Apr 20

J-News Mini-Roundup: [The Timing of the Snap Election]

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J-News Mini-Roundup is a recurring feature written by Friend Of JET, Jon Hills, who maintains the blog for Hills Learning (www.hillslearning.com). Hills Learning is a NY-based language learning services company offering customized and personal Japanese language learning options.

The Japanese political system is parliamentary democracy. One of the main differences when compared to the American system is politicians can decide to call a “snap election,” in other words they can call to dissolve the parliament and try to realign political alliances to their advantage. The snap election is the general buzz term of the year in Japanese political news, and every Japanese newspaper reports political commentary to try to predict when the snap election will be held.

This weekend the focus was on commentary made by the Secretary General of the LDP’s coalition party, the Komeito party. The Komeito party’s important because both the LDP and the Komeito’s policies should be politically in sync. Here’s what the newspapers reported about Komeito’s Secretary General, Kitagawa-san.

Nikkei “The chance for a snap election is when the economy bottoms out” The Nikkei reported that Kitagawa-san said, “The bill for the 2009 budget needs to be passed before we try to do a snap election.” As to exactly when that timing would be, the Nikkei hinted at the commentary made by Kitagawa-san. “In August, we’ll get the numbers for the GDP for April to June. Once we have the feeling that the economy is bottoming out, that is our chance for a snap election.”

Yomiuri “The snap election will be either in August, or afterwards” The Yomiuri reported a slightly different take on the Secretary General’s words…for the rest of this article please visit http://hillslearning.com/blog2.aspx