Japan PM Ishiba dissolves Parliament for ‘honeymoon’ snap election
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Japan PM Shigeru Ishiba announced that the LDP would not endorse some disgraced party members implicated in the political funding scandal.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba dissolved Parliament on Oct 9 ahead of snap elections on October 27, banking on his political honeymoon and a fragmented opposition to lead his scandal-tainted party to victory.
Mr Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has governed Japan almost uninterrupted for decades – albeit with frequent leader changes – and is almost certain to be re-elected.
But Mr Ishiba, named Prime Minister just last week
“We want to face this election fairly and sincerely, so as for this government to obtain (public) trust,” Mr Ishiba told reporters on Oct 9.
Later, the Speaker of Parliament read out a letter from the Prime Minister with the emperor’s seal, formally dissolving Parliament as lawmakers shouted the traditional rallying cry of “banzai”.
The three-year government of Mr Ishiba’s predecessor Fumio Kishida suffered record-low approval ratings due to a slush fund scandal and voter discontent over rising prices.
Polls last week gave Mr Ishiba’s Cabinet approval ratings of 45 per cent to 50 per cent, compared with 20 per cent to 30 per cent for the Kishida administration’s final month. Mr Ishiba’s backers hope the self-confessed defence “geek” and outspoken critic of the LDP establishment will boost the party’s popularity, including by persuading young people to vote.
By dissolving Parliament now, the 67-year-old wants to put his party to the test before his “honeymoon” period ends, said University of Tokyo political science professor Yu Uchiyama.
“It makes sense that he wanted to call a snap election as soon as the ‘face’ of the party changed, while the momentum is still there,” he told AFP. Prof Uchiyama added that Mr Ishiba also wanted to catch opposition forces flat-footed as the LDP’s foes remain undecided about how to coordinate with one another in the election.
But the Prime Minister’s decision to call a snap election
Some voters saw it as a disappointing sign that he had “yielded to the pressure within his party” to dissolve Parliament for political gain, Prof Uchiyama said.
Over the weekend, Mr Ishiba announced that the LDP would not endorse some disgraced party members implicated in the political funding scandal in the election.
The announcement reflected his desire to demonstrate to the public that he can be “strict” and “likely regained public trust in him a bit”, Prof Uchiyama said.
Fresh promises
To counter China, Mr Ishiba has backed the creation of a regional military alliance along the lines of Nato, although he admitted on Oct 7 it would “not happen overnight”.
Analyst Yee Kuang Heng of the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Public Policy told AFP the idea sounded like a “blast from the past”, recalling the now-defunct Seato (South-east Asia Treaty Organisation).
Mr Ishiba said the security environment in Asia was “the most severe since the end of World War II”, and warned in his first policy speech on Oct 4 that “today’s Ukraine could be tomorrow’s East Asia”.
Japan is also facing a looming demographic crisis as its population ages and the birth rate stays stubbornly low – a situation Mr Ishiba called a “quiet emergency” on Oct 4. He said his government would promote measures to support families such as flexible working hours.
Mr Ishiba has also pledged to “ensure Japan’s economy emerges from deflation”, and wants to boost incomes through a new stimulus package as well as support for local governments and low-income households.
The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, meanwhile, seeks to differentiate itself from the LDP on a range of diversity issues, including vowing to legalise same-sex marriages.
It also pledges to allow married couples to maintain separate surnames. AFP
