Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has said he has no plans to quit, despite projections his ruling coalition will lose its majority in the country’s upper house.<\/p>\n
Voters went to the polls on Sunday for the tightly-contested election, being held at a time of frustration at the coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner Komeito over rising prices and the threat of US tariffs.<\/p>\n
Speaking after polls closed on Sunday, the prime minister said he “solemnly” accepts the “harsh result” but that his focus was on trade negotiations.<\/p>\n
Having already lost its majority in Japan’s more powerful lower house last year, the expected defeat would undermine the coalition’s influence.<\/p>\n
The coalition needs 50 seats to retain control of the 248-seat upper chamber – with an exit poll from public broadcaster NHK projecting them to win between 32 and 51.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, NHK projected it “may be difficult for the ruling coalition to maintain their majority”. <\/p>\n
Half of the seats in the upper chamber were being voted on in Sunday’s election, with members elected for six-year terms. <\/p>\n
If the coalition takes home less than 46 seats, it would mark its worst performance since it was formed in 1999.<\/p>\n
Jeffrey Hall, a lecturer in Japanese Studies at Kanda University of International Studies, told BBC News support for more right wing parties had cut into the LDP’s conservative support base. <\/p>\n
“Prime Minister Ishiba is considered not conservative enough by many supporters of the former Prime Minister [Shinzo] Abe,” he said. <\/p>\n
“They think that he just doesn’t have the nationalistic views on history, he doesn’t have the strong views against China that Abe had.”<\/p>\n
Shinzo Abe was formerly the leader of the LDP and was Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, in office twice between 2006 and 2007, and 2012 and 2020. <\/p>\n
Mr Hall said some of the party’s support had gone towards the Sanseito party – who would now be saying things which “haven’t been said in public before by members of the upper house,” – noting the party’s pull towards “conspiracy theories, anti-foreign statements, [and] very strong revisionist views about history”.<\/p>\n
Ishiba’s centre-right party has governed Japan almost continuously since 1955, albeit with frequent changes of leader.<\/p>\n
The expected result underscores voters’ frustration with Ishiba, who has struggled to inspire confidence as Japan struggles against economic headwinds, a cost-of-living crisis and trade negotiations with the United States.<\/p>\n
Many are also unhappy about inflation – particularly the price of rice – and a string of political scandals that have beleaguered the LDP in recent years.<\/p>\n
The last three LDP premiers who lost a majority in the upper house stepped down within two months, and analysts had predicted that a significant loss in this election would yield a similar outcome.<\/p>\n
This would open the field for a potential run at the leadership by other notable LDP members, including Sanae Takaichi, who finished second to Ishiba in last year’s leadership election; Takayuki Kobayashi, a former economic security minister; and Shinjiro Koizumi, the son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.<\/p>\n
In any case, a change of leadership within the ruling party would almost certainly unleash political drama and destabilise Japan’s government at a pivotal moment in US-Japan trade negotiations.<\/p>\n
Support for the ruling coalition appears to have been eroded by candidates from the small, right-leaning Sanseito party, which drew conservative votes with its “Japanese First”, anti-immigration rhetoric.<\/p>\n
Sanseito first gained prominence on YouTube during the Covid-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites.<\/p>\n
The fringe party’s nativist rhetoric widened its appeal ahead of Sunday’s vote, as policies regarding foreign residents and immigration became a focal point of many parties’ campaigns.<\/p>\n
Famous for its isolationist culture and strict immigration policies, the island nation has experienced a record surge in both tourists and foreign residents in recent years.<\/p>\n
The influx has further driven up prices for Japanese people and fuelled a sentiment among some that foreigners are taking advantage of the country, aggravating discontent.<\/p>\n
Against that same backdrop, Ishiba last week launched a task force aimed at tackling “crimes or nuisance behaviours committed by some foreign nationals”, including those relating to immigration, land acquisitions and unpaid social insurance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has said he has no plans to quit, despite projections his ruling coalition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-10904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}