Japan Aff Michigan
Kan Solves Democracy and Economy
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Kan Solves Democracy and EconomyPut away your impact turns: Kan is the best to solve democracy and the economy. He’s popular now but his political future is still uncertain. Harris, 7/5 – PhD Candidate in Political Science @ MIT (7/5/10, Tobias, Newsweek, “Yes He Kan?; Restoring Confidence in Japan’s DPJ”, http://www.lexisnexis.com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T9621634394&format=GNBFI&sort=BOOLEAN&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T9621634397&cisb=22_T9621634396&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=5774&docNo=1) With the election of Naoto Kan, the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has achieved a miracle. Following the resignations of embattled Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and scandal-tainted secretary-general Ichiro Ozawa, the public has returned to the party that won a majority of historic proportions less than a year ago. According to Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun, the new government boasts a 60 percent approval rating, compared with 17 percent for the Hatoyama government in May. The Yomiuri Shimbun, another daily, found that government support among independent voters--by far the most important bloc--swelled from 9 to 52 percent. More significantly, the DPJ's chances of winning a majority in upper-house elections in July have improved dramatically. The lesson is that the public has by no means lost faith in the DPJ as an agent of political change. If anything, low public approval reflected the idea that Hatoyama and Ozawa were insufficiently distinct from LDP rule and its pathologies. Kan does not suffer from that problem. Having begun his career as a member of a small center-left party and earned a reputation as a crusader for clean government and participatory democracy, Kan will enable the DPJ to reclaim the platform that first brought it to power: the creation of a transparent government that answers to the public's fears about Japan's economic future. The problems facing Kan are no less daunting than those that greeted his predecessors. The IMF recently predicted that Japan's national debt will reach 250 percent of GDP by 2015. Like previous governments, Kan has to find a way to rein in public spending while providing for Japan's aging population, promoting new forms of economic growth, and reducing carbon emissions. In Kan, Japan may have its best chance to make progress on these fronts. As the son of a salaryman, Kan has Everyman credentials that his patrician predecessors lacked. It will be easier for a middle-class prime minister to ask for sacrifices like a consumption-tax increase than for prime ministers like Aso and Hatoyama, who hailed from wealthy political dynasties. Moreover, for Kan, improving Japan's democracy is not just political boilerplate: he has spent his career working on behalf of greater public participation in government and more communication between policymakers and citizens. He is the right leader for restoring public confidence in the government through greater transparency. It helps that Kan and his top advisers, especially Yukio Edano, the new DPJ secretary-general, have sought to distance the new government from Ozawa. More than any policy issue, Ozawa had become the main polarizing force within the party, as members debated the reforms that concentrated power in his office, as well as his response to the ongoing investigation of his campaign funds. One of Kan's first decisions as party leader was to create a new party policymaking outfit that would facilitate communication between the government and DPJ M.P.s. By restoring the confidence of party members in party leadership, Kan will be better able to ask them to support ambitious policies to attack the country's economic problems. A leading advocate of introducing Westminster-style cabinet government to Japan, Kan sees the cabinet as the fount of democratic leadership, a force for creative policymaking in contrast to Japan's bureaucracy. And unlike Hatoyama, Kan may be capable of making cabinet government a reality. Having served as a cabinet minister--first as health minister in 1996 and again as finance minister and minister for national strategy under Hatoyama--Kan has managerial experience that his predecessor wholly lacked, which may prove useful for managing cabinet debates. Furthermore, while Kan retained 11 ministers from the Hatoyama government, the new ministers are, if anything, even more committed to restoring Japan's finances and reforming the policymaking process. Still, there is no guarantee that the Kan government will be able to overcome Japan's economic challenges--or win enough seats in this summer's elections to free the DPJ of its dependence on coalition partners. But headed by a prime minister with the common touch who stresses transparency, the Kan government may be Japan's best chance--yes, better than Koizumi--of restoring the public's trust and making the decisions necessary to overcome Japan's profound economic insecurity. APEC Reform GoodKan will reform APEC—growth, integration, and energy AFP, 6/24 (6/24/10, “Japan PM Vows to Reshape APEC”, http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i1TiUy762kZKKMeKvBno2t9Dt9lw) TORONTO, Canada — New Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has vowed to reshape APEC to foster better integration and longer term growth, when Japan takes over the chair of Asia-Pacific's top economic club this year. "Increasingly, the Asia-Pacific region is having its presence felt as a center of world economic growth," Kan, who took over the reins of Japan's government just three weeks ago, writes ahead of two key summits here. "Asia is recovering from the crisis rapidly and resiliently. It is driving the world economy with its robust growth. "Therefore as APEC chair in this important year, I intend to reshape APEC for the 21st century under the theme 'Change and Action.'" In a briefing document for the G8 and G20 summits in Canada this week, Kan vows that under Japan's guidance: "APEC will promote greater regional integration and develop mid- to long-term growth strategies for the whole region." Such strategies must lead to inclusive and sustainable growth and take into account the environment and energy needs, argues Kan, who was due to make his international debut at the two summits. The 21-member APEC was launched 20 years ago to promote trade and strengthen economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, which now accounts for more than half the world's economic activity and 40 percent of its population. APEC leaders are set to meet for a summit scheduled for November in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo. It will be held back-to-back with the next G20 leaders summit in Seoul. "It is my intention for Japan to enhance the synergy among the G20, the G8 and APEC by delivering the voices and experiences of the Asia-Pacific region to the world," Kan writes. APEC members include the mighty economies of the United States, China and Japan, as well as minnows Brunei and Papua New Guinea. At least 11 more countries, mostly from Latin America, are lobbying to join, but their applications must win unanimous approval of the existing partners. Kan's new administration hopes to revive confidence in Japan, the world's second largest economy, by introducing a new era of fiscal discipline and beginning to reduce the industrialized world's biggest public debt mountain. Directory: files files -> Answer True False 2 points Question 2 files -> Integer programming and game theory files -> 4 Integer Programming files -> Bpa vehicle Window Repair Scenario #1 task: Procure vehicle window relacement. 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