The Young Professional Project (YPP), an initiative of the Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific at the University of Sydney is hosting an event to analyse recent changes in Japanese politics.
In 2006 Jun’ichiro Koizumi became Japan’s longest serving Prime Minister for two decades, with the previous fifteen years seeing some eight different leaders at the helm. Despite this, the manner in which he claimed the election of 2005 came as unexpected for most. Koizumi and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) secured 296 seats, giving the ruling coalition a clear two-thirds majority for the first time in fifteen years.
Masaki Taniguchi, Associate Professor of Japanese Politics at the Graduate School for Law and Politics at The University of Tokyo will look at whether such a landslide victory signals a return to the position of single party dominance in the Japanese Diet and whether the electoral reform of the 1990s might have contributed to the win. The Professor will also address whether the overwhelming electoral result of 2005 signals Japan’s willingness to undergo further political and social reform, and the likelihood of such an agenda continuing after Koizumi’s term?
Date: Thursday 16 March 2006
For more details visit:YPP Event