政治

So the other day when I was at the gas station, sitting in my car, a vehicle drove by blaring some sort of loud message in Japanese, and I realized there were several middle-aged men in suits standing around the back of it one a sort of deck and waving at people. The side of the vehicle read (in English as well as Japanese, hence why I could read it even with it traveling away from me), "Democratic Party of Japan". One of the men caught sight of me as they went slowly by, and his eyes sort of widened in an expression quite reminiscent of that on the faces of my students when they notice me around town, and he started waving exuberantly at me (also, just like the students), and when I grinned and waved back he gave me a huge smile and a thumbs up. It was rather nice, really. I know shamefully little about the Japanese political scene, however. So I had no idea what sort of policies might be behind that wave and smile.

But I finally got around to looking it up, just now, and with some feeling of relief I have discovered that the DPJ is the main opposition party to the LDP, the conservative party that's currently mostly in power. According to Wikipedia...

"The Democratic Party claim themselves to be revolutionary in that they are against the current status quo and the governing establishment. The Democratic Party finds that the bureaucracy of the Japanese government size is too large, inefficient, and saturated with cronies and that the Japanese state is too conservative and stiff. The Democratic Party wants to "overthrow the ancient régime locked in old thinking and vested interests, solve the problems at hand, and create a new, flexible, affluent society which values people's individuality and vitality."

The Democratic Party finds that a free market economic system is favorable for Japanese people's welfare. The claim is that they represent "citizens, taxpayers and consumers", not seeking to favor either free market or the welfare state and see the government's role as limited to building the necessary system for self-reliant and independent individuals.

The Democratic Party seeks to introduce transparency of government and a decentralization of government agencies to local organizational structures including to let citizens themselves provide former government services and have a society with more just and fair rules. The Democratic party proclaims to hold the values in the meaning of the constitution to "embody the fundamental principles of the Constitution: popular sovereignty, respect for fundamental human rights, and pacifism.", having an international-policy non-intervention and mutual coexistence and to restore the world's trust in Japan."

So that's today's lesson on Japanese politics. Yay.

The end.

Oh, lyrics? But I'm so lazy. Okay fine, these are lyrics:

They hitch their covered wagons and they roll out west.
Politics in the pockets of their Sunday best.
Shaking hands, kissing babies, for all that they're worth.
They promise you gold, promise heaven on earth.

Still, that old bald eagle circles;
it's not the first time that he's seen
his reflection in the eyes of innocence.
He's become just another
part of the machine...