Katsuya Okada
Katsuya Okada
Katsuya Okadais a Japanese politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of Japan from January to December 2012. A member of the House of Representatives of Japan, he is the President of the Democratic Party, and previously of the Democratic Party of Japan. He also served as Secretary-General of the DPJ three times. During the DPJ's period in government he was Foreign Minister of Japan...
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(Prime Minister Junichiro) Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party focused on a single issue of pros and cons regarding postal privatization--and the voters' attention was diverted to it.
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I resign from the head of the party. I would like the party to select a new leader without any delay. Our message did not reach people. I regret that.
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For those who think the current pension system isn't working, we want you to vote for the Democratic Party and let us carry through pension reforms under a Democratic administration.
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I think our party members staked (the party's future) on the Maehara's youth and ability ... It is utterly necessary for each DPJ lawmaker and other rank-and-file members to back the new leader and stick together.
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In his four years and four months in power, Koizumi was unable to carry out reform. In order to carry out true reform, there has to be a change in government. We are not fettered to past practices. Please let us handle the government.
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The biggest reason for our defeat is that we lost a lot of seats in urban areas where we were supposed have major support,
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The fact that you, as secretary general of a political party, made remarks contrary to the fact in a forum such as a news conference can mislead the public and is very regrettable. I strongly protest and demand that (you) retract the remark and apologize.
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We've been steadily making efforts for this day. Now we have finally came to this opportunity to change the government.
change country
This country will not change without a change of government,
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Despite running our campaign with our priority on manifestoes and policies, we failed to secure support from the voters,
arguing debate
I did what I had to do, but it was frustrating that we were never really arguing on the same plane. I wanted to debate policy.
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I don't believe that the people are naive enough to accept the prime minister's assertion that foreign affairs and other issues will be resolved if the postal services are privatized.
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I firmly believe our stance to focus on our policies was not wrong. Our message did not reach people. I regret that.
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There is no time left. We must change the administration in order to ensure the success of the reform initiatives.