Are Good Things Are Happening to Noda?

First, Mayor Hashimoto’s new political party slipped badly in the weekly Fuji TV Metropolitan Tokyo opinion poll Tokyo from 9.4% (Sept. 13) to 4.8% (Sept. 20). Next, Noda scored a landslide victory in his reelection bid as DPJ representative (Sept. 21). Now, all my friends think that the LDP gifted him when it brought back former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as its leader against the wishes of its rank-and-file, which had voted overwhelmingly for Shigeru Ishiba in the first round. Unfortunately for Ishiba, only Diet members are allowed to vote in the second-round runoff (Sept. 26).

Many people, I’m one of them, must be wondering; doesn’t the LDP want to win? But we could be wrong. And the LDP has been well ahead of the DPJ in the polls, We may know better on Sunday, when Fuji TV publishes its Sept. 27 poll.