Japan Future Party Leader Kada Says She Will Split the Party by Year's End

(UPDATE) Jiji Tsushin reports (12/27/2012) that it's been decided by the deputy leader of the party Tetsunari Iida and Mr. Ichiro Ozawa that Mr. Ozawa's followers in the party, 15 of them including the Upper House councilors, will leave the party. Ms. Kada will have one Upper House councilor (she left Social Democratic Party to join Ms. Kada's party), but according to Jiji, Ms. Kada says her group will retain the name of the party and the party logo. Which means her party with only one elected official will receive all the government subsidy money for political parties, and Mr. Ozawa's new party, when he or his followers formally announces the formation, will have none. Good deal for Ms. Kada. What a joke.

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So much for her pre-election talk of her being capable of "taming and controlling Mr. Ichiro Ozawa".

Faced with the opposition to her dictatorial ways of running the party ("No dissent allowed", said Ms. Kada), the leader of the "graduating from nuclear" party now says she will split the party by the year end, so that she and her small and mostly unelected party leaders will have their own way (while probably keeping the political party subsidy from the national government - taxpayers' money), and Mr. Ozawa's followers their own way by forming a new party (thus losing the subsidy even though they are the vast majority in the party).

After having no action, no comment from her after the disastrous election on December 16 when only 9 candidates managed to hold their seats while all of her own candidates lost, the first official political act by Ms. Yukiko Kada, the leader of the party that anti-nuclear Japanese citizens had pegged so much hope on, is to split the party.

Again, as with many instances since the election, she spoke to the press, without bothering to speak first to her party members, whom she apparently considered to be plotting a coup d'etat against her for daring to oppose her unilateral decision on party appointments.

The run-up to the meeting, and what transpired after the meeting, suggest that seasoned politicians with influence like Mr. Shizuka Kamei and Mr. Ichiro Ozawa made a grievous mistake joining her. So much so that Mr. Kamei has already decided to leave the party.

By the way, on December 26, the Shiga prefectural assembly passed the non-binding resolution demanding her to choose between the governorship and the party leadership. Ms. Kada's answer is that she will continue to hold both positions, as the resolution is non-binding. There was a talk of a binding resolution (no confidence), but the parties in the assembly decided to tone it down for some reason.

There are some who say Mr. Ozawa has lost his touch for having chosen her. I have been wondering why he, and for that matter Ms. Kada, decided to form a political party whose only distinct platform is "graduating from nuclear". (The rest of their so-called policies look no different from those of DPJ or LDP.) My feeling is that they were blinded by the supposedly overwhelming support for their position on the Internet. They themselves don't look to be particularly Internet-savvy but their lieutenants most likely are.

As usual (since March 11, 2011), there are die-hard online fans of the party, accusing anyone who dare criticize their dear leader (in this case Ms. Kada) who has promised she will take them to the post-nuclear Japan in 10 years.

"Fool me n-th time, shame on you", they would say to infinity.

(Links are in Japanese.)

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