Japanese politics - time for change?

Some of my colleagues have been asking me what I think about the change in ruling party for Japan. Will it really bring about the changes promised by the DPJ during the election campaign? Or will the DPJ be unable to make good their promises?

Personally, I feel that it will be hard to bring about some of the changes promised by the DPJ. Japan is not a country whereby things can easily change. Yes, the outside may change, but the core remains the same. The people who have been in power since the times of the samurai put on new clothes (coat and ties) after the Meiji Restoration. They continue to be in power after WW2. Koizumi's father and grandfather were ministers. Tanaka Kakuei's daughter was a minister herself. The next PM in line, Hatoyama, has a grandfather who was a prime minister under the LDP.

If you ask me, nothing has really changed. The DPJ is like a splinter group from the LDP. The party name may change, but the people (or rather, the families) in power remain the same. And while the politicians spend time fighting each other, the real people in power, the bureaucrats, stay in power, guarding their turfs, and it will be hard to ever get them to change.

So if you ask me, will there be changes with the DPJ in power? Yes, there will be changes to the outside (appearances), but the core will remain the same, just as it has for the past few hundred years.