Japan's political crisis: No one wins | The Economist

Instead of being united behind reconstruction effort, Japanese politicians are fighting their own agenda. 

There are two major political parties in Japan, LDP and DPJ. LDP governed Japan for decades until DPJ took over in 2009. 

LDP initiated a no-confidence motion to topple the current Japanese government, because the Prime Minister Mr. Kan intended to scale down the importance of nuclear energy. Allegedly, the electricity utilities, Tokyo Electric Power has been big donors to the LDP and nuclear energy is their major source of income. 

Even within his own party, Mr Kan has to assure some of his party members that he would eventually step down, in order to win votes from them against the no-confidence motion. 

This show how divided the Japanese politicians are even in times of emergency.