Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
reminded Soka Gakkai members not to be too easily persuaded by the talk of
minsh - as promoted by the now very popular Minshut - .
In 2009, with this repeated word in the media now so closely associated
with Minshut - as if the party stood for the people and democracy itself,
undoubtedly some Soka Gakkai members were swayed to shift their vote as
the loss of 10 Komeito candidates in the 2009 election indicated. However,
those Soka Gakkai members who had stood their ground and continued to
believe that Komeito was the party worthy of being called the party of minsh -
could hold their heads high in 2010. Komeito
s policies were looking sound
and steadfast, with supporters being able to tell their friends,
'
'
this is what we
told you would happen with Minshut -
. Moreover, they
had a new, appealing leader, Yamaguchi Natsuo, and various new young
candidates who came from the grassroots level of society. This was di
'
s baramaki policies
'
erent
and in many ways di
cult because they were also now competing in an
increasingly celebrity-focused political environment both in Minshut - and the
rising new star, Minna no T - , or Your Party (literally Everybody
s Party).
The vote in the Upper House election became a test of how much Min-
shut -
'
s vision of increased focus on minsh - had taken place. The key issue for
many Soka Gakkai members was still that the
'
first criterion for any politician
must be that they are
, free of corruption. There was a renewed
emphasis on reform not only of the political system, but that such reform
must start with politicians themselves. The main Minshut - politicians,
Hatoyama and Ozawa, forced to resign their positions in the party in early
June, partly because of the money scandals and partly because of Hatoyama
'
clean
'
'
s
poor handling of the base issue in Okinawa, had clearly caused the popularity
of the party to dwindle to an all-time low of just over 20% approval rating.
With both top leaders caught up in money scandals, Minshut -
started to look
little di
erent to, if rather more incompetent than the LDP. With the high
expectations of an initial 70% approval, and the media embracing Hatoyama
as the new
, it was perhaps not surprising that approval ratings
would fall. Dropping to almost 20% by the time he stepped down, less than
nine months later, had been unforeseeable. Kan replaced Hatoyama as prime
minister in June and initially enjoyed a surge in popularity. However, Min-
shut -
'
Obama
'
cient taxes to pay for its promises of
tax cuts on express highways and gasoline, while doubling the bene
faced huge problems with insu
ts in
universal child allowance. Achieving this through cutting wasteful spending
had proven itself untenable, and its promise to rein in bureaucratic power and
bring more political transparency had produced mixed results.
Yet, the promise that Hatoyama had made to voters in Okinawa that he
would move Futenma Airbase outside of the prefecture turned out to be his
biggest political
s rather careless, and undoubtedly
regretted, statement that he intended to raise the consumption tax to 10%.
His initial 60% approval rating dropped to just around 40%. Moreover, his
announcement came only a few days after the LDP had published its mani-
festo (17 June), which stated that they would be considering raising the
fiasco, just as did Kan
'
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search