I am currently working on the staff of young, up-and-coming Dietmember, Motohisa Furukawa (see picture left). Mr. Furukawa holds the support of well over 50% of the population of his Aichi Prefecture constituency, a rare feat in an electoral district which works on the First Past the Post (FPTP) system. In the coming months I will be highlighting some of the most interesting aspects of Japanese politics on both national and local levels, based around Mr. Furukawa's offices in Aichi and Tokyo.
Motohisa Furukawa's party, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), is Japan’s second largest party and main opposition party. It is generally viewed as social liberal in orientation. Formed on April 27th 1998, the DPJ grew from a merger of four small anti-LDP parties to become a major player in Japanese politics, gaining significant support in the 2000 and 2001 Diet elections. In 2001 the DPJ supported Japan’s first foreign-born Dietmember, Marutei Tsurunen (originally Martti Turunen of Finland).
In 2003 the DPJ merged with the small, centre-right Liberal Party led by Ichiro Ozawa, the leader of the DPJ from April 2006 following the resignation of Seiji Maehara. In the House of Representatives, the Democratic Party of Japan sits with the Independents’ Club (Mushozoku kurabu), a group of democrats with a largely liberal centrist agenda. In the House of Councillors, the DPJ sits with a group known as ‘New Breeze’ (Shin-Ryokufukai).
R J F Villar
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