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China and Japan: Chinese people's reaction to the Japanese general election

Categories: East Asia, China, Japan, Elections, Governance, Politics

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won the August 30th general election by landslide victory, bringing an end to more than 50 years of almost continuous rule by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 1955. The victory of Yukio Hatoyama-led DPJ has been perceived as the beginning of a new era of Japanese politics. Apart from its implications on the Sino-Japanese dynamic, it would be interesting to see how Chinese people reacted to the political change in their neighbor country.

NeiC [1] from Tianya forum compared the fate of LDP with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP):

自民党被赶下台单独成栏的有三
  1.“铁饭碗”不复存在
  2.老龄化严重
  3.住房问题尖锐
50年,不长不短的时间,我党也正好成立60周年。不得不让人不做比较~

(According to news commentaries from UK) There are three major reasons for the LDP having been kicked out by voters:
1. “Iron bowl” no longer exists
2. Aging problem is getting worse
3. Housing problem is elevated

50 years of continuous rule is about time for change, our party is now in its 60 anniversary. People are temped to draw direct comparison between the two.

Vitamin214 [2] reposted a commentary from ifeng.com [3]on the result of the Japan election in Tianya forum. The article argues that the Japan election manifests the advancement of a liberal democratic polity in reforming itself. However, in the comment section, many disagreed. For example, guolurens [2]said

自我纠正能力 ???

日本经济已经低迷了快20年了,日本也不是觉得民主党怎么样,只是觉得自民党实在没有办法忍受了,就算是民主党上台,日本的问题还是没有办法解决

Able to reform???

The Japanese economy has already been in recession for nealy 20 years. Japanese do not have much confidence in DJP, they just simply they cannot withstand the poor LDP leadership. Nevertheless, even the Democratic Party is in office, Japan’s problems remain unsolved.

Kabaico [2] also argued,

有区别吗,不过是美国肯尼迪家族和布什家族的翻版而已,这个家族不行就换那个家族,弄来弄去都是那帮大名家族在把持政权,所谓的更换政党也只是两个政党之间重新分配权力吧。

What’s the difference? It resembles the choice between Kennedy’s family and the Bush family. If this family screws up, then the power will be passed to the other family. The power is under the control of one of the big families. The so-called Party changes is simply the redistribution of power between two major parties.

Guolurens [2] added,

就好比是在中国电信,中国联通之间选,没有本质的差别

It’s similar to the choice between China Telecom and China Unicom, there is not much difference in nature.

In Qiangguo Luntan [4], one Chinese netizen believed that [5],

日本的总统一年一换, 再好的民主制度都是不正常的,也是注定要爆发内乱的.哈哈

Japan's Prime Minister changes almost every year. It is an abnormal situation even for the best democratic system and eventually, it will lead to civil riots. Haha