Party Posters (a left-wing wall)
Originally uploaded by nofrills
Two left-wing national political parties in Japan (共産党 and 社民党), one left-ish local small party in Tokyo (生活者ネットワーク) and one centrist party (民主党).
Don't believe the American mainstream media's lazy propaganda: 民主党, or the Liberal Party of Japan, is NOT on the leftside of the political spectrum. (If they are, the Liberal Democtrats are on the left, too - they have had Keynesian policy for a long time.)
The LPJ are just another centrist party made up of 1) ex-LDP members (conservatives, nationalists, ultra-nationalists) and 2) ex-Social Democratic Something members (they indeed are on the left, but not very influential even within the LPJ itself). The NYT's article was one of the worst I've read on this election. They didn't even know the LPJ are now not against the "war on terror". (They used to be strongly against it.) The UK's Times and the Guardian have had good articles published.
I intentionally avoided two other political parties linked to religious organisations (公明党 and 幸福実現党). 公明党 (Komei Party), which is currently part of the ruling coalition, is thought to be the political wing of a large religious organisation (Soka Gakkai). 幸福実現党 is a very new political party which really is a political wing of a new religion (新宗教, which can be roughly translated as "cult").
