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.
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 —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat