I do not think they’re dissatisfied with democracy but rather the lack thereof in their country. The article actually sort of explains it but then seemingly takes a wrong turn at the end with an assumption that isn’t really comprehensible nor explained further.
Exactly. The same party has been in power since the 50s I think. There’s a lot of desire for change, but not much belief that it can come through their current system.
As someone unfamiliar with Japanese politics, why? Like if so many people are unsatisfied can’t they vote for someone else? Or are the alternatives just as bad?
Imagine a party has ruled for 70 years as opposed to 4 years of opposition rule.
They’ve slowly changed electoral systems to be more favourable to them. They have complete control over what is taught to children. The whole society is “moulded” to support the LDP (name of the party).
Japan’s economy has failed to grow since the 90s. But still the LDP is in power. That says something.
The leftist alternatives have been demonised for 50 years. As a result, the only viable opposition in the upcoming election is populist far right.
And don’t be fooled by their name as the “Liberal-Democratic Party” Wikipedia classifies them as Right-Wing: Populist Conservative Nationalist.
To elaborate. The LDP does not teach Japanese people about World War 2 in an accurate matter at all. The Nanking Rape is not mentioned or revised, the rampant sexual slavery (comfort women) is omitted, kamikaze is never mentioned. The main thing they learnt about the war is “Japan was fighting colonial oppression, and then the US dropped atomic bombs to stop us”.
The left wing alternatives to the LDP dispute that. And so a lot of Japanese people view those alternatives as lying to make people feel guilty and in favour of “colonialism”.
If you have any questions, I can ask my wife, she worked for a left wing party in Japan.
Do they also have this thing where boomers vote for this one party out of force of habit, and the main effort of the one party is to make other parties seem worse instead of actually governing? Or is that only Eastern Europe?
I absolutely thought you were going to say United States
That’s also Canada!
They don’t like the LPD, but not enough to actually try new things like gasp voting for other parties. Or at least not in enough number to get out of the 1.5 party system’s hold. You can dig up a whole bunch of reasons, but the short of it is that they’re doing it to themselves. You can’t tell if the alternatives are just as bad because they’ve almost never gotten to rule before.
We’ve tried nothing, and we’re all out of ideas!
Sounds like our country and our two party system lol. Mexico was ruled by the same party for decades and got out, though, so maybe there’s hope for Japan.
Yeah, I don’t think most Japanese people want to restore the emperor to something beyond figurehead power again.
Pew Research Center - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)
Information for Pew Research Center:
Wiki: reliable - There is consensus that the Pew Research Center is generally reliable.
MBFC: Least Biased - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: Very High - United States of America
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