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28-10-2024
TOKYO: Japanese voters are today heading to the polls in a snap election, following a tumultuous few years for the ruling party which saw a “cascade” of scandals, widespread voter apathy and record-low approval ratings.
The election was announced by Shigeru Ishiba three days after he was selected as the leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) before he had been officially sworn in as prime minister.
The decision was made despite the LDP seeing approval ratings of below 20% earlier in the year, in the wake of a political fundraising corruption scandal.
Yet the LDP still remains the strongest contender against opposition parties which have failed to unite, or convince voters they are a viable option to govern.
The main opposition party had an approval rating of just 6.6% before parliament was dissolved.
“It is so hard to make decisions to choose parties, I think people are losing interest,” Miyuki Fujisaki, a long-time LDP supporter who works in the care-home sector, told media ahead of polls opening.
The LDP, she said, has its problems with alleged corruption “but the opposition also does not stand out at all”.
“They sure complain a lot but it’s not at all clear on what they want to do,” the 66-year-old said.
For all the apathy, politics in Japan has been moving at a fast pace in recent months.
Shigeru Ishiba took over as prime minister after being voted in by the ruling party following his predecessor Fumio Kishida who had been in the role since 2021 making a surprise decision to step down in August.
The move to call the election came at a time when the LDP is desperate to restore its tarnished image among the public. Ishiba, a long-time politician who previously served as defence minister has described it as the “people’s verdict” but whether it’s enough to restore trust in the LDP which has been in power almost continuously since 1955 is uncertain.
A series of scandals has tarnished the ruling party’s reputation. Chief among them is the party’s relationship with the controversial Unification Church described by critics as a “cult” and the level of influence it had on lawmakers.
Then came the revelations of the political funding corruption scandal. Japan’s prosecutors have been investigating dozens of LDP lawmakers accused of pocketing proceeds from political fundraising events. Those allegations running into the millions of dollars led to the dissolution of powerful factions, the backbone of its internal party politics.
“What a wretched state the ruling party is in,” said Michiko Hamada, who had travelled to Urawa station, on outskirts of Tokyo, for an opposition campaign rally.
“That is what I feel most. It is tax evasion and it’s unforgivable.”
It strikes her as particularly egregious at a time when people in Japan are struggling with high prices. Wages have not changed for three decades dubbed “the lost 30 years” but prices have risen at the fastest rate in nearly half a century in the last two years.
This month, as voters were getting ready to go to the polls, saw more price hikes on thousands of food products as well as other day-to-day provisions like mail, pharmaceuticals, electricity and gas.
“I pay 10,000 yen or 20,000 yen ($65 – $130; £50 – £100) more for the food per month (than I used to),” Hamada said.
“And I’m not buying the things I used to buy. I am trying to save up but it still costs more. Things like fruit are very expensive.” (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
