Japan Lower House election - Dec 14, 2014

[Famous Mortimer]

Two People's Life MPs, including the party's secretary general, defect to the DPJ.

[Famous Mortimer]

I read up a little on Soka Gakkai when I went on a couple of dates with a woman who was a member (she stopped seeing me after she failed to convert me). I'd say it's a cult but of course that's all semantics. What makes them hard to classify is that unlike other alleged cults, they don't have any obviously insane beliefs. If they believed the Buddha was an alien or the Buddha was alive and leading a secret world government, it would make things much more obvious. As it is, their beliefs are fairly generic Buddhism. What makes them suspect is their hardcore proselytizing and their constant demand for money to do nothing specific. Of course, that also describes a lot of Evengelical churches in America as well.

[Famous Mortimer]

Oh, and I guess it's also a little weird that they have a political party.

Then again, SO DO AMERICAN EVANGELICALS!

[Famous Mortimer]

So what is Abenomics basically? Less doctrinaire free marketism? More pro-business than pro-market, like the Republican Party?

[Famous Mortimer]

So there's been an official agreement between the DPJ and the JIP?

That shows what a terrible (ie non-existent) state the left is in in Japan. Can you imagine Labour and UKIP having such an agreement? Or the PS and the FN?

[Famous Mortimer]

Hashimoto might not be as bad as the PFG but he's still made a fair number of revisionist comments himself.

[Famous Mortimer]

Who are the indies?

[Famous Mortimer]

Did Shizuka Kamei and/or Tomoko Abe run for re-election. If so, what was the result?

[Famous Mortimer]

The two Democrats who switched from Your Party lost.

[Famous Mortimer]

Who are the indies?

Some are actual independents, but others are small, regional parties.

I think Tax Cuts Japan managed to win a couple seats, and Okinawa Mass won a constituency seat.

The independents tend to be pro-LDP or pro-DPJ. I think there are 3 pro-DPJ indies and 4 pro-LDP indies.

According Japanese Wikipedia, the 8 independents elected were:

Kishirō Nakamura: Former Liberal Democrat, former Reform Club (proto-New Renaissance Party)

Koizumi Ryuji: Former Liberal Democrat, former member of LDP rebel faction led by current Party of Future Generations leader Hiranuma Takeo.

Keiichiro Asao: Former New Frontier, New Fraternity, pre-1998 Democrat, and most recently Your Party member.

Kotaro Nagasaki: Former Liberal Democrat

Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi: Former Democrat

Kamei Shizuka: Former Liberal Democrat, People's New, Tomorrow, and Green Wind Party member.

Takahiro Inoue: Former Liberal Democrat (Aso faction)

Nakazato Toshinobu: No Wiki page.

Sorry, too lazy to change naming order.

Anyway, I don't think anyone was elected from Tax Cut Japan unless the guy without the Wiki page is. Don't see anything about the Okinawa Social Masses Party either. Maybe you heard that a leftist had been elected in Okinawa and assumed it was them. It was actually a Communist that won Okinawa, apparently the first FPTP seat they've won in a while (ever?).

[Famous Mortimer]

Most sites are now reporting only 8 independents won. So I'm taking it that Takeshi Noma lost. So 6 pro-LDP and only 2 pro-DPJ.