10/04/21 13:45:58
My biggest issue with Hatoyama is that he's tying the party's fortunes to his own.
Hatoyama should probably never have headed up the DPJ to begin with once they won
last year. He has poor leadership skills and scandals in his past, and it seems like
he has trouble standing up to Ozawa. The DPJ needed someone charismatic like Obama
to make the public feel at ease. I'm not saying I like Obama's policies, but many
Americans feel that he is effective as a leader. Hatoyama seems afraid to offend
anyone, but that just makes people more angry; on the topic of Futenma, for example,
instead of satisfying some people and upsetting others with a clear, firm decision,
he's just disappointing everyone by doing nothing.
Some people would say that Hatoyama should step down now, but he seems to have backed
himself into a corner. If someone else had become prime minister to begin with,
there would be no complaints. But if he steps down now, people will cry that the DPJ
is just like the LDP, lacking in unity and constantly switching PMs. He'll probably
have no choice if the Upper House elections this summer go badly, but by then it
might be too late for the DPJ.
But then whom are voters supposed to support? Tachiagare Nihon...? I hate both big
American political parties, but sometimes I think the Japanese have it even worse.
By the way, are there other Japanese online forums where people discuss politics? There
are a lot of English-language forums for American political debate, and European
countries probably have some as well, but the only Japanese forum I really know about
is 2ch, and the writing style here is very different from the forums I'm thinking of.