New Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader Shigeru Ishiba said he would call a national election on Oct. 27, assuming he is confirmed as Japan’s new prime minister today, taking advantage of a positive public reaction to his victory in Friday’s LDP leadership election.
“It is important that the new government be judged by the people as soon as possible,” Ishiba said in brief remarks to the press yesterday.
Ishiba is set to name party veterans to senior posts in his Cabinet as he broadly pursues continuity in economic, monetary and foreign policy. The new administration is officially launch after today’s vote in the LDP-dominated parliament.
Photo: AP / Kyodo News
The role of finance minister is set to go to Katsunobu Kato, a former top government spokesman, while Ishiba is to name Takeshi Iwaya, a former defense minister, as his foreign minister, public broadcaster NHK and other Japanese media reported.
Ishiba’s decision to call a quick election is a move to win a mandate for his administration while there is an uptick in voter support. A survey by the Mainichi Shimbun found that 52 percent of the public were optimistic about the new government.
The surprise victory by Ishiba in the LDP leadership battle reflects a bid by the party to win back public trust after a fund-raising scandal and inflation woes sent the approval ratings of outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida plummeting.
Ishiba has consistently been one of the most popular leadership candidates among the public. His distance from previous administrations gives him a cleaner image to project in an election.
The ruling LDP is unlikely to be ousted in any near-term national vote, given the relatively low support ratings of other parties. The main opposition party has just replaced its leader to try and revive its flagging support levels.
Tokyo stocks yesterday closed down more than 3 percent as investors factored in the sharp rebound in the yen that followed Ishiba’s surprise win over Bank of Japan (BOJ) easing advocate Sanae Takaichi.
A Takaichi victory was seen as likely to slow down or put the brakes on interest rate hikes by the central bank, putting pressure on the currency to weaken.
During his leadership campaign, the 67-year-old Ishiba expressed support for the BOJ’s policy normalization.
In a television interview on Sunday he said it was important to keep monetary conditions accommodative, suggesting there was no rush to raise borrowing costs.
“I don’t think we should be talking about interest rates in a situation where we still can’t say for sure that deflation has been defeated,” Ishiba said during an interview with Fuji TV.
Ishiba has said his economic priorities are to defeat deflation and raise wages, while encouraging revitalization of Japan’s rural regions.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
‘THEY KILLED HOPE’: Four presidential candidates were killed in the 1980s and 1990s, and Miguel Uribe’s mother died during a police raid to free her from Pablo Escobar Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe has died two months after being shot at a campaign rally, his family said on Monday, as the attack rekindled fears of a return to the nation’s violent past. The 39-year-old conservative senator, a grandson of former Colombian president Julio Cesar Turbay (1978-1982), was shot in the head and leg on June 7 at a rally in the capital, Bogota, by a suspected 15-year-old hitman. Despite signs of progress in the past few weeks, his doctors on Saturday announced he had a new brain hemorrhage. “To break up a family is the most horrific act of violence that
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS