Political Infighting in Japan

Triggered by the government's response to the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that devastated much of Japan, the Liberal Democratic Party, which is the country's largest opposition party, called for current Prime Minister Naoto Kan to step down from his office. Until now, the opposing parties have attempted to work in concert in order to respond effectively to the crisis. However, due to Kan's inability to help the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and criticisms that Kan has only confused matters in the government, their political truce has come to an abrupt halt.

Prime Minister Kan was already in political trouble before the disaster. He accepted donations from a foreigner, which is a violation of local laws. He argues he didn't know the donor was a foreigner, but the mistake was made and his reputation suffered for it. Although his ratings went up after the disaster, they are starting to decline once again.

Officials from the Liberal Democratic Party, such as Nobuteru Ishihara and Sadakazu Tanigaki insist that keeping Kan in office is detrimental to the Japanese people. "Can a government that has lost political support really handle a national crisis?" Ishihara asks dubiously. Kan's simple argument in response is that his priority is to save lives and that the team he built is doing everything in its power to do just that.

Will this political infighting be a distraction from the real problem at hand? If the parties become too involved in pointing out each others' flaws, they could very well start to ignore the fact that the country needs to be reconstructed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/world/asia/15japan.html?ref=world

-Gracie Hollister