LDP and JIP Differ on Nuclear Sharing

A survey on 1,285 candidates of the Lower House election conducted by Mainichi Shimbun found that a large part of candidates of Japan Innovation Party (JIP), the coalition partner of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), hoped Japan to consider nuclear sharing, which meant joint operation of nuclear weapons with the United States. It revealed a major difference in nuclear policy between JIP and LDP, which may affect formation of the coalition after the election. 

The question was whether Japan should possess nuclear weapons, should not possess them but should consider nuclear sharing or should neither possess nor consider them. Among JIP candidates, 91 percent answered that Japan should consider nuclear sharing with the U.S. The party includes in its campaign platform “beginning of discussion on nuclear sharing,” revision of Japan’s pacifistic principle, exclusively defense-oriented policy, and enhancement of Japan’s deterrence with constitutional amendment. Hawkish JIP identifies itself as “accel pedal of the LDP.”

 

However, LDP candidates are not so enthusiastic on hawkish agenda. 49 percent of LDP candidates believe that Japan should neither possess nuclear weapons nor consider nuclear sharing. The ratio of candidates who thought Japan should consider nuclear sharing was 35 percent, showing apparent contrast with JIP. Although Takaichi considers revision of three non-nuclear principles, especially the third principle of “not bringing nuclear weapons in” rather than other two, not producing and not possessing.

 

The LDP and JIP also differ over management of political money. While 98 percent of JIP candidates argued that donation from companies and organizations should totally be prohibited, 84 percent of LDP candidates did not recognize necessity of banning them. After slash fund scandal in LDP factions was revealed in 2023, the party suffered from serious defeats in consecutive two elections in 2024 and 2025. Although JIP had been raising banning that donations at the top of its policy priority, it stopped accusing the LDP after it decided to form a leading coalition with the LDP.

 

In the questions to opposition candidates, the Centrist Reform Alliance (CRA) showed certain integration on constitutional amendment. Although the CRA candidates were split over the amendment with 41 percent of yes and 39 percent of no, 76 percent of them were against changing Article 9. Even most candidates of former Komeito were against revision of the pacifist provision.

 

83 percent of CRA candidates thought that dependence of Japan’s energy on nuclear power should be reduced as much as possible. Although the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan had been advocating a society without nuclear power plant, the CRA decided to approve resumption of some plants. They reached a concession in which they focus on reduction of nuclear power plant as much as they can.

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

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

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