A surge of popularity for a freshly minted opposition party is making Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s decision to call a snap election look riskier than initially thought.
Abe yesterday dissolved the Japanese House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the National Diet, setting the stage for an Oct. 22 vote.
The Party of Hope, launched earlier this week by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, might not dethrone Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), but analysts have said it could put a dent in the LDP’s majority.
Photo: Kyodo News via AP
A major setback could derail Abe’s presumed hope to extend his rule for three more years at a party leadership meeting next year.
Minutes after the dissolution, Abe made a fiery speech to party members, saying that he is seeking a public mandate on his tough diplomatic and defense policies to deal with escalating threats from North Korea, and that party members would have to relay his message to win voter support during the campaign.
“This election is about how we protect Japan, the people’s lives and peaceful daily life,” Abe said. “The election is about the future of our children.”
Abe’s dissolution of the House is widely seen as an attempt to reconsolidate his hold on power within the LDP after a series of scandals and missteps earlier this year. A big enough victory could help ensure his re-election as party leader in September next year.
The move is not without risks, but analysts have said the timing might be better now than later.
The Democratic Party, the largest opposition group, is in disarray and the sudden election gives the Party of Hope little time to organize candidates and a campaign strategy.
However, media polls have shown that the new party is off to a respectable start.
Jeff Kingston, a professor at Temple University, Japan Campus in Tokyo, called Koike’s new party a game changer.
“I think it is really bad news for Abe,” Kingston said. “She doesn’t actually have to win, but she has to inflict a bloody nose on Abe... If her party does better than expected, expect the long knives to come out in the LDP, and Abe could be ushered to the exit.”
Koike at a news conference rejected speculation that she might run for the legislature.
“I will stay in the city and put my energy to lead Tokyo’s preparations ahead of the upcoming Olympics and Paralympics,” Koike said.
Still, a relatively good showing by her party could allow it to influence Abe on policies such as constitutional change, an issue both politicians have an interest in, Tokyo-based International Christian University professor Stephen Nagy said.
He said that working in Abe’s favor are the LDP’s nationwide electoral organization and his handling of North Korea, which has sent two missiles over Japan in recent tests.
“Another missile test would likely put him in the limelight further, casting a shadow on the Party of Hope’s policy credentials,” Nagy said.
House members all stood up and chanted banzai three times in a dissolution ritual, then rushed out of the assembly hall.
The less-powerful Japanese House of Councilors will not be up for election, but remain closed until the legislature is reconvened after the vote.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
MIXED SOURCING: While Taiwan is expanding domestic production, it also sources munitions overseas, as some, like M855 rounds, are cheaper than locally made ones Taiwan and the US plan to jointly produce 155mm artillery shells, as the munition is in high demand due to the Ukraine-Russia war and should be useful in Taiwan’s self-defense, Armaments Bureau Director-General Lieutenant General Lin Wen-hsiang (林文祥) told lawmakers in Taipei yesterday. Lin was responding to questions about Taiwan’s partnership with allies in producing munitions at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. Given the intense demand for 155mm artillery shells in Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, and in light of Taiwan’s own defensive needs, Taipei and Washington plan to jointly produce 155mm shells, said Lin,
RSS