Government crisis: Japan’s head of government Ishiba gives up

Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba resigns in office after less than a year. He announced this in front of the press on Sunday evening (local time). He took responsibility for the loss of the parliamentary majority in the Oberhaus election in July. It intends to perform his tasks until the election of a new party leader in his Liberalemocratic Party (LDP), said Ishiba.

His announcement was made shortly after a trade agreement with the United States. “Now is the right time to step down,” said the party and government head, which has only been in office since October last year.

His coalition of LDP and its junior partner Komeito lost the majority in the election to the upper house in July, after she had previously lost the majority in the more powerful lower house in October. Since then, Ishiba’s coalition has been a minority government. Observers expect the future LDP party leader to be elected in parliament as head of government. The fragmented opposition camp would have to agree on a common candidate, which is currently not possible.

Rather, the coalition from LDP and Komeito will be able to get one of the opposition parties on board, said Axel Klein, professor of political science at the University of Duisburg-Essen, the German press agency in Tokio. “In my opinion, the LDP will make major concessions to an opposition party and the government coalition will either extend to three parties or continue to work as a minority government,” he said.

Trouble about rising prices and immigration policy

The reason for the electoral flap of the LDP, which has been ruling almost continuously for decades, was the dissatisfaction of the electorate with the increasing prices and immigration policy. Right -wing populist small parties benefited, especially the openly xenophobic Sanseito.

In its analysis of the last election defeats, the LDP also complained about the loss of conservative voters, said Klein. The LDP has moved too far to the left, it is called. This could have an impact on the election of the next prime minister, because outgoing Ishiba is considered more liberal.

In the LDP, a direction of direction is growing into a significant conflict, said Klein. Everyone in the party agreed that the LDP had to be reformed. Some wanted to continue to the right and as before again. Others preferred a path to the middle – also in order to be able to cooperate better with other parties, the expert continued. “This can massively put the party cohesion to the test”. In the evening, Ishiba said that his resignation should be used to avoid a “division” of his party.