Key issues in Japan's upcoming general election

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has pledged to achieve "fairer wealth distribution", after years of pre-Covid-19 growth failed to translate into higher wages and worsened the rich-poor divide, while promising a "comprehensive and ambitious" stimulus package.

The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP), meanwhile, is calling for the consumption tax to be halved from 10 per cent to 5 per cent.

Both scenarios are nightmarish for the finance ministry's top bureaucrat Koji Yano, who wrote in an op-ed: "These ideas give the impression that Japan has an unlimited amount of money in its coffers."

Japan has the worst fiscal debt among developed economies. Mr Yano's rebuke got under the skin of the LDP, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida saying that the civil servant can express his views all he wants but must fall in line once the direction is set. DEFENCE The LDP manifesto emphasises Japan's partnerships with the United States, the Quad, Asean, Europe and Taiwan, with the Free and Open Indo-Pacific vision a key plank of foreign and defence policy.

It also endorses Taiwan's application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact.

The LDP has also vowed to increase defence-related spending to 2 per cent of gross domestic product - double the current artificial ceiling.

The CDP manifesto has similar pledges, but without such overt support for Taiwan.

The LDP manifesto sticks pretty much to the status quo, retaining a longstanding pledge to create a more conducive environment for women at work and in society.

The CDP goes further in also promising "a society where no one is left behind", by allowing married couples to keep separate surnames and recognising gay marriages. It also says it would open a national human rights institution against discrimination.