Thursday, June 2, 2011

No more political battles. What is the ulterior motive of the non-confidence motion?

Yesterday, the LDP (the Liberal Democratic Party, which held power for 54 years until September, 2009) and two other opposition parties submitted a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Naoto Kan. Due to the DPJ's (the Democratic Party of Japan, which is the ruling party) stable majority in parliament's lower house, if all the members of the DPJ support PM Kan, the motion will be unlikely to pass. According to the news, many members of the DPJ, including former PM Hotoyama and the power broker Ozawa, intend to throw their support behind the opposition's no-confidence motion. Since the issue of whether or not the motion will pass today depends on how many members of the DPJ will throw their support behind the motion, right now, the political wrangling is growing intense. Needless to say, a lot of ordinary people say that there is no time for political wrangling.

Every time I hear politicians criticizing PM Kan, I can't but wonder. Why does nobody explain why PM Kan isn't capable? Why does everybody just criticize him, saying that he won't be able to overcome the immediate crisis? Why does nobody say who would be the next PM if PM Kan were forced to step down? Why does nobody offer alternative policies? Since nobody touches the important parts, I suspect what the ulterior motive of the non-confidence motion is. Since the LDP held power for 54 years until September, 2009, big names in the LDP still have strong connections to business leaders. Mr. Ozawa also has strong connections to them. Does it have to do with the motion?

Anyway, many people including myself consider the immediate crisis an opportunity to change Japan. I think that if Japan cannot change, Japan won't be able to overcome the crisis nor have a future. As you may know, Japan has been struggling to get out of the prolonged economic stagnation for the past two decades. Although both the government and the public already realized that they had to change some outdated and traditional systems, they weren't able to make it happen. So, now is the right time to make it happen.

I really hope that the political battle won't mess up the chance of Japan changing.