Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida yesterday dissolved the lower house of parliament, paving the way for elections on Oct. 31 that would be the country’s first of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At stake will be how Japan faces a potential COVID-19 resurgence and revives its battered economy, and if or how Kishida’s government can leave the shadow of nine years of rule under former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and former Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga.
Kishida said he is seeking a mandate for his policies after being elected prime minister by parliament only 10 days ago.
Photo: Reuters
He replaced Suga, who lasted just a year as prime minister and whose support was battered by his perceived high-handed approach in dealing with COVID-19 and insistence on holding the Tokyo Olympics, despite rising virus cases.
Kishida, tasked with rallying support for the ruling party, has promised to pursue politics of “trust and empathy.”
Four main opposition parties have agreed to cooperate on some policies, such as addressing gaps between the rich and the poor, which they say widened during Abe’s government and were worsened by the pandemic.
After Japanese House of Representatives Speaker Tadamori Oshima announced the dissolution, the 465 lawmakers in the more powerful lower chamber stood up, shouted “banzai” three times and left. Official campaigning for all 465 newly vacant seats begins on Tuesday.
The previous House of Representatives election was in 2017 under Abe, a staunch conservative who pulled the long-ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) further to the right during his stint as Japan’s longest-serving prime minister.
In that vote, the LDP and its coalition partner New Komeito together won 310 seats, or two-thirds of the chamber.
Opposition parties have struggled to win enough votes to form a new government after the brief rule of the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan from 2009 to 2012. With weaker LDP support under Suga, the party lost three parliamentary by-elections and a local vote this year to opposition contenders.
Yukio Edano, head of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition party, told Japan Broadcasting Corp that he hopes to make the election “a first step toward changing the politics.”
In his first policy speech last week, Kishida promised to improve the country’s pandemic response, revive the economy, and bolster defenses against threats from China and North Korea.
He also sought to gradually expand social and economic activities by using vaccination certificates and more testing.
Yuichiro Tamaki, head of the Democratic Party for the People, said Kishida was selfish for dissolving the lower house so early in his tenure.
“It is unclear on what policies he is seeking a mandate from the voters,” Tamaki said.
He said his party would propose an economic policy that seeks higher pay for workers.
“We want to create a political situation where ruling and opposition blocs are in close competition,” Tamaki said.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS