Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s future is uncertain, but an unlikely campaign for him to stay was growing online this week, including from people who are his natural political opponents.
The life raft has emerged since upper house elections on Sunday last week deprived Ishiba’s coalition of an upper house majority, months after it saw a similar disaster in the lower chamber.
Despite Ishiba insisting that he has not discussed his resignation with members of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), multiple reports said that it is just a matter of time.
Photo: AFP
Some conservative members of the LDP are collecting signatures to hold a special meeting to discuss a leadership election to oust Ishiba, Fuji TV reported yesterday.
One reported signee is hardline nationalist Sanae Takaichi, who would likely run again to lead the party if Ishiba does depart.
The prospect of someone as premier with hawkish views on Japanese history and China has fueled online calls for the moderate Ishiba to remain in power under the hashtag “#IshibaDon’tQuit.”
Some of the calls came from opposition politicians, including even from a Communist Party member of a local ward assembly.
Ishiba “is the most reasonable LDP leader in recent memory,” Social Democratic Party Legislator LaSalle Ishii said.
“If he resigns, a far-right government will be born,” he said.
Reiwa Shinsengumi leader Taro Yamamoto was among the first to voice concern about Ishiba’s replacement.
“The question is, if he were not to continue, who is going to replace him instead?” he said. “His economic policies are no good, but for Ishiba-san to continue, I think it’s a safe choice.”
A rally was also planned for yesterday evening in front of Ishiba’s office to urge him to stay, although it was uncertain how many would attend.
Shortly after last week’s election, a Kyodo News survey put the approval rating for the Ishiba government at just 22.9 percent.
However, in that same poll, 45.8 percent of the public believed there was no need for him to resign.
SPEAKING OUT: After Siranudh Scott’s allegations surfaced, celebrities and public figures took to social media to share their own experiences of sexual misconduct and abuse A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative nation. Siranudh Scott, a member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his elder brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his 30s, later denied the allegations in a video posted online, but Singha parent Boonrawd dismissed him from his executive role with the company on Tuesday last week. “I felt I needed to speak
A Hong Kong astronaut is to join a Chinese space mission for the first time as part of a three-person crew launching today, as Beijing edges closer to its goal of landing people on the moon. The Tiangong space station — crewed by teams of three astronauts that are typically rotated every six months — is the crown jewel of China’s space program, boosted by billions in state investment in a bid to catch up with the US and Russia. The Shenzhou-23 mission is to blast off at 11:08pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
UPGRADED ALERT: The risk inside DR Congo is now considered ‘very high,’ while neighboring countries face a ‘high’ threat as the outbreak continues, the WHO said Ebola is spreading faster than responders can track it in eastern Congo, where health workers managed to follow up with barely one in five identified contacts in a single day. Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) reported 83 confirmed infections, 746 suspected cases and 1,603 identified contacts as of Thursday, but health workers were able to follow up on only 342 contacts that day — about 21 percent of the total under monitoring — data released by the DR Congo Ministry of Public Health on Friday showed. The figures suggest the response is falling behind the outbreak itself,
RSS