Looking more like members of a j-Pop band than of parliament, two 30-some-thing candidates of the Liberal Democratic Party hit the campaign trail in Tokyo on December 4th offering voters "a new ldp". It seemed a promising start on the first day of campaigning for the general election on December 16th: girls screamed and mothers swooned. Yet that was mostly because one of the candidates was the good-looking son of Junichiro Koizumi, prime minister from 2001 to 2006 and easily the most charismatic Japanese leader in memory. There was certainly no policy discussion. When one was asked what would be different about this new ldp, he replied with one word: "Everything."
展开▼
