Japan’s PM refuses to step down despite hard-Right surge
Shigeru Ishiba (fourth from right) said he would take the election result ‘humbly and seriously’ - Toru Hanai/Bloomberg
Japan’s prime minister refused to step down despite losing his majority, thanks in part to a surge in hard-Right support.
Shigeru Ishiba was asked if he would stay on after exit polls on Sunday night showed the ruling Liberal Democratic Party losing its grip on power in the upper house of the country’s parliament.
Mr Ishiba said: “We are engaged in extremely critical tariff negotiations with the United States... we must never ruin these negotiations.”
However, the 68-year-old admitted: “It’s a difficult situation, and we have to take it very humbly and seriously.” He added that he could not “speak lightly” of “the results so far”.
While Sunday’s result does not directly determine whether Ishiba’s minority government falls, it heaps pressure on the embattled leader, who lost control of the more powerful lower house in October.
Shigeru Ishiba’s LDP has been in power almost continuously since 1955 - Franck Robichon/Pool/AP
The ruling party, and its partner Komeito, were predicted to lose seats to opposition groups including Sanseito, the fringe hard-Right party emerged as one of the biggest winners.
Sanseito has gained support with warnings of a “silent invasion” of immigrants, and pledges for tax cuts and welfare spending.
Born on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the party broke into mainstream politics with its “Japanese First” campaign.
Public broadcaster NHK projected Sanseito would win as many as 22 seats, adding to the single representative it secured in the 248-seat chamber three years ago. It has only three seats in the more powerful lower house.
Sohei Kamiya, the party’s 47-year-old leader, said in an interview with local broadcaster Nippon Television after the election: “The phrase Japanese First was meant to express rebuilding Japanese people’s livelihoods by resisting globalism.
“I am not saying that we should completely ban foreigners or that every foreigner should get out of Japan.”
Other opposition parties advocating for tax cuts and tougher immigration policies look likely to make gains, with rising consumer prices – particularly a jump in the cost of the staple rice – a key issue for voters.
Japanese media reported that exit polls suggested the LDP and Komeito won about 41 of the 125 seats contested, fewer than the 50 needed to retain a majority.
Sanseito was projected to have made strong gains, winning between 10 and 22 seats, adding to the two it already holds in the 248-seat chamber.
The results are likely to fuel political instability in the world’s fourth-largest economy as a tariff deadline with the United States looms.
The LDP, which has ruled Japan for most of the post-war period, had its worst showing in 15 years in October.
That left Ishiba vulnerable to no-confidence motions that could topple his administration and trigger a fresh general election.
People walk past an election notice board in Tokyo, Japan - Toru Hanai/Bloomberg Finance LP
Mr Ishiba, 68, a self-avowed defence “geek” and train enthusiast, reached the top of the greasy pole last September on his fifth attempt and immediately called elections.
But this move backfired and the vote left the LDP and its small coalition partner Komeito needing support from opposition parties, stymieing its legislative agenda.
Trade with Trump
Lingering resentment about an LDP funding scandal and US tariffs of 25 per cent that are set to hit the country on Aug 1 – if there is no trade deal with the US – are exacerbating the LDP’s fall in popularity.
Donald Trump poured cold water on the prospects of an agreement last week, saying Japan would not “open up their country”.
“We will not easily compromise,” Mr Ishiba said this month.
His apparent maximalist strategy of insisting all tariffs are cut to zero has also drawn criticism.
With fragmented opposition, chances are slim that the parties could form an alternative government.
The “Japanese-first” Sanseito wants “stricter rules and limits” on immigration, opposes “globalism” and “radical” gender policies, and wants a re-think on decarbonisation and vaccines.
Last week Sanseito was forced to deny any links to Moscow – which has backed populist parties elsewhere – after a candidate was interviewed by Russian state media.
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“They put into words what I had been thinking about but couldn’t put into words for many years,” one voter said at a Sanseito rally.
Toru Yoshida, a politics professor at Doshisha University, said before the media projections that if the coalition lost its majority, Mr Ishiba might “need to step down”.
Japan could “step into an unknown dimension of the ruling government being a minority in both the lower house and the upper house, which Japan has never experienced since World War Two,” Prof Yoshida said.
At one of Tokyo’s polling stations on Sunday, 54-year-old voter Atsushi Matsuura said: “Commodity prices are going up, but I am more worried that salaries aren’t increasing.”
Hisayo Kojima, another voter, expressed frustration that the amount of her pension was “being cut shorter and shorter”.
“We have paid a lot to support the pension system. This is the most pressing issue for me,” the 65-year-old said.
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