Japan: With a Trump shadow on him, PM Ishiba survives parliament vote
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Monday survived a parliamentary vote as lawmakers agreed for him to stay on as leader, even after his scandal-tarnished coalition lost its majority in a Lower House election last month.
In recent months, French President Emmanual Macron and the then-British PM Rishi Sunak also called snap polls to their parliaments, respectively, hoping to return to power with a majority, but failed.
Ishiba, who called the snap poll to the House of Representatives after taking office on October 1, will now have to run a fragile minority government as protectionist Donald Trump returns to office in his main ally the United States in January 2025, as Japan’s tension rises with rivals China and North Korea, and domestic pressure mounts to rein in inflation and the cost of living.
His Liberal Democratic Party and coalition partner Komeito won the biggest bloc of seats in the election but lost the majority they held since 2012, leaving him at the mercy of small opposition parties to pass his policy agenda, the media reported.
Underlining that fragility, Monday’s fresh vote in parliament, broadcast on Japan’s national television, went to a runoff for the first time in 30 years, with no candidate able to muster majority support in the first round.
But Ishiba eventually prevailed as expected, garnering 221 votes, well clear of his nearest challenger, former PM Yoshihiko Noda, the head of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, but still short of a majority in the 465-seat Lower House.
Japan will hold elections in 2025 for the less powerful Upper House, the House of Councillors, where the ruling coalition’s slim majority could also be at risk if Ishiba fails to revive public trust roiled by a scandal over unrecorded donations to lawmakers.
His imminent challenge is compiling a supplementary budget for the fiscal year through March, under pressure from voters and opposition parties to raise spending on public welfare and take steps to offset rising prices.
For approval, he will need the backing of at least one opposition party, which is most likely to be the Democratic Party for the People (DPP) headed by Yuichiro Tamaki.
He has held cooperation talks with Ishiba, but DPP lawmakers on Friday did not vote for Ishiba to stay on as the PM.
Tamaki is also in a precarious position after admitting on Monday to an extra-marital affair revealed in a tabloid magazine.
With his premiership confirmed, Ishiba appointed three new cabinet ministers, one each for transport, justice, and agriculture, two of whom will replace LDP lawmakers who lost their seats in the election.
Ishiba now has to prepare for a slew of international engagements, including a summit of the Group of 20 big economies in Brazil on November 18 and 19.
He is also trying to arrange a stopover in the United States on the way to or from that gathering to meet the US President-elect Donald Trump. He spoke to Trump for the first time on Thursday in a “friendly” five-minute conversation during which he congratulated him on his election victory.
Some Japanese officials fear that Trump might again hit Tokyo with protectionist trade measures and revive demands for it to pay more for the cost of stationing US forces there.
These issues were largely smoothed over in Trump’s first term (2017 to 2021), by his close ties with Japan’s then-PM Shinzo Abe, a bond Ishiba seems keen to re-establish.
