A crowded race to be Japan’s next prime minister started yesterday, with candidates vowing to support the US-led “war on terror” but clashing on the troubled economy.
Five lawmakers are vying to succeed Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who abruptly quit last week — a record number of candidates for a race of Japan’s long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
Front-runner Taro Aso, a flamboyant former foreign minister, cast himself as the best candidate to do battle against a resurgent opposition as expectations grow of a snap election soon after the LDP’s Sept. 22 vote.
PHOTO: EPA
“Japanese politics is facing a crisis it has never experienced before,” Aso, a 67-year-old making his fourth bid for the job, told a joint news conference with his rivals.
“Compared with other candidates, I think I have more experience and achievements. I am running with a determination and resolution to tackle the various problems facing Japan,” said Aso, currently the LDP secretary general.
Aso signaled he would end Japan’s military mission flying goods and personnel into Iraq in support of the US-led coalition, bowing to a demand of the opposition.
But Aso and his rivals all vowed to defy the opposition and continue a separate naval mission in the Indian Ocean that provides fuel to US-led forces in Afghanistan.
Yuriko Koike, a former TV anchorwoman seeking to be the nation’s first female prime minister, said that mission was key to ensuring that officially pacifist Japan is “respected” by the world community.
“I can only call it heartbreaking if I would have to bring them back merely because of the domestic political situation,” said Koike, a former defense and environment minister.
Another candidate, Shigeru Ishiba, a former defense chief who spearheaded Japan’s landmark ground deployment to Iraq that ended in 2006, said the global fight against terrorism had reached its “most critical stage.”
Japan’s opposition is against any Japanese military involvement in Iraq and forced a temporary halt last year to the Indian Ocean mission.
LDP leaders have in recent years sought a higher military profile for Japan, arguing that the US ally must do more to contribute to international security despite its pacifist post-World War II constitution.
But the candidates clashed on whether to raise taxes to rebuild government finances in the world’s second-largest economy.
Japan has the worst public debt of any developed nation, partly a legacy of efforts to recover from recession in the 1990s, but the economy again contracted in the second quarter amid a global downturn.
“I doubt we can raise the consumption tax right now because it would send a chill through the economy,” Aso said.
But rival Kaoru Yosano, the 70-year-old minister for economic and fiscal policy, said politicians had a responsibility to preserve the pension system, which faces crisis as the population rapidly ages.
“As prime minister, I would like to leave Japan as a good place for future generations,” Yosano said.
“We must ensure the sustainability of the pension and medical systems,” he said.
“While there are technical problems, the consumption tax is the unique solution to provide a stable source of financing,” he said.
The other candidate, 51-year-old Nobuteru Ishihara, has pledged to appeal to a younger generation and push forward administrative reforms.
Fukuda came under intense criticism for raising medical costs on the elderly.
A weekend poll showed the LDP had gained in support after Fukuda’s resignation and now enjoyed a narrow edge over the opposition.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was