Jun Okumura wrote:

>A better place to look for a legally imposed financial
barrier to new
>entries would be the Political Party Subsidies Act...
in fact, this
>averages out to 44,341,180 yen worth of hay per Diet
member....(The
>arrangement is also likely to put regional
micro-parties (four Diet
>members or less) at a disadvantage.)
>
What's wrong with putting micro-parties at a disadvantage? Japan already has so many veto points that prevent a majority from getting things done. How does it help democracy to allow the micro-party tail wag (or
veto) the big party dog? I recall the early days of DPJ rule when DPJ supporters said Hatoyama was allowing Shizuka Kamei to dictate things.
Countries where single-issue splinter parties play a kingmaker role (e.g. Israel) don't seem to do so well.
It would seem a good idea that a small party needs to certain minimum level of support to gain a role. I think in some European Proportional Representation electoral systems, a party has to get 5% of the vote to get any parliamentary seats, whereas in 2005, New Party Daiichi got 1 PR seat in the Lower House with just 1% of the PR vote.

Richard Katz
The Oriental Econmomist Report