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13-11-2024
TOKYO: Yuichiro Tamaki, the head of the Japanese opposition party that has emerged as kingmaker as lawmakers select the next prime minister on Monday, said a tabloid report about his extra-marital affair with a model was “basically true”.
“I apologize for the trouble caused,” the Democratic Party for the People (DPP) leader told reporters at a hastily called news conference after tabloid SmartFlash reported the affair on Monday.
“The facts reported this morning are basically true,” he said. Despite the scandal, Tamaki retained the unanimous support of the party’s lawmakers to stay on as party leader, DPP Secretary General Kazuya Shimba told reporters.
SmartFlash reported that Tamaki, 55, and a 39-year-old model and entertainer rendezvoused in July and October. It published a photo of Tamaki in a grey hoodie as he emerged from a bar, followed 20 minutes later by the woman.
“My wife had told me, ‘you can’t protect the country if you can’t protect the person closest to you.’ I will etch those words in my mind once again, reflect on my action and do my best to work in a way that is in the best interests of the country and to realise policies,” Tamaki said.
Japanese lawmakers are set to decide at a special parliamentary session on Monday whether Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba should stay as the country’s premier after his scandal-tarnished coalition lost its parliamentary majority in an election last month.
Ishiba is expected to prevail because his coalition retained the biggest block of seats in the election.
Tamaki has previously said his party members would not vote for Ishiba but could offer support to the prime minister’s Liberal Democratic Party on a policy-by-policy basis.
Japanese lawmakers voted on Monday for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to stay on as leader, after his scandal-tarnished coalition lost its parliamentary majority in a lower house election last month.
Ishiba, who called the snap poll after taking office on Oct. 1, must now run a fragile minority government as protectionist Donald Trump returns to office in main ally the United States, tension rises with rivals China and North Korea, and domestic pressure mounts to rein in 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 held since 2012, leaving him beholden to small opposition parties to pass his policy agenda.
Underlining that fragility, Monday’s vote in parliament, broadcast on 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, ex-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 next year for the less powerful upper house, where the ruling coalition’s slim majority could also be at risk if Ishiba cannot 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 welfare and take steps to offset rising prices.
For approval he needs 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 co-operation talks with Ishiba, but DPP lawmakers on Friday did not vote for Ishiba to stay on as prime minister. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
