And He's Back....

Today was election day in Japan and, as predicted, the LDP have a landslide victory.

I'm not that into Japanese politics, but what has interested me most about this election from the people that I have spoken to, is that no one seems to have a clue who to vote for.

The LDP have won, but I feel that this is more of a rebellion against the DPJ more than anything else. Japanese people have told me that Abe-san is too right-wing and too old fashioned. The older generations, which make up such a large percentage of the population here, have such a strong voice and the government protect them so that they can rely on their support. I was watching the news and I couldn't understand where these stats came from, but they were saying the people over the age of 60 control 90% of Japan's wealth. 

90%?!?!?!?!

I'm kinda hoping I might have misunderstood that.

What an imbalance!!! And given that the population is ageing and the birth rate is declining, this is only going to get worse. It puts such an insane pressure on the younger generations as we work to pay for old people to receive handsome pension packages. They must be collecting way more than they originally paid in!!! It just seems so unfair.

The fact that people don't see another option other than the LDP, well, it's a disaster waiting to happen! Abe-san only made it a year the last time that he was PM - how long is he going to remain in power this time? His policies include increasing public spending (his downfall in the past) and the controversial one of allowing nuclear energy to remain part of Japan's future. 

Admittedly, Japan doesn't have a lot of resources but given the Fukushima disaster last year, this is going to be a tough one to move forward with.

I'm not sure if I understood 100% correctly, but the news was saying that something like only 40% (or somewhere between 40-45%) of the population voted. Ufffff.....

That's a pretty poor turn out. Even if people are undecided about the 2 main parties, they could make their vote count elsewhere. I know a couple of people who voted for Your Party while others said that it would have been a wasted vote to vote for one of the smaller parties. But surely not voting at all is more of a waste? No?

I was thinking back to the last general election in the UK. In the past I had always voted Labour, but in the last election, I honestly thought that Lib Dem had a real chance of winning. If everyone who had wanted to vote for Lib Dem actually voted for them, they may have made it. But it's the same thing - some people may have been  feeling like it was a wasted vote and would rather vote for the Tories just so that Labour wouldn't stay in power. Saying that, we have this coalition government where the Lib Dem have done a 180 on their original policies anyway! So back to Labour next time for me!

I'm also a little scared at how many seats the right-winged Restoration Party managed to win...and that Shintaro Ishihara has landed a seat....is everyone trying to start a war with China?!

As Japan moves towards the far-right, I'm not sure that they will have anyone to blame but themselves to be honest! 

xoxo