I would like to thank all Kiwis for Fix and Fogg peanut butter (because when its on discount its unit price is relatively decent but its also very yummy)

Im starting to feel rather old, because i have incredibly clear memories about SA Best, and yet it was 8 years ago

For all those who find it annoying that some use local government/state parliament as a ladder into higher office - the governor of Osaka Yoshimura Hirofumi, who was only re-elected to the governorship less than 2 weeks ago, told a party assembly that he would... digital.asahi.com/articles/ASV...

My friend (who also studies japanese language) just said that I am 'a weeb but instead of anime its for Japanese Politics, which i think is somehow worse'

It only just occured to me that Hatoyama Yukio and Kevin Rudd - Have the same cadence - won a significant mandate that was a change of government - got kicked out during their 1st term

I just realised the Tasmanian LG elections in October are the first since LLMs became a big thing Really looking forward to some awesome AI action

So are the Greens ever going to announce the candidates for this? They said that they would have the replacement in place in March! #politas

One of the great mysteries for me is how Japanese defence minister Koizumi Shinjiro and Richard Marles became friends they are both serving politicians for quite some time but there wasnt any previous portfolio overlap as far as i can tell

Japan's love of proposing to build casions (called IR resorts, modeled off of singapore) on island and Japan's other love of building airports on islands has led to the inevitable - a proposal to build a IR Resort on and Island where there is an airport www.chunichi.co.jp/article/1207...

How was the Japanese election less than a week ago

With there now being a candidate i know about in the field for the Hobart City Council, i've started the 2026 HCC Candidate Tracker #politas #lgtas docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

In other news - the race for Hobart City Council has begun, with its first declared candidate (I think?)! Incument Cr. Ryan Posselt has announced he's running for Mayor and Council #lgtas

certified Financial Times Moment

Noda Yoshihiko has the unwelcome record of being the leader who took the liberal opposition to its 2 worst defeats. Over this, one anonymous high ranking Democratic Party of Japan official, speaking to the Yomiuri, called him a 'Class-A War Criminal' news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/36f...

Very funny that Tim Wilson sort of pretended like he was backing Ley without actually saying so on 7:30 tonight haha

The Centrist Reform alliance won so few seats they decided to do away with a diet member support requirement to run for leader - even a 10 member requirement would be nearly a quarter of caucus

Trying to imagine what a politician who campaigns on weakening the economy looks like

Mainichi Shinbun has a deep dive into the race in Iwate 3rd which really illustrates that the opposition really did not know what was going to hit them Ozawa, the incumbent, campaigned for the first 3 days of the election in his district … /1

Given that two pro baseball teams in Japan are owned by railway operators (Hanshin and Seibu), is there some mega fan who will inconvenience themselves in order to ride on the trains of their favourite baseball team?

The Komei-CDP deal was underpinned by the assumption that the CDP could give up some PR Block seats in turn for the Komeito's support in Single Member District. They ended up with 7 (!) diet districts total, and surrendering the 28 of the top PR Blocks seats to the Komeito

To illustrate an issue for the former CDP - of the 4 candidates who stood last time in the CDP election (2024) Noda - re-elected Izumi - re-elected Edano - lost diet district, might get revived in PR layer Yoshida - Lost, probably entirely ...who do you turn to now?

Leaders of the DPJ, DP, CDP, and CRA, who contested Okada Katsuo - Lost Ozawa Ichiro - Lost Banri Kaieda - Lost Maehara Seiji - Won (with Ishin) Edano Yukio - Lost Izumi Kenta - Won (barely) Noda Yoshihiko - Won (barely) (+ bonus Eda Kenji (who led Ishin no To) - Lost)

Ozawa Ichiro has been defeated according to the NHK i believe he may very well have been the longest serving member of a national elected parliament, serving since December 1969 continuously until now

According the NHK, the LDP has now won 300 seats, a feat not achieved ever by the party under the current electoral system it has only been achieved once before, in 1986, when the diet was 47 seats larger and multi-member districts elected using SNTV were used

Okada Katsuya is gone, according the NHK (also that should say 1996)

It is 4 hours since polls closed, and the NHK has only called 5 diet districts for the CRA 1 of those is leader Noda Yoshihiko, whose victory was just called by the NHK

The NHK seat count has ticked over to 295, surpassing Abe Shinzo's greatest victory of 294 in 2012 Next milestole is 297, 1 better than the 296 Koziumi Junichiro managed in 2005

Hokkaido 2024 vs 2026 (red is LDP, blue is CDP/CRA)

Hokuriku Koshin Block 2024 vs 2026 (Red is LDP, Blue is CDP/CRA)

The CDA has won their first SMD - Kagoshima 3rd!

Noda Yoshihiko will have led the main opposition force (DPJ -> DP -> CDP -> CRA) to - Second Best Result (24) - Second Worst Result (12) - Worst Result (Probably 26) (im excluding '17 from this because that election was, to put it mildly, weird so the CDP winning 55 seats felt like a big victory)

Its about to be 3 hours since polls closed and the Asahi is yet to call a single seat for the Centrist Reform Alliance so far

NHK - LDP and Ishin no Kai will secure 310 seats, a 2/3 majority in the house Needed for passage of constitutional amendment, and can pass bills defeated in the House of Councillors

This is not important in the grand scheme of things but Saito Tetsuo, the coleader of the Centrist Reform Alliance, is a fan of train timetables? He likes to read them

2024 results in Nagano - 2-3 to the opposition 2026 - 5-0 to the LDP (First time LDP has managed this since the introduction of single member districts, first used at an election in 1996) www.47news.jp/13839129.html

Former CDP Leader Izumi Kenta - 'it is incredibly painful. It is painful...'

According to the Mainichi Shinbun the hammering of the CRA makes the resignation of coleaders Noda Yoshihiko and Saito Testsuya 'inevitable' mainichi.jp/articles/202...

Takaichi Sanae's first appearance post exit poll release has been to call a snowboarder who got a gold medal

Murakami Seiichiro will likely win

Bigwigs in the opposition are under the pump Okada Katsuya, 2 time leader of the main opposition party who has held his diet district with little difficulty since 1995, may lose his seat according to exit polls

There was an expectation that if the election was going poorly, Asami Jun, the secretary general of the former CDP could be under threat in Miyagi 4th Both the Asahi and the NHK have him LOSING based just off this exit polls a complete and total unmitigated disaster

According to exit polls Takaichi Sanae is well on track to securing a significant majority, possibly over 300 seats which has never been achieved by the LDP under the current electoral system (first used in 1995)

Takaichi Sanae somehow picked one of the snowiest days of the year for the election (photo is from this morning in Osaka where it very very rarely snows)

the actual PM bought out an onion grown in the area where she was campaigning when discussing cost of living

LDP Candidate and former diet member Sugita Mio has bought out her 'secret weapon' for the final days of the campaign... a cardboard cutout of the PM?

🧵 2 of 3 on Japanese campaign rallies - this time a Japan Communist Party rally. The rally was held in Fushimi-Momoyama in Kyoto City. Kyoto is the best city for the JCP, though Fushimi is a little away from their best area in Sakyo, though they're only 20 mins away by train. Oddly, this rally...

🧵 1 of 3 on rallies - first on an LDP rally with PM Takaichi Sanae, where you could really sense 'Takaichi Mania' First, on setting and security - The rally was held in Ogura on the outskirts of Kyoto prefecture Immediately noticeable was there was relatively significant security.

no one follow me!

Slightly fun story from Japan's election The Yomiuri Shinbun did a candidate survey where they asked candidates to rate the various leaders of parties. LDP politician Murakami Seiichiro, one of former PM's Ishiba Shigeru's closet allies and longstanding rival of conservatives in the LDP

im stuck inside sick and currently listening to Jason Kenny rant about Pierre Pollieve on CBC