Japan: Democratic Party wins 200+ seats in Diet, LDP keeps majority

[Art_from_Ark]

According to election results released so far, the Democratic Party of Japan is expected to win at least 205 seats in the lower house of the Diet (Parliament), a large increase over the 137 seats it had held before the election. At the same time, the ruling Liberal-Democratic Party (LDP) has so far lost 26 seats, from 247 pre-election to 221 post-election. Nevertheless, the LDP will maintain a working majority in the Diet with its coalition partners Komei-to, which has so far held on to 28 of 31 seats, and the New Conservative Party, which has won one seat. In brief, the number of seats won so far for each party is as follows:

Right
LDP 221
Komei-to 28
New Conservatives 1
Total 250

Left
Democratic Party 205
Communist Party 8
Shamin-to 3
Total 216

Majority: 241 seats

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20031109-00000012-yom-pol (in Japanese)

[DUreader]

1. The whole world is tipping Corporo-Fascist (Redundant I know)

[Art_from_Ark]

2. Yeah, this LDP victory

means that Japanese ground troops will be sent to a war zone for the first time since 1945.

Korea, China and others will be steaming about this.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

3. They lost seats and the Democratic Party can be...

an effective opposition for the first time since the war!

[molok555]

4. That's a good sign, actually

As far as I know, Koizumi is still very popular, yet his party lost a lot of ground. If only the Democratic Party could get the voters out. Sigh, that's a problem everywhere:high turnout=more progressives/liberals in power.

Art, what was the campaign mostly about? All I get on NHK World here is economic reforms, economic reforms and maybe something about economic reforms. Was the Iraq/constitution an issue at all?

[Kinkistyle]

5. Sending troops to Iraq was big.

Also privatization, government reform, and the North Korean abductions issue.

The Democrats pulled off a big win in my area, Kinki, which includes Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto, a very blue collar area, over the LDP 11-9.

[Art_from_Ark]

6. Here in Northern Kanto

which is a conservative area (Komei-to is pretty strong around here), the campaign seemed to focus mainly on economic issues. The Democratic Party's proposal to raise the consumption/sales tax from 5% to double digits seemed to turn off a lot of potential supporters. Koizumi had promised that he would not raise the tax.

The Communists were really concentrating on the Article 9/ SDF issue, and they had numerous signs around my city asking "How long will Japan continue to do America's bidding?" However, nationwide, they lost more than half of their seats.

The newspaper still has not arrived this morning, so I don't know yet if there was any major change around here. The radio is reporting that the right-wing coalition ended up with 277 seats.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. Hi, Art. What was the turnout like?

You know, if I had voting rights in Japan, I'd vote Communist just as a protest. And it wouldn't even hurt anyone, because the Communist Party would simply join a coalition with the other left parties. None of this wimpy staying home for me.

[Art_from_Ark]

8. No information yet on turnout, but there are some interesting

headlines on Yahoo! Japan

"56% of independents voted for Democrats (according to exit polls)"
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20031109-00000319-yom-pol

"2800 absentee votes in Fukuoka declared invalid"
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20031110-00000188-mai-soci

And here's a headline that DUers can relate to:

"Še’n‚Ì“Š•<�Š‚Ńgƒ‰ƒuƒ‹�A“Š•[—pŽ†‘—‚è–Y‚ê‚â”z•zƒ~ƒX"[br />"Trouble at polling places throughout the country, ballots not sent, or delivered to wrong place"

Seems like lots of absentee votes were ruled invalid this election, including nearly 6000 in the small city of Noda (as opposed to 17 in the last election). In the village of Sakegawa, 130 voters were given the wrong ballots, and their votes were ruled invalid. In several other municipalities, ballots were misdirected, and later ruled invalid. In at least one place in Okinawa, there were more votes than registered voters.

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20031109-00000522-yom-soci

[Art_from_Ark]

9. Actual Democratic Party gains much lower than projected

According to official results, the Democratic Party of Japan only won 177 seats in teh Diet, down significantly from the 205 that had been projected in the Yahoo! Japan article.

Official results are as follows:
Right
LDP 240 (including three independents who joined after being elected)
New Komei-to 34
New Conservatives 4
Total 278


Left
Democratic Party 177
Communist Party 9
Shamin-to 6
Total 192

So these figures only represent a net loss of 8 seats for the LDP coalition. Argh.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20031111a1.htm