Japan PM on defensive as election prospects dim further

TOKYO: Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba hit out at “biased” media reports related to a party scandal, as a fresh survey suggested that his ruling coalition could fall short of a majority in elections on Sunday.
This would be the worst result for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) — which has governed Japan for almost all of the past seven decades — since it last lost power from 2009 to 2012, as well as a major blow to Ishiba himself.
Adding to Ishiba’s woes is the continuing fallout from a slush fund scandal within the LDP that angered voters and helped torpedo his predecessor, Fumio Kishida.
Ishiba promised to not actively support LDP politicians caught up in the scandal running in the election, although they are still standing.
But according to media reports, the party has still provided 20 million yen ($132,000) each to district offices headed by these figures.
“It is truly frustrating that such reports come out at a time like this,” Ishiba said in a campaign speech on Thursday. “Those candidates will not use the money.”
“We cannot be defeated by those with biased views,” he added.
Opposition leaders pounced on Ishiba’s comments, including Yoshihiko Noda, a popular former prime minister who heads the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), the second-biggest in parliament.
“However you look at it, it is cash to secretly endorse them. Mr. Ishiba is making excuses that no one understands,” Noda, 67, said in a campaign speech.
“He is angry with these reports? What are you saying? It is the Japanese people who are angry.”
Ishiba, 67, only became party leader — on his fifth attempt — last month and took office as prime minister on October 1, calling snap elections within days to shore up his position.
LDP members picked the self-confessed defense “geek” as party leader, believing that his popularity among ordinary voters would restore the party’s fortunes.
The fan of trains, 1970s pop idols and making military models promised to create a “new Japan (that) will drastically change the nature of Japanese society.”
He pledged to revitalize depressed rural regions and to address the “quiet emergency” of Japan’s falling population by supporting families with policies like flexible working hours.
But he has rowed back his position on issues including allowing married couples to take separate surnames, and only named two women ministers in his cabinet.
Friday’s new poll by the Yomiuri Shimbun daily suggested that the LDP and its coalition partner Komeito might struggle to get the necessary 233 lower house seats needed for a majority.
Ishiba has set this threshold as his objective, and missing it would undermine his position in the LDP and mean finding other coalition partners or leading a minority government.
In voting districts, only 87 of the LDP’s 266 candidates are ahead of their rivals, while 133 are in neck-and-neck battles, many of them against CDP candidates, the top-selling Yomiuri said.
The LDP was also set to lose dozens of seats determined by proportional representation under Japan’s hybrid electoral system, the paper added.
“Regardless of what the election results are, Ishiba’s longevity as prime minister is in question,” said Rintaro Nishimura at think-tank The Asia Group.