Word: ldp
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...decades Japan has effectively been a one-party state ruled by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). But last month's parliamentary elections changed the nation's political landscape?perhaps for good. Though the LDP kept control of the government, voters punished it for its failure to reform the economy by handing it a smaller mandate and by giving the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) large gains in the Diet. Suddenly, pundits were holding forth about two-party democracy breaking out in Japan. Actually, they should have been talking about a three-party system...
...only party other than the DPJ to pick up more seats, increasing its bloc from 31 to 34. But the New Komeito's influence radiates far wider than those numbers indicate. As most smaller parties drift into irrelevance or disband completely, the New Komeito, as a member of the LDP's ruling coalition, is cementing its role as kingmaker...
...LDP has come to rely on the New Komeito for far more than the buffer it contributes to the LDP's majority in the Diet. Because of its religious ties, which help create an obedient rank and file, the New Komeito has one of the last great vote-gathering machines in Japan. Political analysts estimate that the New Komeito delivers between 20,000 and 30,000 votes in every major constituency (and many elections have been decided by only a few thousand ballots). Some 80% of LDP candidates who received New Komeito endorsement this time around were elected. In contrast...
...ELECTED. Junichiro Koizumi, 61, as president of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP); in Tokyo. Having retained the party's presidency by a landslide, Koizumi will lead the LDP in coming elections for the lower house of the Diet, most likely in November...
...from complacent banks to profitless companies would be cut off, giving these companies no choice but to shut down and throw their workers out on the street. "Companies are going to go under and Japan offers no support for the unemployed," frets Minoru Morita, a prominent political analyst. Already, LDP politicians and Tokyo bankers are circulating a list of 51 companies presumed likely to meet with peril under the plan?including retailer Mitsukoshi, video gamemaker Sega and trading outfit Nissho Iwai, plus a slew of construction, heavy machinery and real estate companies. Goldman Sachs estimates that if all 51 companies...