28.09.2009, 18:35
Zitat:Japan's 'Change' Agenda
Just as the health-care debate was showing how hard it is to translate the slogan of change into reality, newly inaugurated Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama swept into New York, branding himself as the Barack Obama of Japan.
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Yet to Japan watchers, his ascent is, in its way, as path-breaking as Obama's. By leading his left-leaning Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) to a smashing victory last month, he broke a half-century of virtually uninterrupted rule by the right-leaning Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). And with an overwhelming majority in the lower house of the Diet, Hatoyama may have an easier time enacting his change agenda than Obama is finding in the Senate Finance Committee.
But is there a coherent agenda? To the United Nations last week, Hatoyama brought a promise to reduce Japan's greenhouse gas emissions by far more than his predecessors had pledged. At home, meanwhile, his government is reducing the gasoline tax, fulfilling one of many populist promises his party made to win election.
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Quelle:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...01442.html