Wednesday, September 2, 2009 - Osaka, Japan
From “physical move” of people as the result of the general election it seems that labour market mechanism applies to the political world. The collapse of the long year rule under one leading party forced many people go out of work, just like the collapse of world economy led to plunge in labour market and made many people jobless.
The transfer of political power from the LDP to the DPJ is making physical move of space and people in political world. BOJ Gov (Bank of Japan Governor) and government officials are visiting the DPJ instead of the LDP. The LDP is to give over to the DPJ their meeting room symbolizing the political power. The defeated LDP politicians have closed their election campaign offices and are now busily moving out of their offices and public dormitory for Diet members.
The defeated LDP politicians now are out of work in theory. To make their living, many of them may well become active in giving lectures, participating in panel discussion at conferences, making comments in TV programmes, and writing books, based on their long year experience and expertise in politics. But that is probably difficult for “Koizumi Children”, who became politicians in the last election held 4 years ago without sufficient preparation, and they probably would have hard time to switch their career again. That would be the case especially if they should had been easy in their political activities, and have not achieved tangible outcome and/nor have not learned something meaningful. It would be extremely difficulty for them to go back to occupation, position/role they used to engage in this tough economy after 4 year hiatus, especially in the current economic environment.
The defeated politicians are not the only people who have become jobless. Politicians usually have a number of secretary and staff. Many veteran LDP candidates that lost the election are said to had dozens of secretary and staff and they are laid off now. It really is like an employee working in a company suddenly is laid off for redundancy or for the company becoming bankrupt thus is automatically fired. What is more, it is said that there are two types of secretaries; one with some kind of indemnity and can gain some benefit when they are fired, and the other without such indemnity. If an employee is asked to leave the company as involuntarily retirement, he/she is usually provided with some kind of package including additional retirement benefits, but that is not the case for the latter secretaries, as it seems.
The labour market mechanism seems to be fully applicable to the political world, but in a much more and severe manner.
2009年9月2日水曜日
2009年9月1日火曜日
Is Diversity Coming to Japanese Politics to Penetrate Throughout the Nation?
Tuesday, September 1, 2009 - Osaka, Japan
What Japanese media named “Ozawa Girls” (vs. “Koizumi Children” in the previous election) played an important role in the DPJ’s historic victory in the general election held on August 30. This seems to imply that diversity is coming into Japanese political world at last, which may have positive impact on Japan, to drive diversity throughout the nation.
The main player of the DPJ’s strategy were “Ozawa Girls”, are new female candidates, mostly in 30s, allocated as rival candidates of LDP veterans with the intention of Mr. Ozawa, the former DPJ representative. They are mostly of younger generation compared to “Koizumi Children”. Quite a few already have been engaged in social activities, including an candidate who had been a serious advocate in solving a medical/healthcare issue from her own experience, herself suffering from a disease.
The DPJ’s strategy was a big success. The mass media and the general public were extremely attentive to “Ozawa Girls” although they were absolutely new with no experience nor achievement in the political world. The strategy also forced LDP veteran candidates to focus on their own election, stopping them to visit around Japan to make back-up speeches for other new and/or younger LDP candidates.
“Ozawa Girls” need to learn from “Koizumi Children” to be truly succeed as positicians. They have not really gone through preparatory training as politicians. They have not worked their way up the food chain to become politicians. They benefited much from public criticism of LDP. Now that they have been elected to serve to improve the country, they will be tested and evaluated by the citizens whether they really deserve the position they won by the election. They would need to achieve tangible results if they are to be re-elected in the next election, which would not be like the August 30 election but is assumed to be much more tough one for DPJ.
In conclusion, “Ozawa Girls” have potential to positively impact Japanese society, which is behind many other countries on Diversity in general. “Ozawa Girls “ could become a break through in the Japanese politics with their vitality, competence, clear mission/belief and strong will. With strong leadership and sponsorship, favourable environment and support, they would be able to unleash their potential and through experience, pickup quickly to grow as good politicians and contribute to change and improve the country. If that do become a reality, it is possible that they become the role model to drive diversity throughout the nation.
Megumi Oyanagi
What Japanese media named “Ozawa Girls” (vs. “Koizumi Children” in the previous election) played an important role in the DPJ’s historic victory in the general election held on August 30. This seems to imply that diversity is coming into Japanese political world at last, which may have positive impact on Japan, to drive diversity throughout the nation.
The main player of the DPJ’s strategy were “Ozawa Girls”, are new female candidates, mostly in 30s, allocated as rival candidates of LDP veterans with the intention of Mr. Ozawa, the former DPJ representative. They are mostly of younger generation compared to “Koizumi Children”. Quite a few already have been engaged in social activities, including an candidate who had been a serious advocate in solving a medical/healthcare issue from her own experience, herself suffering from a disease.
The DPJ’s strategy was a big success. The mass media and the general public were extremely attentive to “Ozawa Girls” although they were absolutely new with no experience nor achievement in the political world. The strategy also forced LDP veteran candidates to focus on their own election, stopping them to visit around Japan to make back-up speeches for other new and/or younger LDP candidates.
“Ozawa Girls” need to learn from “Koizumi Children” to be truly succeed as positicians. They have not really gone through preparatory training as politicians. They have not worked their way up the food chain to become politicians. They benefited much from public criticism of LDP. Now that they have been elected to serve to improve the country, they will be tested and evaluated by the citizens whether they really deserve the position they won by the election. They would need to achieve tangible results if they are to be re-elected in the next election, which would not be like the August 30 election but is assumed to be much more tough one for DPJ.
In conclusion, “Ozawa Girls” have potential to positively impact Japanese society, which is behind many other countries on Diversity in general. “Ozawa Girls “ could become a break through in the Japanese politics with their vitality, competence, clear mission/belief and strong will. With strong leadership and sponsorship, favourable environment and support, they would be able to unleash their potential and through experience, pickup quickly to grow as good politicians and contribute to change and improve the country. If that do become a reality, it is possible that they become the role model to drive diversity throughout the nation.
Megumi Oyanagi
2009年8月31日月曜日
Japanese Voters Explicitly Expressed Their Opinion For Decision Making; How About Japanese Shareholders?
Monday, August 31, 2009 - Osaka, Japan
Taking the opportunity of the general election held yesterday, Japanese voters explicitly said “no” to the more than half a century of almost uninterrupted rule by the LDP (the Liberal Democratic Party). Their saying led to the DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) winning over 300 seats in the 480-seat chamber in an election of almost 70% voting rate which is probably the highest in Japanese election history, opening the door to potential changes in Japan. Indeed, general election had long been mere façade but the years of unhealthy Japanese politics change voters’ minds and behaviours.
If Japan is considered as a publicly-quoted company, public opinion is equivalent to stock market, the general election is equivalent to shareholder meeting and Japanese voters to Japanese shareholders. Unless he/she is a top shareholder (usually financial institute), Japanese shareholders are usually quiet, rarely outspoken, and many shareholder meetings are mere façade, just like what the election had been. But with many companies suffering from poor performance, shareholders may change their mind to be outspoken similarly to voters of the election.
Excluding some exceptions, Japanese companies are in general under-valued in the stock market, and many are suffering from poor performance, not necessarily because of the worldwide economic crisis started last year. As some experts point out, the real reason for this may well lie in the fundamental issue of their management system and structure and/or business model that is no longer adapting to the business environment we live in today (e.g. dependent to export and/or high-end products thus likely to be affected by negative impact of world economy and currency trend, weak cost structure).
Taking all the above into account, it would not be a surprise that some Japanese shareholders start to become more outspoken and truly participate in decision making of the company they invest in. Responsibility of voters and shareholders is not only participation in the general election and shareholders meeting. The voters and shareholders are expected continuously to be attentive to and to check how their “company” is managed, together with its performance.
Taking the opportunity of the general election held yesterday, Japanese voters explicitly said “no” to the more than half a century of almost uninterrupted rule by the LDP (the Liberal Democratic Party). Their saying led to the DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) winning over 300 seats in the 480-seat chamber in an election of almost 70% voting rate which is probably the highest in Japanese election history, opening the door to potential changes in Japan. Indeed, general election had long been mere façade but the years of unhealthy Japanese politics change voters’ minds and behaviours.
If Japan is considered as a publicly-quoted company, public opinion is equivalent to stock market, the general election is equivalent to shareholder meeting and Japanese voters to Japanese shareholders. Unless he/she is a top shareholder (usually financial institute), Japanese shareholders are usually quiet, rarely outspoken, and many shareholder meetings are mere façade, just like what the election had been. But with many companies suffering from poor performance, shareholders may change their mind to be outspoken similarly to voters of the election.
Excluding some exceptions, Japanese companies are in general under-valued in the stock market, and many are suffering from poor performance, not necessarily because of the worldwide economic crisis started last year. As some experts point out, the real reason for this may well lie in the fundamental issue of their management system and structure and/or business model that is no longer adapting to the business environment we live in today (e.g. dependent to export and/or high-end products thus likely to be affected by negative impact of world economy and currency trend, weak cost structure).
Taking all the above into account, it would not be a surprise that some Japanese shareholders start to become more outspoken and truly participate in decision making of the company they invest in. Responsibility of voters and shareholders is not only participation in the general election and shareholders meeting. The voters and shareholders are expected continuously to be attentive to and to check how their “company” is managed, together with its performance.
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