Article on Democratic Party of Japan Based on Interview With Ellis Krauss
High-profile defection leaves DPJ embarrassed, not crippled
07/09/2012
Global Times
The ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) split when powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa walked out with 49 of his party followers less than a week after Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda won passage of a divisive bill to raise the consumption tax.
Ozawa would have had to be punished, even if not heavily, by the party for voting against the Prime Minister's bill. But I think he intended to split the party and to leave it and form his own party when he voted against the bill. He was likely to leave the party anyway unless the bill could be blocked. He had to know he would be punished in some way so all the rest is just political theater.
Ozawa is expected to form a new party in the coming days with his faction members and some others opposing the tax bill. But I don't think at first it will have much of an impact. For now Ozawa failed to get the minimum number of representatives needed to introduce a motion of no confidence.
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Ellis Krauss is a leading expert on Japanese politics, U.S.-Japan relations, and Japan's political economy. In 2010 Cornell University Press will publish his latest book, co-authored with Robert Pekkanen of the University of Washington, The Rise and Fall of Japan's LDP: Political Party Organizations as Institutions.
He can provide commentary on domestic politics in Japan, the Japanese mass media, U.S.-Japan relations and Japan's foreign policy and role in Asia.
