Rank and File Members Hope LDP to Turn Right

The victory of Sanae Takaichi in presidential election of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) indicated a preference of conservative agenda among rank and file members of the party. Takaichi is likely to face a difficulty in balancing between implementation of her alleged conservative agenda and necessity to reintegrate her party. Ultra-right stance of her may cause gridlock in promoting policies with support of the opposition parties in the Diet, where the LDP does not have a majority in each House. 

The presidential race became a match between anti-Ishiba bloc and pro-Ishiba groups. Among five candidates, Takayuki Kobayashi, Toshimitsu Motegi and Takaichi were categorized as anti-Ishiba lawmakers who embraced frustration against Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba of his leadership in two national elections in 2024 and 2025. Kobayashi and Motegi supported Takaichi in the run-off election, after they were defeated in the first round.

 

Shinjiro Koizumi and Yoshimasa Hayashi were the candidates of incumbent ministers of Ishiba cabinet, who were in the position in which they had to succeed basic policies of Ishiba administration. Although voters for Hayashi in the first round were expected to vote for Koizumi in the run-off, some lawmakers for Hayashi were supposed to have gone to Takaichi.

 

The rank-and-file votes in the first round affected much to the lawmakers voting in the run-off. While Koizumi received 84 votes from general party members in the first round, Takaichi achieved 119. It was likely that the rank and file party members had been facing outstanding advance of conservative movement that raised some right-wing parties such as Sanseito. They might have thought that such a president as Takaichi could regain those conservative votes.

 

The margin of 35 was so bigger than expected that lawmakers, even the voters for Hayashi in the first round, voted for Takaichi. Takaishi is known as constantly visited Yasukuni Shrine that enshrines war criminals and an advocacy of succession to imperial throne by male offspring in male line. Attracting xenophobic right-wing groups, Takaichi upholds stricter regulation to foreigners and foreign investment in Japan.

 

Takaichi’s right-wing stance makes her difficult to reunite the LDP which was divided between the anti-Ishiba and the pro-Ishiba. The partner of leading coalition, Komeito, warned Takaichi that visiting Yasukuni Shrine would cause diplomatic disputes with some neighbor countries, such as China or South Korea. Takaichi needs to take care of unification of her own party and leading coalition.

 

Another issue for Takaichi is how she can promote her policies with support from opposition parties. Although she shares some policies with opposition parties, it is not easy to find a party that can participate in the leading coalition. It requires high-level integration, including mutual cooperation in each single-seat district of the House of Representatives. Rebuilding ailing LDP is not an easy job for the new president.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LDP Kickoffs Presidential Election

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)   kicked off  its presidential election campaign on September 22 and five lawmakers officially submitted their candidacy to the party. Having lost majority in both Houses of the Diet under the leadership of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the presidential election should be about how to regain power through reform of the party. Nevertheless, the candidates do not talk much about the reform, rather focusing on economic policies for the people or maneuvers to attract the opposition parties.   Those five candidates are former Minister on Economic Security Takayuki Kobayashi, former LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, former Minister on Economic Security Sanae Takaichi and Miniser of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Shinjiro Koizumi.   Kobayashi insists on temporary income tax cut with a fixed rate, which return is bigger for high-income taxpayers than them with low-income. Identifying h...
Read more

BOJ Begins to Sell ETF

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) decided to keep its short-term rate at 0.5 percent in its Monetary Policy Meeting on September 19 th . While it had been expected that the bank would not change the policy rate in the meeting, the meeting unanimously agreed on beginning to sell exchange-traded funds (ETF). Although the policy reflected the bank’s determination for normalizing its monetary policy, the Governor of JOB, Kazuo Ueda, predicted that it would take a hundred years to release all the ETF it possesses. While the BOJ started buying ETF, a financial product which is equivalent to investment trust, in 2010, the bank abruptly increased its quantity of purchase in 2013, under the leadership of then governor, Haruhiko Kuroda, who exchanged an accord with Shinzo Abe administration to cooperate to get rid of deflation and to achieve stable economic growth. The amount of ETF bought by the BOJ has reached 37 trillion yen.   Purchase of ETF by a central bank has been recognized as a prohibited m...
Read more

Contaminated Soil to Prime Minister’s Residence

Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet discussed how the radioactively contaminated soil in Fukushima prefecture would be treated and decided some of it should be used in Prime Minister’s Official Residence in Tokyo. Although the soil needs to be removed from Fukushima with legal requirement, the government of Japan has not found anywhere it should go. Ishiba administration hopes that the decision will pave the way for any local community to accept the soil.   Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant emitted a huge amount of radiation into the air, which contaminated the land surface around the site, in the severe accident in East Japan Great Earthquake in 2011. The contaminated soil in Fukushima prefecture was stocked in the intermediate stockyard built in the towns of Futaba and Okuma, where the power plant is located. The government promised the people in Fukushima to remove the soil out of Fukushima prefecture within thirty years, when it decided to build the stockyard in 2014.   The total a...
Read more