Legislative in Japan: Prime Minister Fumio Kishida risks losing absolute majority
Japanese Prime Minister and Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader Fumio Kishida (top cg) and other party members raise their fists during an election campaign in Saitama on October 30, 2021. AFP - BEHROUZ MEHRI
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Japan is organizing legislative elections on October 31.
New Prime Minister Fumio Kishida dissolved the lower house of parliament two weeks ago, shortly after being elected leader of his ruling conservative party.
He is betting on a novelty effect, a stimulus plan of 250 billion euros to ensure the victory of his liberal-democratic party which has reigned over Japanese political life, almost without interruption, for 65 years.
However, polls indicate that the Conservative Party, whose image has been tarnished by its management of the epidemic, risks losing its absolute majority in the lower house of Parliament.
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With our correspondent in Tokyo
,
Frédéric Charles
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida cannot count on the "honeymoon" usually granted to a new government.
It is already on the decline in opinion polls despite the fact that new cases of Covid-19 have fallen to their lowest level and nearly 70% of the Japanese population is now fully vaccinated.
The problem for Fumio Kishida is twofold.
In the eyes of the Japanese, this improvement in the health situation is not due to the government, but to the governors of provinces and megalopolises like Osaka who remedied the deficiencies of the state at the start of the pandemic.
This former foreign minister owes his job to the strong man of the conservative party Shinzo Abe, who ruled Japan for eight years, which imposed his electoral program on him for increased defense spending.
“
Fumio Kishida is largely Shinzo Abe's puppet.
He retracted his comments on a new capitalism, as for his ideas on redistribution, they refer to tax breaks for companies that raise wages, reflecting the policy of Shinzo Abe,
”said Nicholas Smith, the bank's strategist. CLSA in Tokyo.
To revive the third largest economy in the world affected by the pandemic, the conservative party is proposing a massive plan of 240 to 250 billion euros.
Including the payment of a new check, the equivalent of 900 euros, to low-income people.
The main opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party, is, for once, united front with the Communist Party.
They focus on increasing health and education budgets, supporting same-sex marriage.
And the possibility for married couples to have different names.
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See also Japan: Fumio Kishida, new Prime Minister, a man of consensus
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