The first round of local elections took place on April 10, just a month after a massive earthquake and tsunami hit eastern Japan. The most talked-about post of Tokyo governor went to 78-year-old incumbent Shintaro Ishihara, for whom the next four-year period will constitute his fourth term.
Disaster-prevention and nuclear energy policy were the two main issues in the election, in which there was a lack of debate among various political parties. Of note, the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) took a beating, with all the candidates it fielded losing to their opponents. This is likely to affect the Kan administration's effectiveness in dealing with the recent natural disasters and other related crises.
Voting took place under conditions in which the public's attention was focused on an unprecedented disaster, with candidates having very few opportunities to let their platforms be known.
Ishihara focused on dealing with the latest disaster as the current governor of Tokyo, taking to the streets to stump only on the final day of campaigning. A sense of stability represented by a governor in his third term is likely to have worked to Ishihara's advantage in the face of unpredictable developments at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. All incumbents in gubernatorial elections and mayoral elections in government-ordinance cities held the same day were re-elected, reflecting voters' increased focus on stability following recent quake-triggered events.
One of the reasons policy debate leading up to the vote was inadequate is because Ishihara did not reveal whether he was running for a fourth term until immediately before the election was officially announced on March 24. While Ishihara declared after being re-elected, "I will keep doing the same thing I have done until now," simply continuing what he has been doing all along is not enough. In addition to disaster prevention and measures dealing with a rapidly aging population, the heavy concentration of major political, financial, and industry headquarters in Tokyo in light of a possible earthquake in the capital city must be addressed.
One striking characteristic of the election was the prevalence of parties fronted by heads of local governments. Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto, a leading proponent of an "Osaka metropolis" vision that would integrate Osaka Prefecture and the city of Osaka into a single entity, shifted the election strategy for his party -- Osaka Ishin-no-kai -- in the Osaka municipal and prefectural assemblies. A new emphasis was placed on the need to realize the vision based on crisis-management considerations.
Quake-related developments also had an effect on the party Genzei Nippon (Tax Reduction Japan) headed by Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura, which garnered criticism in the Aichi Prefectural Assembly election campaign over the incompatibility of tax cuts with efforts to secure funds for post-quake reconstruction.
Hashimoto, whose party now has the most seats in both the Osaka municipal and prefectural assemblies, along with Kawamura, whose party Genzei Nippon made leaps and bounds in last month's election, must now rise to the challenge of consensus building.
In an election in which the country's major political parties failed to have much of a presence, the DPJ gubernatorial candidate for Mie Prefecture, DPJ Secretary-General Katsuya Okada's constituency, was defeated. In addition, the DPJ failed to field a candidate for the Tokyo governor's post, and ran into similar trouble in other prefectural assembly elections, falling far short of the number of candidates it hoped to field. As the ruling party, the DPJ must take seriously its poor performance in the midst of a major crisis.
The election campaign was unlike any other, with many candidates refraining from using loudspeakers and campaign cars. Particularly in areas that host nuclear power plants, elections became a forum in which the pros and cons of nuclear energy policy were discussed, reflecting voters' emphasis on safety over the popularity-contest aspect of elections.
The fact that elections were conducted as planned in all but the disaster-hit areas in eastern Japan is likely to stir debate. However, it is also true that under new local leaders, we will be able to settle down and really throw ourselves into providing assistance to hard-hit areas and strengthening local disaster-prevention measures.
Let us hope that in the period leading up to the second round of local elections scheduled for April 24, voters and candidates will engage in-depth discussions on the future vision of local communities.
(Mainichi Japan) April 11, 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment