozawa making a statement that he intends to take a bill to the Diet that would grant limited voting rights to non-Japanese residents of Japan. Great, way to go, absolutely!

However, do not get too happy yet, because on the other hand you have the new Japanese Prime Minister (DPJ’s Hatoyama) making some pretty contradictory and silly statements.

In his DPJ Manifesto (see here or here for an English copy) Hatoyama promised to eliminate highway tolls. On its face eliminating these tolls sounds like a great idea. But look further. By eliminating the tolls more and more people would be driving on the highways because they don’t have to pay a toll. Now, hold that thought, because just the other day in New York Hatoyama promised that Japan would reduce CO2 emissions by 25%. Umm, excuse me Mr. Pigeon Mountain man (unnecessary jab at his name .. sorry, couldn’t resist) but how is Japan going to reduce CO2 by 25% when more and more people are driving cars, thanks to the highway tolls being eliminated?

Let’s face it, the news has been full of stories about the incredible traffic jams that have been happening almost every weekend since April when the government lowered the cost of highway tolls on weekends (see picture above). Now, just imagine if the Tomei expressway was like that everyday … yeah 25% reduction in CO2 emissions RIGGHHT.

reducing CO2 emissions by 25% is a fantastic idea, let’s do it. And eliminating the highway tolls isn’t an overtly bad idea, but it’s the simple fact that Hatoyama is already walking around at this early stage making such blatantly contradictory statements that worries me. I’m getting a bad feeling about this guy’s level of intelligence already.

DPJ wins landslide victory, Crushes LDP, Taro Aso

crazygaijin — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:50:47 +0000

The Democratic Party of Japan wins the Lower House election by a landslide, ending more than half a century of almost uninterrupted rule by the Liberal Democratic Party.

Can’t say I’m not happy because I am. Let’s face it Taro Aso destroyed the LDP and perhaps Japan in the process. I haven’t heard such negative sentiment from Japanese people about a Prime Minister in a long time. Hope springs eternal that Aso’s pride has been damaged so much that he goes and crawls back under that slimy rock that he came from, permanently.

While I am ecstatic that the LDP has lost I am also concerned about the future of Japan under the DPJ as well. This landslide victory certainly makes one thing clear, Japanese follow the trend and do exactly what the rest of the group is doing. That can be a good thing when the group has collectively made a good decision and a devestatingly bad thing when the group has acted like a bunch of lemmings headed for the proverbial cliff. Does anyone else think it’s odd that 2 days ago the LDP held about 300 seats in the lower house and the DPJ around 100, now today the DPJ holds over 300 and the LDP around 115. Hatoyama said in his speech last night that Japan has finally realized a bi-partisan 2 party system. Umm, no it hasn’t … swapping the LDP 300 – DPJ 100 for a DPJ 300 – LDP 115 is not realizing a 2 party system, rather it’s simply replacing 1 party with the other.

Truly realizing a true 2 party system would have meant last night’s election led to a seat count in the Lower House that was more akin to the US Congress. Having a slam dunk majority like the DPJ now has is a far cry from Japan realizing a 2 party system. I think the voters of Japan felt more adamant about voting the LDP out of power than they did about voting the DPJ into power. And this is why I am concerned for the future. Today there are bound to be a heck of a lot of Japanese discussing the impossibility of Hatoyama/Ozawa/DPJ following through on their campaign Manifesto promises given the state of Japan’s current budget. We’ll have to play a game of wait and see.
Oh and on a final note, I realize that the NHK translators were probably not doing the best job translating last night but nearly every candidate (including Hatoyama) that was interviewed sounded like a blithering idiot. No wonder this country’s in such a mess.

CrazyGaijin.Com's » election

Dumb & Dumber

DPJ wins landslide victory, Crushes LDP, Taro Aso