TOKYOITES FAMOUSLY live in the planet’s most seismically unpredictable capital, but could always boast that they enjoyed one of its most stable political systems – until now.
Voters in the city have just set off the first seismic rumblings of what has all the makings of a political earthquake, handing a historic drubbing to the ruling Liberal Democrats (LDP) and coalition partners New Komeito.
The opposition Democrats (DPJ) ended 40 years of LDP dominance in Tokyo, winning 16 more seats than the LDP in local elections over the weekend. They also effectively torpedoed the career of prime minister Taro Aso, who will be lucky to survive the summer.
Worst of all for the LDP, the landslide defeat has prompted Mr Aso to call a general election on August 30th which, on current form, will see the party lose its almost unbroken half-century grip on power over the world’s second-largest economy.
The Democrats and other opposition parties pressed home their advantage, launching a no-confidence motion in the government yesterday and demanding that the prime minister resign even before campaigning begins.
But Mr Aso, whose approval ratings are below 20 per cent, vowed to “clench his teeth” and see out his term as LDP party president.
‘‘I will not do such an irresponsible thing as throwing away my office by resigning,’’ he declared.
Mr Aso is the latest in a string of dud leaders to test the patience of Japan’s long-suffering voters. He has been in power since last September and is the nation’s fourth prime minister in as many years.
He is thought to have favoured a snap election before August 8th, but was apparently persuaded by LDP elders to delay to give the party more time to prepare. The delay has raised speculation that the party may try to oust him as leader before campaigning begins.
Either way, the stage is set for a long-awaited showdown with the DPJ, which has promised to boost welfare spending, to go to war with Japan’s entrenched bureaucracy and drastically curtail the LDP’s addiction to public works spending.
DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama has also hinted at scaling back Japan’s half-century and largely obsequious military alliance with the US. “Are we making a genuine contribution by just going along with what America says?” he asked last month. “I don’t believe so.”
Democrat support is running well ahead of the LDP, despite several scandals. Leader Ichiro Ozawa was forced to resign in May during an investigation into allegations of illegal political funding.
Last month the DPJ’s Mr Hatoyama admitted that dead people were listed among individual donors to the party’s coffers. DPJ supporters say these scandals have been cooked up by public prosecutors and the LDP to stop the Democrats from taking power. The opposition, which fears more dirty tricks before August 30th, is demanding a quick election.