Tokyo, 23 October, /AJMEDIA/
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party lost one of two seats up for grabs in Sunday’s national by-elections, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Cabinet, which is struggling to underpin an economy weighed down by price hikes.
An independent candidate backed by opposition parties won in the House of Councillors by-election in the Tokushima-Kochi district, while in the Nagasaki No. 4 House of Representatives constituency, the LDP candidate defeated a politician of the leading opposition party.
The LDP had hoped to retain the two seats, even though approval ratings for Kishida’s cabinet have plunged to their lowest levels since he assumed power in October 2021 due in part to public frustration over recent cost-push inflation coupled with sluggish wage growth.
The by-elections were the first national contests since Kishida revamped his cabinet in mid-September in a bid to refresh the image of his government.
There had been speculation that Kishida would dissolve the lower house and call a general election by the end of this year if the LDP won both seats. But the consequences of Sunday’s polls make that more difficult, people close to him said.
Hiroshi Ogushi, the head of the election strategy committee of the major opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, said later in the day that voters had shown their dissatisfaction with the current situation of soaring prices undermining the economy.
“We were able to deliver a resounding no to the management” of Kishida’s government, Ogushi told reporters.
Toshimitsu Motegi, secretary general of the LDP, said, “We will humbly accept the outcome” of the by-elections and engage in debates with opposition parties “with a sense of tension” during the ongoing extraordinary parliamentary session, which began Friday.
Kishida, a dovish moderate within the conservative LDP, has pledged to put together a new economic stimulus package by the end of this month and submit a supplementary budget for fiscal 2023 through March to fund it.
With higher prices, apparently triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, eroding consumption, Kishida has been eager to implement tax breaks, but opposition lawmakers have said such measures have only been proposed to boost his support among voters.
The government, meanwhile, has promised to increase taxes to cover its plan to almost double Japan’s annual defense spending to about 2 percent of gross domestic product over the next five years, on par with members of NATO.
The results of the latest polls could affect the timing of Kishida’s decision to dissolve the lower house for a snap election, as he is keen to strengthen his political footing before the LDP presidential race around September 2024, pundits said.
In the Tokushima-Kochi district, the LDP fielded Ken Nishiuchi, a former member of the Kochi prefectural assembly, backed by its junior coalition partner Komeito.
Nishiuchi was beaten by independent candidate Hajime Hirota, a former lower house lawmaker of the CDPJ, who ran with the support of some other anti-LDP political groups.
The seat for the upper house became vacant after then LDP lawmaker Kojiro Takano resigned in June in the wake of revelations he had assaulted his secretary.
The by-election in the Nagasaki No. 4 lower house constituency on the southwestern main island of Kyushu followed the death in May of the LDP’s Seigo Kitamura, who served as minister in charge of regional revitalization.
The ruling party fielded Yozo Kaneko, the son of a former farm minister and Nagasaki governor.
The left-leaning CDPJ endorsed Seiichi Suetsugu, who decided to run in the constituency race after being selected as a lower house lawmaker under the proportional representation system at the last general election in October 2021.
Voter turnout was the lowest on record for the Nagasaki No. 4 lower house district at 42.19 percent, while that in the Tokushima-Shimane upper house constituency stood at 32.16 percent, also a record low, the election boards said.
