JAPAN’S FINANCE minister yesterday highlighted growing desperation in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) by claiming a looming landslide victory for the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in Sunday’s general election could lead to “one-party dictatorship”.
Kaoru Yosano’s choice of words raised eyebrows, given the DPJ’s impeccably democratic credentials and the fact that the LDP itself has ruled Japan for all but 11 months of the past 53 years, much of it in the absence of any credible opposition.
But the finance minister’s stark warning reflects increasingly frantic efforts by LDP heavyweights to rally the party’s campaign troops amid a steady release of opinion polls that suggest the DPJ could take as many as 300 seats in the 480-seat lower house.
Such a crushing victory would give the DPJ a strong mandate to push through campaign promises such as taming Japan’s powerful bureaucracy. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009)