On June 26, Ishihara Shintaro and his crack team of 21 other right-wing National Diet members announced that their new political party will be called the “Next Generation Party,” and will be formally launched in August. Ishihara’s no stranger to starting and naming (and also leaving) political parties, having spearheaded both the Sunrise Party and the Japan Restoration Party, but this latest announcement is gaining an inordinate amount of attention on the internet and in the media.
The new party will be called the “Next Generation Party,” which is a little ironic given that Ishihara is an 81-year-old neo-conservative. Netizens seem to be having more than a little trouble taking the new party seriously, but they have succeeded in expressing their contempt in the form of some brilliant puns and other inventive insults. The internet reactions provide solid proof that Ishihara isn’t as in touch with the younger generation as he wants us to think.
From Yahoo! Japan:
New Political Party Named “Next Generation Party” – Ishihara Group to Launch in August
After seceding from the Japan Restoration Party to form a new political party, Ishihara Shintaro’s group announced on June 26 that they have decided the name of the new party will be “Next Generation Party.” The name uses one of the three ideological pillars of the new party, which are “independence,” “neoconservatism,” and “the next generation.” It’s predicted that the 22 National Diet Members (19 lower house members, three upper house members) who belong to this new party will wait for the dissolution process of the Restoration Party to be complete before they launch the new party on August 1.
Ishihara held a press conference in the assembly hall of the lower house of the Diet, and said of the goal behind the new name, “It is truly our responsibility to come to the rescue of the all the young people who are faced with reduced options in life, including the wealth disparity and the inability to get married.”
Comments from Yahoo! Japan:
nm1***:
People will mistake it for
“Old Man’s Generation Party” [a near homophone].
碧海:
No matter how you look at it, it’s the “Last Generation Party.”
スターマン:
How many times are they gonna make a new party?
どんまいバチカン:
This is the second part of a “life-risking party name joke,” where they ultimately didn’t manage a sunrise [play on one of Ishihara’s former political parties] and continued along with their “sunset”. Just a bunch of nostalgic, destructive geriatrics calling themselves the “next generation,” how ridiculous (笑)
nanana :
The party leader of the Next Generation Party is a controlling old man of the last generation. Anyhow, the branding is totally senseless. Do they not have any political sense, either?
fri*****:
In the end, it’s for money, the political party subsidy money.
ABC:
The Geezer Party is more like it. ‘Cause they’re all gonna be gone soon anyways ww in more sense than one ww
rei*****:
Calling themselves the Next Generation Party even though the members are all from the last generation…
P-O-X:
Next Generation Party [Pronounced jisedai no tou] + Your Party [Pronounced minna no tou] = ji-min-tou (the Liberal Democratic Party)
I see…
saikinusuge:
The next generation?
for*****:
It’s the Pressuring-the-Next-Generation Party.
Jes tHe HypoKrisis:
This name is a joke, right?? It’s okay that it makes me laugh, right?? Right??
nao*****:
If the old people truly make their politics oriented towards the young generation, then I applaud them.
ted***** :
It’s the ”Sending-the-Bill-to-the-Next-Generation Party.”
tan***** :
Even though it’s just a bunch of old people ww
kyuuriame:
This is the party name they come up with after all that thinking?
sho*****:
If he was gonna end up with something like this, he should have just stuck with the Sunrise Party the whole time…!
焼肉用礼品ACT3:
The expression “like bamboo shoots after the rain” exists for the politicians’ political parties that just keep popping up and disappearing, popping up and disappearing again just for the sake of the political party subsidy money. Isn’t the Communist Party the really conservative one? Those other guys who keep changing their name over and over and over again, they’re urging us to open the country, open the country through the TPP. Selling Japan to America isn’t really conservative, is it?
xgp*****:
What are we supposed to do when the old people of the last generation are insisting that they’re the next generation?
kf1*****:
I no longer understand how many political parties there are.
