Japan’s ruling parties have agreed to call a general election for Oct. 26 in hopes a bounce in support for a new prime minister will limit damage to its massive majority, the Asahi newspaper said yesterday.
The main ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is set to pick a new leader on Monday after unpopular former prime minister Yasuo Fukuda stepped down this month. Polls suggest the new leader will be outspoken former foreign minister Taro Aso.
Parliament would likely be dissolved on Oct. 3 and the election campaigning would start on Oct. 14, the paper said, citing sources within the LDP and its junior coalition partner, the New Komeito.
A final decision would be made after the new prime minister was appointed, the Asahi said.
Japan is not required to hold an election for the lower house of parliament until September next year, but a snap poll has been widely predicted because the LDP hopes to take advantage of a jump in voter support for a new prime minister.
But some in the LDP said the government should delay the election to allow it to pass a supplementary budget with tax cuts and other fiscal measures to ease financial uncertainty after the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers, the paper said.
The new LDP leader will almost certainly become prime minister because of the party’s domination of the lower house of parliament, which appoints Japan’s prime minister.
Analysts say voters could be evenly divided between the two major political parties, possibly triggering a rejigging of lawmakers’ loyalties.
Left in the shadows during the LDP’s leadership campaign, the main opposition Democratic Party is trying to increase its numbers ahead of the expected election, by seeking a merger with the small conservative People’s New Party.
The People’s New Party, which has five members in the lower house of parliament, was founded by former members of the LDP who opposed then-prime minister Junichiro Koizumi’s plan to privatize the postal system.
Koizumi called a snap election in 2005 as a referendum on the issue and led the LDP to a landslide victory.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not