Brash conservative Taro Aso easily won the presidency of Japan’s struggling ruling party yesterday, virtually ensuring his election as prime minister later this week amid political and economic turmoil.
Aso, 68, a former foreign minister and grandson of a prominent prime minister, received 351 of the 525 votes cast in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) ballot.
His triumph over four rivals had been widely expected.
The former Olympic skeetshooter immediately vowed to rejuvenate his troubled party and lead it to victory in elections in the powerful lower house of parliament, though he dodged questions about when he might call such a ballot.
“Who else but our party can achieve policies in order to address the public’s concerns?” Aso asked at LDP headquarters. “I am committed to winning the elections and taking further steps to achieve economic recovery and pursue reforms.”
Aso, a sharp-tongued conservative who favors the alliance with the US and a diplomatically assertive Japan, backs government spending to revive the economy.
Aso is all but guaranteed to be elected prime minister in the LDP-dominated parliament on Wednesday, making him the third leader Japan has had since September 2006 — and the first Roman Catholic to hold the job.
Outgoing Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda threw the political world into disarray three weeks ago when he announced he would step down after only a year in office, weary of battling a divided parliament.
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
SOUTH CHINA SEA? The Philippine president spoke of adding more classrooms and power plants, while skipping tensions with China over disputed areas Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday blasted “useless and crumbling” flood control projects in a state of the nation address that focused on domestic issues after a months-long feud with his vice president. Addressing a joint session of congress after days of rain that left at least 31 dead, Marcos repeated his recent warning that the nation faced a climate change-driven “new normal,” while pledging to investigate publicly funded projects that had failed. “Let’s not pretend, the people know that these projects can breed corruption. Kickbacks ... for the boys,” he said, citing houses that were “swept away” by the floods. “Someone has
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
RSS