Though the final size of their mandate is unclear, the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has won a landslide victory, outsting the Liberal Democratic Party which has held a virtually unbroken grasp on power since the 1950s. Japanese analysts are calling the election the most significant change in power in the nation since World War 2.
The DPJ will hold at least 300 seats according to most estimates in the 480 seat lower house, and might even net the 320 seats required for a supermajority, which would give it a virtually unchallengable hold on the government. The massive turnout and support for the opposition in a generally politically apathetic nation was a sign that the Japanese population is increasingly unsatisfied with the government’s reaction to the economic downturn.
But while the DPJ’s first order of business will be its plan of free market decentralization and tax cuts to try to stem rising unemployment, in the long-term it may have a significant impact on the US relationship with the island nation, as the DPJ publicly attacked the LDP for letting the US basically dictate policy.
In the near term, the DPJ is expected to only demand a few key revisions to the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the two nations, and cancel the nation’s role in the Afghan War, which it has insisted is in violation of the country’s pacifist constitution. It will also ban the US from stationing nuclear weapons in Japan, a key issue in a nation which 64 years later is still distraught over twin US nuclear attacks.
But the DPJ has promised to keep friendly ties with the US, and its focus on the economy is likely to put major changes to the US deployment on the backburner, at least in the near term. Yet as the party tries to strengthen ties with long-time rival China, in the long term the US may find its still-significant military presence in the nation less and less welcome.
Would that Japan had the cajones to boot the U.S. military out. Probably not very likely but, dreams can come true. Right? It's time for the Japanese portion of Amerikan Empire to close up shop.
yeah right. the japanese don't have a deterrent to china and, to a lesser extent, korea, without u.s. military presence.
Not everyone feels that they have to deter the Chinese. As for the North Koreans, their beef is with the US. They harass the Japanese on occasion because the US 7th Fleet uses Japanese bases.
While not it is not likely to happen, an independent Japanese foreign policy would be a good thing. The day the Japanese, and also the Germans, put a formal end to the US occupation is the day they become truly sovereign again.
The US is increasingly unable to finance its military occupation in Japan. And Japan is no longer a safe bet to purchase US treasuries, securities and bonds. Thanks to the criminal incompetence of Bernanke, Japan will feel out the possibilities of a new relationship with China, as a matter of necessity. Japan doesn't need the US anymore.
The Japanese have injured themselves economically trying to pay the demanded tribute into Uncle Sam's monetary Ponzi scheme. It's high time the Japanese kick the FedGov military off the SOFA and tell them to find somewhere else to squat.
After World War II, we became the sponsor of most of the regimes to sprout up in SEA led by Japanese collaborationists. If the Japanese unhook themselves from the US Pacific Empire, our position in South Korea becomes more untenable and the Taiwanese will be pushed further back into the orbit of Beijing. War between North and South Korea becomes more and more likely as a means to maintain the status quo This sets the stage for Chinese domination over the oil in the South China Sea. In the Philippines there is talk about having the US bases removed.
Take all of this in the light of the Shanghai group, and US power-both economic and military– would become increasingly irrelevant in the region. I'm sure the recent doings in Bishkek have not been missed in Mumbai where strategists are ramping up their military in fear of China. In India, I would imagine that the problems of weather change and food will be a big part in which way the subcontinent jumps. Antagonisms between China and India are not that long standing and could well be resolved. Indian collaboration with the US in Afghanistan will not help it. Its sphere of influence is depressingly circumscribed and this may lead them to folly.