JAPAN: Miscalculation!

His party brings down Ohira

In a comedy of miscalculations that left Japan's politicians in shock, the government of Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira was suddenly toppled last week and forced to call for new elections. The defeat of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party Cabinet came on a no-confidence vote that was introduced by the opposition Socialist Party. The motion leveled serious charges against the government: inaction against corruption in its ranks, recklessly inflationary economic policies, excessive defense spending. Still, it was no more devastating than a number of other opposition attacks. This time, to everyone's astonishment, 70 legislators in Ohira's...

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