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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Turbulent path awaits new DP chief Maehara

Then Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara speaks during a press conference to announce his resignation from the post at Foreign Ministry in Tokyo, Sunday, March 6, 2011. (Junji Kurokawa / Associated Press)
Japan News/Yomiuri

Democratic Party President Seiji Maehara, who on Friday won the party’s leadership vote, will begin changing the policies that existed under former DP President Renho.

Maehara is calling for a review of the DP’s cooperation with the Japanese Communist Party for elections, and is showing a willingness to reorganize the opposition parties with the DP as a nucleus.

But a bumpy road is ahead, because there are liberal party members and members in prefectural chapters who are cautious about his policy direction.

Renho, while trying to move toward making counterproposals, could not get the party out of its conventional stance of merely criticizing the government and ruling parties. Consequently, the DP’s approval rating has remained sluggish in the single-digit range.

Whether Maehara – who has expressed determination to “present voters with an option other than the ruling Liberal Democratic Party” – will be able to clarify the party’s stance toward constitutional revision, security, economic policies and other issues, and also break away from the culture of merely criticizing the policies of the government and ruling parties, will be a focal point.

In his speech in the presidential election on Friday, Maehara stressed: “We must present a new alternative. It’s our historic responsibility and mission for the people.”

Maehara’s basic idea is to take a realistic approach toward foreign and security policies, while promoting policies for domestic affairs that differ from those of the LDP.

Maehara has criticized the Abenomics economic policy package as a “failure,” and insists that increased redistribution of income to mainly younger generations could lead to an increase in consumption. He is considering securing financial resources by raising tax, and accepts the need for a consumption tax rate hike to 10 percent for purposes including realizing free school textbooks.

The DP is made up of conservative and liberal members, meaning it cannot clarify its stance toward security and constitutional amendment. For this reason, it has been said that the party has no clear vision. The party has been subject to criticism such as, “It is unknown what the DP really want to do.”

Some conservative DP members are optimistic, saying the party will finally be able to promote realistic policies with Maehara as its new president.

However, in the presidential election campaign, Maehara mentioned the security-related legislation as unconstitutional, changing his stance toward the laws from “modification” to “abolition.”

“There will be no change in the importance of the Japan-U.S. alliance,” he said. But DP lawmakers who supported Maehara recoiled at the change in his stance, with one saying, “He paid too much consideration to gaining support from liberals.”

Regarding constitutional revision, Maehara did not mention his basic idea of adding the existence of the Self-Defense Forces to the Constitution. Instead, at a press conference on Friday, he only said, “There are various ways of thinking within the party.”

Some party members said Maehara was evading difficult themes from the start.