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Politics
Sadakazu Tanigaki: 'We Are Conservatives'
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Tanigaki
Tokyo -- LDP President Sadakazu Tanigaki spoke before an audience at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan this afternoon and described the basic identity of his party as "conservative."
"What we mean by conservatism is that we value family and communal ties," he explained.
The LDP can be differentiated from the DPJ on economic issues in that the conservative party believes that people in society should raise themselves up by their own efforts, and only when people fail should public support measures be considered.
The DPJ, in contrast, believes in a more activist government, he maintained.
In regard to LDP factions, Tanigaki acknowledged that these divisions remain a problem and that there are different schools of thought within the party in terms of financial and other issues.
He noted that the problem of factions derives from the LDP's history of being created out of two large conservative parties in 1955 which in turn had been created out of smaller parties.
Nevertheless, Tanigaki suggested that the party is fundamentally united on the core issues mentioned above.
The LDP leader could give no clear answer on whether or not his party would be willing to cooperate with the Kan administration in passing legislation in the Diet, at times suggesting that the LDP would try to provoke an early general election, and on other occasions speaking of possible cooperation.
When pressed by reporters, Tanigaki suggested that the leading opposition party would be waiting to see how the DPJ managed the Diet before they could formulate their response. If the ruling party acts "roughly," then the LDP would oppose them. If approached in a cooperative manner, the LDP might be willing to cooperate, he said.
He criticized Prime Minister Naoto Kan for discussing a consumption tax rise without presenting any specific plans about how the funds would be used. He requested that the ruling party must first make its own basic plan before engaging in negotiations with the opposition parties.
In regard to possible cooperation with Your Party, Tanigaki stated that he had spoken by phone with Yoshimi Watanabe only a few days earlier on the Bank of Japan issue, and the Your Party leader bluffly rejected any notion of working together.
Finally, Tanigaki also suggested that the strong performance of the LDP in the July 11 elections was very important for the party in the sense that some prospective LDP candidates were prepared to give up their efforts to run had the party performed badly.
The LDP leader said that his conservative party was now about halfway back to recovery.
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