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Introduction
I can't claim to be an expert on the
Japanese political system... other than to say it is probably as wacky,
if not wackier, than what most viewers of this page would be accustomed
to. It is certianly wackier than I'm accustomed to - and I
was a co-founder of the Danbury Young
Republicans back when I was in High School. And that was
mega-wacky. Believe me.
Japan has a parliamentary system which
has been dominated since the end of WWII with only one brief
interruption by the Liberal
Democratic Party. You can read about the difference
between a parliamentary system of government here.
Besides decimating the economy, most of
the LDP politicians enjoy the distinction of being completely ridiculous
humans. But they sure do take themselves
seriously! During election season, they canvas their local constituencies
in vans and trucks blaring their promise to either to
Do Something!
Or
Vigorously
defend against the dangerous characters with ill
conceived plots to Do Something that disrupts the status quo!
Backing all this up are the election
posters. Around election season mini billboards are erected
all over the cities with a small block allocated to a particular
candidate to use for his election poster. Some of these are
pretty funny.. particularly if you don't understand Japanese and you are
free to just imagine what the heck these people were thinking when they
posed for them. Below I've snapped a couple from
around our neighborhood. But if you want to see 1000's of
them - you can see them here!
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The Great Sasuke - a
pro wrestler who stood for an assembly seat in Iwate
prefecture. He ran in the wrestling costume for which he is
famous... under his stage name... and won. He
vows to wear his costume while in the assembly, because to not do
so would be breaking trust with his voters. You can
read all about it on CNN.com here |
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A typical election board. Each
candidate is assigned his or her own cube. Everybody's
posters will be in exactly the same spot on every board...
everywhere. |
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This is Doc-tah Nakamatsu.
His particular trade mark is to drive around in his election van
and point at people. Really - no joke! |
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This woman I affectionately call
"The Pointy Head Lady." She has a pointy
head. |
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Along our walk we took a small detour to
follow a road that looked interesting, and we came across this small
pretty temple.
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This is a young oyagi old oyagi
tag team. The combination of the suave older
gentlemen's assured experience and the youthful vigor of his protégé
could not help but move the heart of middle aged oba-san voters. |
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Something about Iraq - and
Rosa. She is the Italian in this picture. |
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Vote for me! |
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