Election fever

Japan is in the middle of the election campaign. Exactly the same campaign broadcast featuring the leader of each party is being rerun every morning and every night. I watched Hatoyama, the prospective winner, say,"We should put an end to the politics of the bureaucrats, by the bureaucrats, for the bureaucrats, for our better future," on TV over and over again. According to their logic, bureaucrats are our common enemies. I wonder how many people will take these words at face value. Few will deny the fact that Japan's success and prosperity since the end of the last war owes a great deal to the bureaucrats' tactical ways of making quasi-socialistic policies under the disguise of free market capitalism. As an example, Japan's health insurance system, which covers each and every one of us, was first thought up and created by truly insightful bureaucrats in the wake of the end of the occupation. They modeled the system after those of Northern European countries like Sweden, which they admired.
While lambasting the bureaucrats on the one hand, the Democratic Party is saying the "free-market-is-everything-ism" is ruining this country. Some analysts predict they won't be able to do much without help from the powerful bureaucrats, let alone have control over them.
.

In the news today

Campaigning for the Lower House election officially started today. The election is on Aug 30. Yesterday a debate among six party leaders took place at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, among them the ruling party leader and Prime Minister Aso, the strongest opposition party leader Hatoyama.
During the debate, Mr. Aso again made a Kanji reading error. He read　踏襲　as “fushu”, instead of the correct “toshu,” something that could be laughed at even by elementary school children. “Fushu” means the smell of corruption.

Democratic Party, the strongest opposition group, is leading in every recent poll. Hatoyama said during the debate that his party is willing to give voting rights to aliens in Japan. Personally I have no idea why he brought that up on this occasion, nor what good it will possibly do to his party in the election. Coincidentally (or not), a Korean old man who's lived in Japan for a long time committed a really gruesome crime on the same day. The abduction issue is nowhere near being solved. Grandchild of a former prime minister, Hatoyama is one of the richest politicians in Japan, with estimated assets of around eighty-four million dollars.

One party leader criticized Aso for the way he dissolved the Lower House, saying the law that allowed the long-overdue dissolution was a remnant of pre-democratic conventions and that it was just against democratic ways of doing politics. But despite the criticism, the timing of the dissolution couldn't be better for Aso's foes, as the poll figures suggest. Had he made the decision a little earlier, things might have been a bit different. Having said that, Democratic Party's victory is in no way a sure thing. At least just yet.
.

What happened today in Japan

A new judicial system started today. This is the first time a jury is convened since the end of the last war, and a second time since the Meiji restoration. There was a brief period before the war when a few trials involved a jury, a historical fact relatively unknown to people today. The new system is meant to let citizens participate in the judicial process. Personally I see no point in this. There should have been other priorities for judicial reforms that could have been put into effect earlier, like getting rid of the statute of limitations for serious crimes, life in prison without parole as an alternative to death penalty, and so forth. 

 A case of a stalker turned killer. A 41-year-old man stabbed a 21-year-old girl he's been stalking and her grandmother age around 80 in Minato Ward, Tokyo this morning. The grandmother is dead and the girl is in critical condition. This is a second such stalker crime in the past few months in Japan. The girl was working in an ear-cleaning parlor where he met her as a customer. Ear-cleaning parlors are a relatively new business emerging in Japan, catering mostly to men who seek relaxation and comfort. Customers have their ears cleaned by female service providers, while resting their heads in the girls' laps. .

What happened yesterday in Japan

In Higashi-Murayama city, Tokyo, an elderly homeless man stabbed a total stranger in a station square. He told the police he wanted to go back to jail by committing the crime. He had recently been discharged from jail but hadn't been able to find any job. He said he realized the prison was a much better place for him. The victim was seriously wounded but in stable condition.

The Women's British Open is now underway. Its name has recently been changed to include the name of a Japanese photocopier manufacturer that's exclusively sponsoring it. A lot of Japanese top pros are in it and a few of them are faring well so far. It's aired at midnight in Japan and its ratings are exceptionally good for the late hours, as would be expected. A reporter says even half the galleries there are Japanese. I wonder how much advantage these Japanese players are being given. I feel like the Women's Japanese Open in England or something like that might be a better name for it.
.