Embattled Japan PM gets unlikely support

New Straits Times

4 hours ago

JAPANESE Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's future is uncertain but an unlikely campaign for him to stay was growing online, including from people who are his natural political opponents.
The life raft has emerged since upper house elections on July 20 deprived Ishiba's coalition of an upper house majority, months after it suffered a similar disaster in the lower chamber.
Despite Ishiba, 68, insisting that he has not discussed his resignation with members of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), multiple reports say it is just a matter of time.
Some conservative members of the LDP are collecting signatures to hold a special meeting to discuss a leadership election to oust Ishiba, Fuji TV reported last Friday.
One reported signee is Sanae Takaichi, a hardline nationalist and one-time heavy metal drummer who lost a leadership contest to Ishiba in September.
Takaichi, 64, would likely run again to lead the party — and become Japan's first woman prime minister if she wins — if Ishiba does depart.
The prospect of someone as premier with hawkish views on Japanese history and China has fuelled online calls for the moderate Ishiba to remain in power under the hashtag "#Ishiba Don't quit".
Some of the calls came from opposition politicians to the left of the LDP, including even from a Communist Party member of a local ward assembly.
Ishiba "is the most reasonable LDP leader in recent memory", said LaSalle Ishii, a newly elected lawmaker for the Social Democratic Party, on X. "If he resigns, a far-right government will be born," said the well-known comedian and voice actor.
Taro Yamamoto, the leader of small opposition party Reiwa Shinsengumi, was among the first to voice concern about Ishiba's replacement.
"The question is, if he were not to continue, who is going to replace him instead?" he said during a news conference recently. "His economic policies are no good, but for Ishiba-san to continue, I think it's a safe choice."
A few hundred people participated in a rally outside Ishiba's office last Friday, with some holding up signs urging him to "never give up" and "persevere".
Among them was 70-year-old Shigeru Koga, an opposition supporter who until the election day on Sunday had been calling on Ishiba's government to be brought down.
But five days later, he said Ishiba is "still far better" than alternatives like Takaichi and Shinjiro Koizumi, the popular agriculture minister within LDP who Koga called "easily manipulable".
"If the Takaichi government materialises, it would further give rise to forces like far-right Sanseito," said Koga, referring to the upstart "Japanese first" party. "To prevent that, and keep Japan safe, Ishiba must be brave and stand firm."
Shortly after the July 20 election, a Kyodo News survey put the approval rating for the Ishiba government at just 22.9 per cent. But in that same poll, 45.8 per cent of the public believed that there was no need for him to resign.
The LDP has governed almost non-stop since 1955, but voters have been deserting the party, including towards fringe groups like Sanseito.
Factors include rising prices, notably for rice, falling living standards, and anger at corruption scandals within the LDP. The opposition is seen as too fragmented to form an alternative government.
But being in a minority in both houses of parliament means Ishiba's coalition needs support from other parties to pass legislation.
This comes just as Japan faces multiple challenges, including a ballooning social security budget to pay pensions for its rapidly ageing and shrinking population.
A new trade deal announced last week with United States President Donald Trump will see Japanese imports face a painful 15 per cent tariff, although this was lower than a threatened 25 per cent.
"We'll evaluate it every quarter, and if the president is unhappy then they will boomerang back to the 25 per cent tariff rates," said US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent afterwards.
The writers are from AFP