Most LDP Lawmakers Study National Power

Eleven lawmakers in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) launched a study group called National Power Research Group with participation of over eighty percent of LDP lawmakers on May 21st. While the leaders insist that the group is genuinely for policy research, no news report took it as it is. The group is regarded as supporters for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi who keeps high popularity. Most members joined it not to be left behind. Some take distance from it, finding a taste of fascism in it. 

Takaichi published a book titled “Study of National Power” in August 2024, just before LDP presidential election in which Takaichi ran. The book describes her policies to strengthen Japan both in terms of national security and economy, which may consist her platform for the presidential campaign that would lead to the prime minister of Japan. Those policies are succeeded to current Takaichi administration.

 

The study group was established for implementing Takaichi’s key policies. Its English name is “Japan Is Back (JIB).” While the words are what former premier Shinzo Abe referred to in his speech in Washington, D.C. in 2013, their implication as the name of a group is not clear. 347 Diet members of the LDP participated in the first meeting on May 21st. It occupied 83 percent of all 417 LDP lawmakers in both chambers of the Diet. Former Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare, Katsunobu Kato, assumed the chair.

 

The group has eleven LDP lawmakers who took initiative of assembling supporters for Takaichi. They are Taro Aso (LDP Vice-president), Toshimitsu Motegi (Minister for Foreign Affairs), Shinjiro Koizumi (Minister of Defense), Kato, Takayuki Kobayashi (Chair of LDP Policy Research Council), Yasutoshi Nishimura (LDP Election Strategy Chair), Koichi Hagiuda (LDP Executive Acting Secretary General), Masaji Matsuyama (Chair of LDP Upper House General Assembly), Hirofumi Nakasone, Haruko Arimura and Eriko Yamatani.

 

Motegi, Koizumi and Kobayashi were contenders against Takaichi in 2025 LDP presidential election, who still hope to succeed Takaichi. Nishimura and Hagiuda hopes to restore their political power from their involvement in a slush fund scandal in 2023. Nakasone, Arimura and Yamatani are close ally of Takaichi sharing conservative ideology. Participation of over 80 percent of all LDP lawmakers undermined significance as a policy group. It makes no fundamental difference from LDP Joint Plenary Meeting.

 

Some leaders, including Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Yoshimasa Hayashi or former prime minister Fumio Kishida did not join the core members of the study group. But Hayashi and Kishida became the members of the group anyway. Some lawmakers with former Nikai faction who take certain distance from Takaichi also appeared in the meeting.

 

The predecessor of Takaichi, former prime minister Shigeru Ishiba and some of his allies did not join. One of the firm critics against Takaichi and former internal affairs minister in Ishiba cabinet, Seiichiro Murakami, denounced the study group: “Why do they have such a group as Imperial Rule Assistance Association? It does not make any sense.”

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