Support sinks for Japan coalition after election blow

TOKYO: Support has sunk further for Japan’s embattled ruling coalition, a new poll showed Wednesday, after Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s party suffered its worst election result in 15 years.
Backing for the government nosedived to 34 percent, while its disapproval rating came to 51 percent, according to the survey by the Yomiuri Shimbun daily.
In Ishiba’s short honeymoon period after taking office on October 1, the same survey found 51 percent supported his cabinet against 32 percent who didn’t.
A separate poll by Kyodo News released Tuesday had 53 percent saying they did not want the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito to stay in power.
Sunday’s snap election left the coalition short of a majority for the first time since 2009 — when it was booted out of power for three years — 18 seats short of the 233 needed.
Ishiba has already indicated he will seek to govern a minority administration and seek approval from other parties to get legislation through parliament.
That expectation was reinforced late Tuesday when the head of potential kingmaker the Democratic Party for the People (DPP), which has 28 seats, ruled out joining the LDP in a coalition government.
“We will give all of our strength to achieve our policies and we will not join the coalition,” DPP chief Yuichiro Tamaki said at a press conference.
However, Ishiba is still courting other parties including the centrist DPP to secure parliamentary approval to remain prime minister in a vote reportedly slated for November 11.
To win their support, analysts said that Ishiba may agree to tax cuts and stimulus spending that the DPP campaigned on in the snap election.
Also likely seeking to become premier will be Yoshihiko Noda, head of the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), whose seat tally rose from 96 in the last election to 148.
In a likely run-off vote, unseen in the past three decades, whoever wins the most votes will become the next leader, even if the person does not have a majority.
“The DPP is in an extremely strong position and holds a ‘casting vote’ that can decide the direction of political momentum,” Takahide Kiuchi, executive economist at Nomura Research Institute, said in a memo.