Not surprisingly, the LDP has greeted the DPJ's "realism" with severe criticism...

After strong indications last week that he would switch districts, Ichiro Ozawa has announced that he will be running in Iwate's fourth district instead of switching to Tokyo's twelfth district, where he would run against Komeito president Akihiro Ota. I can only imagine the communication between the DPJ and Komeito in advance of Ozawa's decision...

In response to the LDP's decision to convene a closed-door gathering Tuesday that will enable LDP members to "exchange opinions" with Prime Minister Taro Aso, Hidenao Nakagawa demanded that the party open the event to the media...

Although the government parties rallied from behind as the night went on, the LDP and Komeitō failed to recapture a majority of the seats in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly, the goal set by the LDP...

As of this writing, the DPJ has surpassed the thirty-eight it held before the election, winning forty-two seats. It is twenty-two short of a majority, with seventy-six remaining...

Taku Yamasaki, perhaps the leader of the LDP's remaining doves, spoke at a Genron NPO meeting Thursday afternoon at which he addressed Ryohei Murata's revelations of the secret deal between the US and Japan that permitted the US to "introduce" nuclear weapons to Japan...

Less than two months after succeeding the tainted Ichirō Ozawa as DPJ president, Yukio Hatoyama is mired in a scandal of his own, related to the use of fake contributions to cover for illegal transfers from Hatoyama's personal funds to his political support group...

The campaign for the 12 July Tokyo assembly election officially began Friday, marking the beginning of what could be the Asō government's last stand...

On Tuesday the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy (CEFP) released the 2009 Basic Plan for Economic and Fiscal Reform (known colloquially as the honebuto), available here along with other documents from the Tuesday meeting...

The dissolution of the House of Representatives, Prime Minister Tarō Asō tells us, is not far off...