Ldp

I wrote "Japan as Number One: Lessons for America" in 1979 to describe some things Japan was doing as well or better than any other country. I believed that we Americans should respond to Japan's rapid growth by learning from it rather than complaining and launching trade wars. I chose the shocking title to wake Americans up: I did not argue that Japan would be the world's largest economy, even though many who did not read the book mistakenly took that as my meaning. Many things I described — Japan's low crime rate, high education level, and...

Proponents of the Obama administration's " pivot ," or rebalance of attention and resources, toward Asia should be heartened by the results of Japan's parliamentary election. The Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) landslide victory in the lower house Sunday augurs well for a reinvigorated relationship between the United States and Japan. The reasons are threefold. First, the LDP is experienced in U.S.-Japan alliance management, much more so than the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)

TOKYO — Japan's voters on Sunday returned power to the Liberal Democratic Party, the colossus that until 2009 ran post-World War II Japan nearly without interruption and that now re­inherits the major economic problems that no leader in Tokyo has been able to fix. Based on projections after the polls closed, the parliamentary election delivered an emphatic change. Public broadcaster NHK said the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) grabbed 294 spots in the 480-seat lower house, up from the 118 it had before.

TOKYO — Japan's voters on Sunday returned power to the Liberal Democratic Party, the colossus that until 2009 ran post-World War II Japan nearly without interruption and that now re­inherits the major economic problems that no leader in Tokyo has been able to fix. Based on projections after the polls closed, the parliamentary election delivered an emphatic change. Public broadcaster NHK said the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) grabbed 294 spots in the 480-seat lower house, up from the 118 it had before.

TOKYO, Aug. 31 -- Stiff, shy and very rich, Yukio Hatoyama cuts a curious figure for an opposition leader whose party laid waste Sunday to the most formidable political machine in the history of modern Japan . Hatoyama, 62, who soon will become prime minister, has perhaps the bluest political blood in the land. But he is hardly a natural politician. He has said that when he was studying for a doctorate in engineering at Stanford University, he spent many hours wondering what it was that made him avoid human relationships and...

Proponents of the Obama administration's " pivot ," or rebalance of attention and resources, toward Asia should be heartened by the results of Japan's parliamentary election. The Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) landslide victory in the lower house Sunday augurs well for a reinvigorated relationship between the United States and Japan. The reasons are threefold. First, the LDP is experienced in U.S.-Japan alliance management, much more so than the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)

THERE CAN BE no democracy without political competition: For that reason alone, the landslide victory by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in Sunday's national election is cause for celebration. The DPJ defeated the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which had ruled Japan with only 11 months of interruption since 1955. Japan under the LDP was hardly a dictatorship, but its political machine and its unelected allies in the bureaucracy had run out of ideas and energy. Japan's once-dynamic economy has been in stagnation pretty much...

TOKYO — Poised to soon reclaim power, Japan's main opposition party on Wednesday elected as its leader a failed former prime minister whose strong nationalist bent appears likely to strain already-damaged relations with neighboring China and South Korea. With his selection as the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) president, Shinzo Abe , 58, is now the odds-on favorite to become Japan's next prime minister as the country grapples with a flagging economy and several intense territorial disputes.

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda suggested Wednesday that he will dissolve the lower house of parliament Friday, triggering an election that is likely to oust Noda and his unpopular party from power. The government said the election will be held Dec. 16. In a testy debate with opposition leader Shinzo Abe , Noda said he would go ahead with the move in exchange for cooperation on a bill to shrink the size of parliament. Officials from Abe's Liberal...

TOKYO, Aug. 31 -- Breaking a half-century hammerlock of one-party rule in Japan , the opposition Democratic Party won a crushing election victory Sunday with pledges to revive the country's stalled economy and to steer a foreign-policy course less dependent on the United States. But it was pent-up voter anger, not campaign promises, that halted 54 years of near-continuous dominance by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The party had become a profoundly unpopular, but deeply entrenched, governing force that so feared it...

I wrote "Japan as Number One: Lessons for America" in 1979 to describe some things Japan was doing as well or better than any other country. I believed that we Americans should respond to Japan's rapid growth by learning from it rather than complaining and launching trade wars. I chose the shocking title to wake Americans up: I did not argue that Japan would be the world's largest economy, even though many who did not read the book mistakenly took that as my meaning. Many things I described — Japan's low crime rate, high education level, and...

TOKYO — The Japanese voters who on Sunday will elect a new government are loyal to no party and frustrated with each of the recent leaders to hold power. They are political pessimists facing a choice among a ruling party with an approval rating in the teens, an unreformed opposition party that was booted out only three years ago and a raft of minor parties formed in pre-election haste . Polls conducted by Japan's mainstream media suggest that the opposition giant, the Liberal...

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda suggested Wednesday that he will dissolve the lower house of parliament Friday, triggering an election that is likely to oust Noda and his unpopular party from power. The government said the election will be held Dec. 16. In a testy debate with opposition leader Shinzo Abe , Noda said he would go ahead with the move in exchange for cooperation on a bill to shrink the size of parliament. Officials from Abe's Liberal...

TOKYO — Poised to soon reclaim power, Japan's main opposition party on Wednesday elected as its leader a failed former prime minister whose strong nationalist bent appears likely to strain already-damaged relations with neighboring China and South Korea. With his selection as the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) president, Shinzo Abe , 58, is now the odds-on favorite to become Japan's next prime minister as the country grapples with a flagging economy and several intense territorial disputes.

TOKYO The question here is no different than in Europe or the United States: Can democracies still rouse themselves to do hard things? Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, the sixth Japanese leader in as many years and by many accounts the most sensible, is trying to provide a novel answer. Much of Europe has spent itself into near-bankruptcy. In Washington, Simpson-Bowles has come and gone. Here, it is prime ministers who come and go, while indebtedness rises (Japanese government debt is 230 percent of gross domestic...

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's new prime minister will seek to keep periodically fraught ties with China and South Korea on track at weekend summits, avoiding rows that could hurt economic links and pitching his idea of an East Asia regional grouping. A meeting of leaders from China, Japan and South Korea in Beijing on Saturday is also likely to discuss what could come next for the regional partners after North Korea signaled this week it could return to nuclear disarmament talks.

Some revolutions bring about a dramatic change in government without general strikes or fierce street demonstrations. Such a revolution just took place in Japan, where half a century of almost uninterrupted conservative rule under the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) abruptly ended with the recent elections. In its place, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) will try to establish a European-style labor-party government. DPJ-led governments will probably be in power for close to a decade, if not longer.

MANILA, Sept. 1 -- Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, after less than a year of listless leadership over a sour economy, said Monday that he was resigning to prevent a "political vacuum" that could further weaken Japan's government. The surprise announcement marks the second time in two years that a deeply unpopular, politically stymied and seemingly directionless Japanese leader has called it quits after serving less than 12 months in office. Fukuda's predecessor, Shinzo Abe, resigned last September.

Some revolutions bring about a dramatic change in government without general strikes or fierce street demonstrations. Such a revolution just took place in Japan, where half a century of almost uninterrupted conservative rule under the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) abruptly ended with the recent elections. In its place, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) will try to establish a European-style labor-party government. DPJ-led governments will probably be in power for close to a decade, if not longer.

Japan's voters have thrust power on an incoherent coalition of hungry politicians distinguished only by their willingness to promise anything to anybody anytime. Good for them. In many ways we should applaud the Japanese who voted for what is being described as "change they can't believe in. " The distorted echo of President Obama's campaign slogan is hardly accidental. Japan's Aug. 30 national election may turn out to be the first of many examples of the Obama factor reshaping politics in other countries.