Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s conservative ruling party braced for a blow to its comfortable majority in the lower house of the Japanese parliament in elections yesterday as a result of public rage over financial scandals and discontent over a stagnant economy.
According to exit polls by NHK, Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is certain to lose its majority in the 465-seat house, the more powerful of Japan’s two-chamber parliament.
It is still unclear if his ruling coalition with the junior partner Komeito can retain a majority.
Photo: AFP
The results could weaken Ishiba’s grip on power and if he cannot get his party’s policies through parliament, he might need to find a third partner.
Ishiba took office on Oct. 1, replacing Fumio Kishida, who resigned after failing to pacify the public over widespread slush fund practices among LDP lawmakers. Ishiba immediately ordered a snap general election in hopes of shoring up support by using his outspoken, reformist image.
A total of 1,344 candidates, including a record 314 women, are running for office.
Ishiba has set a goal of retaining a majority of 233 seats for the ruling coalition between the LDP and its Buddhist-backed Komeito.
NHK exit polls indicated that the LDP alone was expected to win 153 to 219 seats, down sharply from 247, a comfortable single majority it held previously. Komeito was expected to win 21 to 35 seats.
Ishiba, in his final speech on Saturday in Tokyo, apologized for his party’s mishandling of funds and pledged “to restart as an equal, fair, humble and honest party.”
He said only the LDP’s ruling coalition can responsibly run Japan with its experience and dependable policies.
Once a popular politician known for criticism of even his own party’s policies, Ishiba has also seen support for his weeks-old Cabinet plunge.
The biggest opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, is led by centrist leader Yoshihiko Noda who briefly served as prime minister during the LDP’s 2009 to 2012 descent from power.
Noda’s party is expected to make significant gains, with exit polls suggesting a huge increase to as many as 191 seats from 98.
Noda said the election is a rare chance for a change of government, which would be the most effective political reform, although his party has trouble finding other opposition groups with which to cooperate.
Ishiba’s LDP is expected to remain the top party in the parliament as voters are skeptical about the opposition’s ability and inexperience, analysts said.
“The public’s criticisms against the slush funds scandal has intensified, and it won’t go away easily,” said Izuru Makihara, a University of Tokyo professor of politics and public policy. “There is a growing sense of fairness and people are rejecting privileges for politicians.”
Ishiba needs bold political reform measures to regain public trust, he added.
Ishiba pledged to revitalize the rural economy, address Japan’s falling birth rate and bolster defense, but his Cabinet has old faces, only two women and was seen as alienating members of the scandal-tainted faction led by former prime minister Shinzo Abe.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS