Appeals of Party Leaders in the Last Ditch

The 50th general election was voted at about 45 thousands of polling stations all over Japan on October 27th. The turnout of voters for early voting were about 16 million, less than last general election in 2021. The biggest point of this election is whether the leading coalition by the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito can maintain their majority in the House. The leaders of parties fought to the last ditch, appealing their issues to the voters. 

The LDP had to deal with its own slush fund scandal, made by some factions in the party, through the campaign. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, LDP president, reiterated his apology to the voters in his speech on the last day of election campaign on October 26th. “The LDP will make a restart as a party of fairness, justice, modesty and honesty,” said Ishiba in his last speech in Koto city, Tokyo.

 

While it was supposed that LDP-Komeito coalition would keep their majority in the House at the beginning of the campaign, the polls of news organizations showed growing public frustration on the scandal in the LDP. Some began to imagine a possibility of new administration by opposition parties.

 

“We cannot rely on some parties that do not have clear idea on where Japan is going to,” said Ishiba. He reiterated criticisms against the opposition parties in the latter half of campaign. “The opposition parties are not united even in economic policies,” the chief representative of Komeito, Keiichi Ishii, told in his speech in Iwamizawa, Hokkaido.

 

The dragging down those parties from administration by accusing the scandal is common strategy of the opposition parties. The Constitutional Democratic Party raised a slogan that the best political reform is replacing administration. “This is the choice of administration. Do you choose the LDP administration with politics of secret fund, or CDP administration which terminates politics of secret fund?” said the head of CDP, Yoshihiko Noda, in his campaign speech in Itabashi city, Tokyo.

 

Japan Communist Party appealed its effort for disclosing LDP’s wrong use of political fund. It was its newspaper, Shimbun Akahata, that revealed illegal management of political fund by factions in LDP last fall. The newspaper also revealed LDP’s distribution of fund to the independent candidates in the general election, who had been dropped from the slate of LDP. “We have pushed LDP to the ditch by exposing their wrongdoings. We will sweep it away,” JCP General Secretary, Tomoko Tamura, said in Tokyo.

 

Japan Innovation Party also raised its basic policy for political reform. “We introduced free education through political reform in Osaka. We will do it in the national level,” said the leader, Nobuyuki Baba in Sakai city, Osaka. Some other parties focused on economic policies. Democratic Party for the People argued that they would increase net income of workers, while Reiwa Shinsengumi upheld abolishment of consumption tax.

 

Social Democratic Party insist on maintaining peace by keeping the Constitution of Japan unchanged. Sanseito opposed economic globalism.

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