came out of the gate with his foot in his mouth and has remained known for his gaffes, and nothing but his gaffes, ever since. It was no surprise that the LDP declined to back one of the biggest embarrassments to ever make it onto their rolls. What was surprising, though, was that the seasoned politicians of the newly-formed right wing Tachiagare Nippon party would pick up a cast-off incompetent like Sugimura, even if he could inject a bit of youth into their image.

Following on the success of our live streaming video coverage of the Lower House election last summer, we’ll be doing the same this time around.

Join us on the evening of July 11th, on our Ustream channel to follow along with the returns as they come in and to chat with us and other interested parties.

We’ll be live at 8:30 p.m. Japan time.

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A lot of ground is covered in this edition of Seijigiri. We have a new Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, as Yukio Hatoyama has stepped down and taken Ichiro Ozawa with him. How will this affect the DPJ going into next month’s Upper House election?

The role of Futenma in the downfall of Yukio Hatoyama is discussed in the show, as well as some possible new cabinet members.

Another issue is support numbers for all parties, as it seems the voting public is tired of all political parties at this stage in time.

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Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has just announced his resignation.

Hatoyama managed to hang on for only a little over eight months in the top job following his DPJ’s landslide victory in last summer’s general election, less even than his ill-fated predecessor, the last LDP PM, Taro Aso.

Hatoyama cited concerns about the upcoming election and acknowledged dwindling support for his Cabinet, which dropped below the fatal 20% mark, long the mark of doom for LDP PMs.

DPJ Secretary General said the Party would form a new Cabinet on Monday.

NHK is making unflattering comparisons, pointing out that Hatoyama’s tenure in the Kantei is 95 days longer than astronaut Soichi Noguchi’s stay on the International Space Station.

More bad turns for the ruling coalition, dealings with the neighbors, and a rare bit of sports dominate this edition of TPR News for an unusually chilly last week of May.

Sports

We don’t normally cover sports (although you can keep up with Japanese baseball at our sister site Tsubamegun), but this was too good to resist: with the World Cup finals in South Africa set to begin this month, Japan’s national team played a friendly against soccer powerhouse England in Graz, Austria, and scored three goals, allowing their heavily favored opponents none. (Read on …)

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First of all, this edition of Seijigiri has been released a few days late due to editing difficulties. Batteries ran out, memory cards filled and mics made strange line noise during recording. So, I decided to release this edition of the show largely unedited. The edits I remember removing are a few coughs, a mic falling over and one loud belch.

This edition of the show begins with a look at Prime Minister Hatoyama’s falling approval ratings (which has become an ongoing theme) and turns to a discussion of the Futenma issue and Hillary Clinton’s (then) upcoming visit to Japan.

After that, discussion turns to the candidacy of Ryoko Tani and we are blessed with a rant from Mr DeOrio.

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In this edition of TPR News: TPR News is back and a bit slimmed down; Futenma causes headaches for Hatoyama; Ozawa’s still in trouble; and political parties go for star power to win votes.

Politics

With the Upper House elections only two months away, the most recent Jiji poll shows that public approval of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s Cabinet has begun to drop below the 20% mark, the point of sure demise for LDP governments, which means all but one of Hatoyama’s predecessors in the past 55 years. A Yomiuri poll of last weekend presents almost equally dire figures with the Cabinet garnering the approval of just 24% of respondents, a drop of nine points since the previous poll. The Jiji and Yomiuri polls showed disapproval of the Cabinet at 64% and 67%, respectively. (Read on …)

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Yesterday, a council made of up policy affairs chiefs from ten parties met in order to discuss “the pros and cons of using Web sites, blogs, e-mail and the microblogging service Twitter” during election campaigns. The council is called the 「インターネットを使った選挙運動の解禁についての各党協議会」 in Japanese, so let’s call it “The Multiparty Council Concerning Lifting the Ban on the Use of the Internet in Election Campaigns.”

According to the Yomiuri, the council decided that web sites and blogs could be updated during campaigns, but stopped short of lifting the ban on email and Twitter, as it was feared that the latter two could be used to slander people. However, it is expected that the ban on email and Twitter will also be lifted in the near future.

Obviously it makes little sense to allow blogs and then disallow Twitter on the grounds that it might lead to slander. That said, I don’t think anyone expects the group of ten policy chiefs to have a full understanding of the services they’re discussing.

The ban is expected to be lifted in time for this summer’s Upper House election. When the LDP was still the ruling party, the DPJ unsuccessfully submitted legislation to have the ban lifted four times.

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As April comes to a close, it’s time for another edition of Seijigiri. This week, co-hosts Garrett DeOrio and Ken Worsley start by talking about Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s approval ratings, which had dropped to about 24% at the time of recording (and have since fallen to 20% in one poll). The disappearance of his wife Miyuki from the public eye is discussed and the role of Ichiro Ozawa once again rears its head.

Talk then swings back to Futenma, as Hatoyama has staked his job on finding a solution to the base issue by his self-appointed deadline at the end of May. Finally, our co-hosts discuss yet another vanity party emerging from the ashes of the LDP, as former Health, Welfare and Labor Minister Yoichi Masuzoe has founded the Shinto Kaikaku. Will he be looking to join forces with other newly established parties such as Yoshimi Watanabe’s Your Party (Minna no To) and the Sunrise Party of Japan (Tachiagare Nippon) headed by Takeo Hiranuma and Kaoru Yosano?

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Welcome back, Seijigiri listeners! In this edition of the show, co-hosts Garrett DeOrio and Ken Worsley begin by taking a look at the LDP’s campaign manifesto, which was recently leaked to Kyodo. That leads to a discussion of the upcoming Upper House election, the challenges facing Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, the Futenma issue and the perception that cracks are forming in the US-Japan alliance.

Talk then turns to the formation of the Tachiagare Nippon party, which translates as “Stand Up, Japan” and is being called the “Sunrise Party” in English language media. The final issue discussed is the inability of the DPJ cabinet to get through a bill allowing married couples to keep separate family names after marriage.

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