• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Nippon Ishin no Kai
(Japan Innovation Party / Japan Restoration Association)

Osaka-based Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) proved the biggest winner among opposition parties in the 2021 Lower House election but said it has no plans to form any sort of political alliance. Nippon Ishin increased its number of Lower House seats from 11 to 41, making it the third largest party in the Diet chamber following the Oct. 31 vote.

The 2021 election produced unprecedented national results for a party that had long been seen as minor and Osaka-focused. The party, formed in Osaka about a decade ago, has long been seen nationally as a local organization with local interests. Sunday’s election showed once again that Nippon Ishin remains strongest in that part of the country. It won 16 district seats, including all 15 Osaka electoral districts in which it competed, plus one district in neighboring Hyogo Prefecture. In the proportional representation race, Nippon Ishin picked up 25 seats, including 10 from the Kinki (the official name of the more general Kansai area) district.

Nippon Ishin would remain official outsiders but mostly align with the ruling coalition’s policies — especially on national security and defense issues — while opposing other measures they believe are not in their interests. Ichiro Matsui, Nippon Ishin’s leader and Osaka’s mayor, said that he didn’t consider the result a victory. “We ran 96 candidates and most of them lost. The voters decided that they trusted the administration of Prime Minister (Fumio) Kishida and the ruling coalition, so we see the election as one we didn’t win,” Matsui said on a local TV Asahi program.

On 12 September 2012 Toru Hashimoto, Osaka's maverick mayor whose quick wit and ready iconoclasm set him apart from establishment politicians, launched yet another national party onto Japan's political stage, vowing as usual to chart a new course for the country. It was claimed that Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Association) will field 350 candidates across Japan in upcoming general elections, intending to gain a majority of seats in the lower house. "Great battles will start from today. I would like to create Japan's new course together," Hashimoto told a ceremony in Osaka, his powerbase and the headquarters of the new party, according to Kyodo News. "Our mission is to present a third option to voters" in upcoming polls, the 43-year-old said.

The 43-year-old Hashimoto said national issues that either divide the nation or cannot be handled by bureaucrats should be resolved only by politicians chosen through elections. Hashimoto said the reason why bureaucracy does not work under the government is that the Democrat-led administration does not carry out policies that the voters really want. Hashimoto said the current governing system and laws, always block new moves and that he decided to set up a national party to implement genuine reforms.

Japan's established parties were struggling to inspire voters, with the opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) unable to capitalise on the travails of the governing Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), whose unpopular prime minister had just rammed through a tax rise.

In the 27 January 2008 election, initially the business community, Komeito, and many rank-and-file LDP members were either publicly neutral or opposed to Hashimoto because of his lack of experience and frequent controversial utterances on TV. The LDP, after suffering a string of defeats last year culminating with the DPJ winning the key Osaka mayoral election, scrapped its standard electoral strategy and fielded a young candidate with strong name recognition rather than a political pedigree. The opposition DPJ has chosen an older, decidedly un-telegenic establishment candidate in an attempt to appear as the more responsible, trustworthy party. One anonymous pampthlet circulated to three million households highlighted several of Hashimoto's most controversial public statements, questioning his fitness for office -- all true, but taboo in Japanese campaign tactics. The fear of losing yet more elections in major markets like Osaka (Japan's delegate-rich second city) motivated the LDP to try unconventional measures at masking the ruling coalition's lack of popularity and maintaining relevance in local politics. Lawyer and TV personality 38-year-old Hashimoto was elected Osaka governor, with 59 percent of women and a majority of unaffiliated votes cast ballots for LDP-backed Hashimoto.

In the 2009 election the DPJ had been forced to modify its policies to gain the support of potential partners, both the DPJ and LDP included decentralization reform in their campaign platforms as a way to court a group of local governors led by the popular and outspoken governor of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto. The young and charismatic Hashimoto belonged to the LDP but said that he would endorse, through the National Governors' Association (NGA), whichever party offers the most comprehensive decentralization reforms. Although he had earlier assigned higher marks to the DPJ than to the LDP according to his own "decentralization rating scale," Hashimoto strongly criticized the DPJ's campaign platform for lacking an official framework for national and local leaders to discuss policies. That this criticism prompted DPJ leader Hatoyama to announce that his party's platform, which had been released days earlier to much fanfare, was only "an unofficial working copy" (thereby allowing the DPJ to accommodate Hashimoto's request in its final, "official" version) shows the influence possessed by the NGA. Hashimoto's personal popularity and name recognition made both parties eager to earn his endorsement.

Hashimoto, a former TV personality, set up the regional One Osaka Party in 2011. In September 2012 he stated that his new party was based in Osaka and that he will soon file a party registration to be prepared for the next general elections. Hashimoto, a colorful figure in the normally staid world of Japanese public life, said he will not run for parliament himself. Instead the lawyer and father of seven will keep his day job as mayor of Japan's second biggest city. Commentators said the decision to base the party outside of Tokyo could resonate with voters fed up with the centralised nature of Japan, where all roads lead to Tokyo.

Pledges unveiled included halving the current 480 seats in the lower house and introducing direct elections for prime minister. Seven sitting lawmakers said they would leave their parties and join Hashimoto. The incumbent prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, was the sixth man to hold the post in as many years, a turnover rate blamed on the factionalism that has produced a string of fragile governments. Observers say no one grouping will win a majority, and Hashimoto may be expected to be courted in the coalition-building that looked set to follow a popular ballot.

Some opinion polls showed more people want to vote for his new party than either the DPJ or the LDP. Opponents charge Hashimoto is an opportunistic populist with little substance to back up his hustling style. But most grudgingly admire his political savvy and ability to turn almost any situation to his advantage. A chuckling Hashimoto shrugged off a recent magazine report of an extramarital affair, telling reporters it was true but his wife had not known about it. "There'll be a big penalty to pay when I get home," he smirked.

On 25 October 2012 the newly established Japan Restoration Party met to revview a draft policy statement that included a proposal seeking to end the U.S. base presence by the year 2045, the 100th anniversary of the end of World War II. The Nippon Ishin no Kai is a decentralized political party that has a different organizational structure from the existing pyramid-shaped political parties with the headquarters in Tokyo at the top, and is essentially different from the existing centralized political parties. Local councilors and chiefs directly participate in national decision-making and promote decentralization while sharing roles. The Nippon Ishin no Kai will work to solve the essential problems facing Japan for the independence and revitalization of the nation and the region. In order to revitalize the nation, it is indispensable to shift from the centralized concentration in the metropolitan area to the multi-polar decentralized type (doshusei) and revitalize the regions.

By creating the capital city of Osaka, which can function as the capital, and making Osaka the sub-capital, we will break the centralization and centralization of Tokyo and realize future multipolarization (doshusei). We aim to revitalize the entire society through the ingenuity of the region and individuals, rather than the top-down from the national government. The party proposes to review the excessive involvement of the government and clarify the scope and role of self-help, mutual assistance, and public assistance. Eliminating the vested interests brought about by public assistance, the government will devote itself to supporting the truly vulnerable. Emphasis is placed on direct tax injection on the consumer side rather than tax injection on the supplier side.

The Nippon Ishin no Kai's philosophy is to realize an "independent nation," an "independent region," and an "independent individual." At the same time, we also want to realize a society that recognizes diverse values. In order to realize these principles, it practiced "cutting reform," "governmental reform," and "breaking vested interests." In Osaka Prefecture, the number of members has been reduced by 20% (109 ? 88), and the number of members has been cut by 30%. In exchange, it carried out administrative reforms (significant reduction of affiliated organizations, which are the destinations of public servants, reduction of labor costs for public servants, etc.), and achieved a financial surplus. By investing the fruits in education, it wase the first in the country to realize virtually free tuition for private high schools. It wants to make education completely free of charge from nursery schools and kindergartens to universities and graduate schools.

If education is completely free of charge, no one will give up going on for financial reasons. The number of children may increase as the burden of education costs is eliminated. This can give people who want to learn again the opportunity to try again. Opportunities for everyone to learn when they want to learn Create an equal society and encourage friendly competition. It gives birth to an independent individual and becomes the foundation of an independent region and an independent nation. In order to form a society that recognizes diverse values, the party proposes to change the centralized governance system in Tokyo, where everything is decided, to a decentralized governance system where local governments can decide. .. And the regions work hard with each other.

"Individual independence" and "regional independence" are the premise of realizing a society that recognizes diverse values. And democracy that can be decided is necessary only in a society that recognizes diverse values. You will need a Constitutional Court. In order to show these as the intentions of the people, the Nippon Ishin no Kai has made "free education," "reform of the governing structure," and "establishment of a constitutional court" the three pillars of constitutional amendment.