http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/01/AR2008090100662.html?hpid=sec-world

I don't know much about Japanese politics other than what's in that article.

Some noteworthy things though was that when this guy was first elected, I remember people talking about he was more nationalistic and friendly with America than his predecessor. Another interesting fact (to me) is that he's the same age as that Japanese porn star, and John McCain (72-ish). But, it's kind of strange that essentially the role of our president just resigns, probably from internal pressure, because of "ineffectual policies." In this case, someone from his same party is replacing him, but this kind of system would never gain traction in the US, would it? Doesn't it even make sense to be able to oust national leaders so quickly and easily?

9/2/2008 12:50:07 AM

A prime minister is not like a US president.

9/2/2008 1:00:31 AM

In most countries with a PM, it is... maybe not in Japan (I don't know). I think in Iran, the PM serves a different role than you normally think of a PM as serving.

9/2/2008 1:03:11 AM

Their PM does serve as the executive branch. It is chosen by the ruling party. Their system is very similar to the UK's system.

Japan's had a lot of problems with PM's since Koizumi left, most of it is due to the fact that towards the end Koizumi was very unpopular, same with his successors, and the opposition party took hold of one of the houses. If they take the other house they will have control of the PM seat. This is significant because the same party has had control almost exclusively (one time in the 90's they lost power) since WW2.

9/2/2008 8:37:41 AM

Yoshiro Mori is a former prime minister of Japan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshiro_Mori

The reason this is relevant is that last week on TV he said that Fukuda was essentially all but done. It's not good when an old PM comes out on TV and blatantly bashes the current one.

If you want what this actually means, I would divert to this source:

http://www.japaneconomynews.com/2008/09/01/fukuda-steps-down-foriegn-media-doesnt-get-why/

Quote :

"Mr Fukuda’s resignation means that a special session of the diet will have to be called in addition to the extraordinary session. This gives the ruling party an extra 30 days to pass the bills they would otherwise not be able to get through in a shortened extraordinary session - this is a huge middle finger to the New Komeito Party and means that the extension to the refueling mission in the Indian Ocean should get fifity-nined through the diet."

9/2/2008 8:55:51 AM

Japan goes through prime ministers like Pez. They've had the same party in power for 50 years so it more or less doesn't matter who is in the seat.

9/2/2008 10:43:26 AM