Following PM Kan's resignation, Japan's Ruling Party (DPJ) will be electing its new leader on Aug 29 (Monday).
There are five candidates who have entered the race: Maehara, Mabucchi, Kaieda, Noda, and Shikano (this follows the order in which they appear in the photo below).
Of all these five, Mabuchi is the best candidate for the Japanese people. He's become quieter since he began serving in the Cabinet, but he's definitely been one of the rising stars in the Diet. He's not like those phonies such as Maehara and Renho, who are all show with no content. He's been more of an investigative Diet member who fights. He definitely shined as an opposition politician. My sense is that he may be one of the few young leaders in the DPJ who have learned a useful lesson from the difficult transition into power. I've been following him for quite a number of years, and would like to see what he can do. Even if he doesn't win this round, if he puts up a good fight, he might have a real chance next year when whoever is elected now faces the end of his term. (It sounds totally stupid, but they are electing someone to replace Kan for the duration of Kan's two-year term as DPJ leader. So there's be another circus next year.)
Maehara is a hawk, and, I suspect, he has some very strong backing from the conservative establishment. Nothing else explains why he is still even considered to be a PM material in spite of his obvious political failures, which are numerous and all very serious. He's the least trustworthy of the five. This is a man who should never be allowed to have any power.
Noda and Kaieda are typical Japanese ministers who just do what the bureaucrats tell them to. They are dumb, weak, lack policy knowledge.
Shikano is non-entity.
