Tokyo Turnaround

The truth is that the closer you look at the DPJ's policies, the murkier they start to seem. Since taking charge, Hatoyama has proved a lousy communicator, giving little sense of what he'd do as prime minister. During a parliamentary debate with Aso on June 17, the opposition leader promised he would "reveal [the DPJ's] policy differences with the LDP." Yet all he offered was a sentimental call to "value people's lives." He has yet to explain what his promise of "compassionate love" would mean in real policy terms—saying only that he "is starting to have a clearer image of it in [his] mind."

To be fair, Japan is no longer a country with stark ideological differences on policy, as key issues like pension and budget reform are so complicated they tend to get bogged down in minute detail. As a result, "it's difficult to make black-and-white distinctions in Japan's political culture," says Kazuhisa Kawakami, a politics professor at Meiji Gakuin University. Yet unless the DPJ finds some clear way of really distinguishing itself before the election, the languishing LDP could close the gap—leaving Japan's opposition in danger of missing yet another shot at bringing real change to Japan.

Yokota is foreign-policy editor at NEWSWEEK Nihon-Ban, NEWSWEEK’s Japanese-language partner.

© 2009