The House of Representatives Dissolved

The House of Representatives was dissolved on October 9 and all the members of the House were immediately displaced. The Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet decided that the general election of the House would be proclaimed on October 15 and be voted on October 27. It is likely that the leading parties, a coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party, and the opposition parties will argue in the campaign over political reform to rebuild public confidence on politics.

Article 7 of the Constitution of Japan stipulates that dissolution of the House of Representatives is one of the acts in matters of state of the Emperor. In Plenary Session of the House, the Speaker of the House, Fukushiro Nukaga, read an imperial decree, saying “I dissolve the House of Representatives based on Article 7 of the Constitution of Japan.”

 

The constitution is interpreted that the prime minister has power to dissolve the house, because the Emperor does not have political power and his acts in matters of state should be performed with advice and approval of the Cabinet. Ishiba once questioned that interpretation to be inappropriate, arguing that arbitral exercise of the power in a preferable timing would violate context of the constitution. However, he chose an early snap election, because it looked to be preferable to the LDP. He explained that a new prime minister should be judged by the voters as early as possible.

 

The biggest issue in the campaign must be how to rebuild the people’s confidence to the politics, which has been eroded by the slush fund scandal of the LDP. Ishiba announced the result of selection of candidates in the general election that 12 LDP members among 48 who had failed in reporting fund from their factions would not get official endorsement from the party. Other 36 will receive official endorsement from the LDP, but they will not be on the list for proportional districts.

 

In the Question Time of the Diet a couple of hours before declaration of dissolution, the leader of Constitutional Democratic Party, Yoshihiko Noda, accused Ishiba that he decided to endorse most of the LDP members who failed reporting secret fund. To Noda’s question on treatment of the candidates who would be winning the election without LDP’s official endorsement, Ishiba indicated possibility of endorsing them after the election.

 

The opposition parties already announced their campaign policies. The CDP and Japan Innovation Party, or Nippon Ishin-no Kai, proposed prohibition of donation from companies and organizations, abolishment of policy activities fund, disclosure of fund for research and study, and regulation on heredity of seats.

 

The LDP occupied 258 seats out of 465 in the House of Representatives just before dissolution. Komeito had 32. It is likely that the LDP will reduce certain number of its seats, because of negative impact of the slush fund scandal. The LDP hopes to keep at least 233 of simple majority as the sum of LDP and Komeito. If the coalition sinks below the simple majority, it is possible that the LDP will drop out of the administration. Even if the coalition keeps majority, Ishiba administration will be unstable with internal protests in the LDP, depending on the number of reduction in seats.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amendment of Local Autonomy Law

The House of Representatives started discussion on revision of the Local Autonomy Law, which would vest the national government a power to instruct local government in an emergency. It may change the relationship between the national and local government, which has been recognized as equal. The opposition parties oppose the amendment, arguing that it would give the national government an excessive power.   With the Meiji Restoration, the national government abolished the feudal system, introducing modern governance. However, its autonomy was not sufficient. The governor of each prefecture was appointed by the national government. The local governments subordinated to the national government. It was as late as 2000 when  the Comprehensive Decentralization Law  was enacted and the relationship between the national and local government was defined as equal.   The national government found inconvenience in the relationship between the national and local government, when COVID-19 was preval
Read more

Request for Final Nuclear Disposal Site

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry requested Genkai Town, Saga, to accept “literature survey” for building a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste. Genkai is going to answer within this month. If it accepts, it will be the third place to accept that survey, following two places in Hokkaido. Main reason to accept the survey is supposed to be subsidy from the national government.   Japan has no final disposal site. Among all 54 reactors in 17 nuclear power generation plant, 12 reactors of 6 plants are operating. The rest of them are not in operation, some of which are determined to be decommissioned. Used nuclear fuels are stocked in each plant, 　 or have sent to a reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori. There are two plans to stock nuclear wastes in the intermediate facility for disposal, one is already built and another is still in negotiation.   Nuclear Fuel Final Disposal Act in 2000 determines to bury nuclear waste in the underground. Literature survey, which is
Read more

Death Penalty Demanded on Criminal of Arson

On the historically brutal case of arson, the public prosecutors demanded an ultimate penalty to the offender. In the trial on the arson and murder in Kyoto Animation in 2019, the prosecutors requested death penalty on the defendant, Shinji Aoba. The lawyers of Aoba argued that the court should avoid sentencing death penalty. The judgement will be passed next January. Aoba was indicted as putting fire after pouring gasoline in the building of Kyoto Animation (Kyoani), a studio producing animation works, and killed 36 staffs and injured 32 on July 18 th , 2019. In the trial, Aoba argued that he could not tolerate Kyoani, because it had stolen his novel story in its works. Aoba later apologized to the victim’s families that he had done too much and regretted it.   In the closing argument in Kyoto Regional Court, the prosecutors demanded death penalty for Aoba, because the number of victims were extremely high in the history of criminal trials in Japan. “It is hard to describe about how t
Read more