This morning both the Japan Times and the Asahi Shimbun headline the election of TV entertainer Sonomanman Higashi as governor of Miyazaki Prefecture. Higashi replaces Tadahiro Ando, who resigned last month and was arrested on corruption charges. Japan Times headline reads,
TV entertainer voted Miyazaki governor
Higashi fills post left vacant by scandal
Asahi Shimbun headline reads,
Sonomanma Higashi Wins Big.
Defeats candidate put forward by the LDP and Komeito.
For politics watchers here, the Asahi subhead is important. The LDP and Komeito are the ruling coalition that supports current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The defeat of their candidate lends credence to speculation that Abe may be headed for trouble in national elections scheduled for later this year.
,The second above-the-fold story in the Japan Times features a picture of a statue of movie icon Godzilla and the headline,
Japan's biggest art museum opens in Roppongi.
U.S.-related news is below the fold. The two headlines read,
Clinton candidacy marks cultural shift and
U.S. 1-day Iraq toll highest in two years
The Asahi's second headline is
27.2 billion in welfare loans not repaid
The lead describes a recent report that 1/3 of funds loaned by local government bodies to poor families are not being repaid. In Tokyo the system that provides these loans is bankrupt. LDP politicians are considering how to revive it. The background here is a growing debate about the emergence of a visibly class society in Japan, where government surveys used to show 90% of respondents identifying themselves as middle class. Now the talk is about the winners and losers in the new restructured, increasingly globalized, freer market economy.
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