News

Democratic Party of Japan/People’s New Party lost Upper House majority.

All candidates from UNI family members get the seats at Upper House.



Upper House election was held on Sunday, 11 July 2010. It was considered as the first national election since the DPJ ousted the Liberal Democratic Party some ten months ago. At that time, the DPJ came to power, riding a landslide victory in the Lower House election.

Japan Parliament consists of the Lower House and the Upper House. The Lower House has a stronger voice. The system of Upper House election is the election for half of the 242 seats, so that 121 remain for six years, but a half of the members are contested every three years.

The DPJ can maintain a majority of the Lower House, but opposition parties will criticize against the DPJ as not reflecting the will of the nation, because this Upper House election is the newest reflection of the mind of people. Japanese politics will become unstable.

The DPJ led coalition government made a real breaking through in Japanese politics. It gave people a hope for the future. But Mr. Hatoyama and Mr. Ozawa, two top politicians of DPU, were criticized as issues like “money and politics” and “extension of American base in Okinawa.” The supporting rate for the previous government dropped dramatically. Then, Mr. Hatoyama and Mr. Ozawa resigned and Mr. Kan took the power. At that time, Kan’s cabinet enjoyed supporting ratings of around 60% to 70%, making drastic rebound from 20% supporting rate for Mr. Hatoyama. However, Mr. Kan proposed to launch cross-party discussions on a possible consumption tax hike. His approval rate started to come down drastically.

Fortunately, all 4 candidates from UNI families won the seats, namely, Bro. Naoshima from JAW, Bro. Ishibashi from Joho Roren, Bro. Nanba from JPGU, and Bro. Yanagisawa from UI Zensen. We celebrate their victory in this very severe election campaign.