Japanese Election

[rsomer]

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Japanese voters are at the polls Sunday in what is expected to be a tough contest for incumbent Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi who is facing a public critical of his Iraq policy and pension reforms.

His Liberal Democratic Party needs to win 51 seats in the Upper House elections to consolidate power. If not, he faces a revolt from within his own party.

Koizumi was voted in 3 years ago on a wave of popularity with a whopping 80 percent approval rating.

Now he is struggling and his ratings have plunged to just 40 percent after he decided to keep Japanese troops in Iraq. ...End of Paste...

This election is very important to the U.S. in that if Koizumi does poorly in the election, Japan may pull its troops out of Iraq.

While this may seem to be of little importance to beef producers, the timing of an announcement on Japan opening its border to U.S. beef and by default the timing of an announcement on the U.S. border opening its border to Canadian live cattle has been influenced by the timining of this election. Depending upon the outcome of the election we may see some important announcements in early August on Japan resuming trade in beef with the U.S. Other countries would likely follow Japan's lead opening the way for the U.S. to accept more imports from Canada.

[whiteface]

Which candidate would get us a better shot at getting some of our beef moving, rsomer? Stateside or Japan, and what are your reasons as to why we have to wait until Japan accepts from the US before we have any shot at exporting meat to Japan. Is this Iraq related? What if they pull their troops out of Iraq? Will US bomb them or will it get some doors opened elsewhere for us...that would be a signal that they're no longer kissing any American butt if they went their own way regarding Iraq I think.

[rsomer]

It is not a matter of which candidate would get beef moving. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has been in power for most of the post WWII era. Japan is just slowly moving towards a two party system and the opposition party, although expected to gain seats, will not gain power. Although the leader, Koizumi, is not up for election, a crushing defeat now would increase pressure for him to step down as leader of his party as his popularity slips because of his support for, among other things, the war in Iraq.

It appears to me that the U.S. is not going to open its borders to our live cattle until other countries open their borders to U.S. exports. You ask me for my reasons why we have to wait, there is no reason why we should have to wait, just this is what I see happening.

Iraq related? Of course it is Iraq related. This has nothing to do with food safety or even meeting the needs of consumers, it is all about politics and war and the U.S. supporting countries that have put soldiers in Iraq.

What if Japan pulled its troops out of Iraq? The U.S. is not going to bomb Japan. The U.S. attacks other countries who dare to stand up to American tyranny through economic means, for instance unfairly closing U.S. borders to Canadian live cattle. The Americans only send in the planes to attack other countries when these economic sanctions do not replace the leadership, such as we saw in Iraq where Hussein still remained in power after 10 years of economic sanctions failed to topple him as leader.

[kato]

I think another reason the Americans are waiting for the Japanese to accept their beef before opening the border to ours is that it's OUR beef they are sending to Japan.

It all comes back to money. If it's good for America, it will happen because then it's 'important'.

If there's no benefit to them, it won't because we all know that there is only one piece of this puzzle that matters, and that's the Americans. The rest of us are on our own.

[kato]

Apparently he won 49 seats. Whatever that will mean, I don't know.

Monday, July 12, 2004 at 08:00 JST
TOKYO — Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi suffered a humiliating blow in Sunday's House of Councillors election as his Liberal Democratic Party won fewer seats than the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, but said he will not resign over the result.

According to final results released Monday, the LDP won 49 seats, one fewer than its 50 up for reelection, while its coalition ally, the New Komeito party, gained one more seat at 11. In contrast, the DPJ enjoyed a surge to 50 from its own 38 seats up for grabs.

[rsomer]

While searching for news on Japan's election I came across a very interesting news item at: http://www.hpj.com/archives/2004/may04/ScamcouldweakenUS-JapanBSEt.CFM

The news item discloses an alleged scam by a Japanese businessman that involved defrauding the Japanese government of millions of dollars. Imported beef was relabelled as domestic Japanese beef and was sold to be incinerated under a Japanese plan to subsidize meat packers. The plan appeared to involve a former member of the Japanese DIET who was out of jail on bail on unrelated bribery charges. Overall, the subsidy buyback plan absorbed about 11,000 metric tons of alleged domestic beef worth 21 billion yen--about $193 billion--according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF).

The businessman, 65-year-old Mitsuru Asada, is suspected of being one of many who participated in scams involving mislabeling and substituting hundreds of tons of cheap imported beef it sold to the government as domestic beef. The government, in turn, bore the huge cost of incinerating the domestic and foreign beef it bought.

Officially, Asada, who is allegedly known as the 'don' of the Japanese meat industry, is vice chairman of the Osaka Prefecture Meat Cooperative Association.

I recall a comment that cowman made a while back to the effect that the American packers are not far removed from Mafia. Based on this article, it appears the Japanese meat industry is even worse. Does it take Mafia to deal with Mafia?

I noted as well the staggering cost of BSE in Japan and how so far the cost to our governments has been comparatively minor.