Overjoyed DPP Tries to Control LDP

The Head of Democratic Party for the People, Yuichiro Tamaki, requested the Prime Minister, Shigeru Ishiba, to increase nuclear power plant to secure necessary electricity for Japanese economy. Newly building of nuclear power plant is a policy that even the Liberal Democratic Party has been hesitating to promote. Overjoyed with victory in the general election of the House of Representatives in October, the small party with twenty-eight lawmakers in the Lower House keeps on pushing its policy to the LDP.

“We wrote down that the government needs to promote building new nuclear power plants, the policy which the LDP did not include in their platform for the general election,” told Tamaki to the reporters after he met with Ishiba and handed a document of policy proposal to the prime minister. Ishiba insisted that safety and security would be the basis of the discussion over nuclear power plant.

 

The government of Japan is planning to revise current Basic Energy Plan, which estimates demand and supply of future energy in Japan, by the end of this year. The plan is expected to set a target for shares of electric resources in 2040. The share of nuclear power generation is one of the biggest talking points. Tamaki requested Ishiba to include construction of additional nuclear power plants in the plan.

 

The DPP focuses more on implementation of policies than demonstrating opposition to the leading parties. Considering firm support from labor union of the workers in electric power companies, which possess nuclear power plants, the DPP approves positive use of nuclear power generation. One of the leaders of Japan Trade Union Confederation joined the meeting between Tamaki and Ishiba.

 

There has been a discussion over additional nuclear power plants in the LDP. Some candidates in the presidential election in September proposed further use of nuclear power to cover growing demand of electricity, namely for data center for artificial intelligence or chip businesses. However, skepticisms on nuclear power generation remains in Japan after Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant caused an unprecedented severe accident in 2011.

 

Since obtaining crucial votes in the House of Representatives after the general election, the DPP continues to make policy proposals to the leading coalition. Raising threshold of income tax waiver at 1.03 million yen is one of them. The DPP even declined opposition to the landfill in Henoko, Okinawa, which the opposition parties had been criticizing unilateral promotion leaving protests of the people in Okinawa behind.

 

There is an example that one of the opposition parties took a position further eccentric than radical groups in the LDP. That is Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin-no Kai). Ishin insisted on early amendment of the Constitution of Japan, urging determined action without building a broad consensus in the Diet. Having power to decide to pass or kill any bill in the Lower House, the DPP takes radical position in policies as Ishin previously did.

 

However, Komeito is reluctant to build additional nuclear power plants, in the situation that not so much power plants have been resumed their operation with strict safety standards. It can be a political maneuver for a small party to make policy deals with the leading party. But, it is not clear how long the LDP keeps appeasing a small opposition party.

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