reporter2
29-09-21, 13:36
Japan’s ruling party votes for new leader who is likely to become next PM
Runoff between former ministers Taro Kono and Fumio Kishida to take place after Yoshihide Suga announced he would step down
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
29 Sep 2021
https://i.imgur.com/h8GPIXj.jpg
Candidates in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership election pose for photographers in Japan Photograph: Eugene Hoshiko/AP
Wednesday’s contest to elect a new leader of Japan’s ruling party – who will almost certainly become the next prime minister – will end in a runoff between two former foreign ministers with very different personal styles.
Whoever wins – vaccination minister Taro Kono or former foreign minister Fumio Kishida – will face a general election within weeks, as well as the threat of a winter coronavirus outbreak and an economy struggling to emerge from the pandemic.
The outgoing prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, recently announced he would step down after only a year as the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader, leaving the race to succeed him wide open.
The new party chief is expected to become the next prime minister due to the LDP’s majority in the powerful lower house of parliament, but the new leader’s identity was still uncertain after the first round of voting among party MPs and local chapters.
While Suga was assured of victory a year ago thanks to support from major party factions, Wednesday’s contest is unusually tight, partly because most factions have decided not to back a particular candidate and allow their members a free vote.
Running for the top post were Kono, a US-educated former defence and foreign minister whom some regard as an antidote to Japan’s staid political culture. Kono was due to face off against Kishida, who has a reputation for being an effective, if uninspiring, consensus builder, in a second round of voting on Wednesday afternoon.
Sanae Takaichi, a former internal affairs minister who hails from the ideological right of the LDP, had surprised some pundits with encouraging poll results, while the other woman in the race, Seiko Noda, from the party’s weaker liberal wing, trailed some way behind her three rivals.
With a general election looming, the LDP is aware that its choice of leader must also appeal to the country’s voters after a year of Suga, whose support plummeted over his handling of the coronavirus and his insistence on hosting the Tokyo Olympics during the pandemic in defiance of public opinion.
His unpopularity has also been attributed to the continuing influence of his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, who has been blamed for establishing a high-handed style of leadership, discouraging internal debate and dragging the LDP to the right.
Wednesday’s vote is seen as a test of whether the party can move out of Abe’s shadow, said Yu Uchiyama, a political science professor at the University of Tokyo.
“What’s at stake is the state of democracy in Japan, and if or how the new leader is willing to listen to the people’s voices and take them into political consideration,” Uchiyama said. “Prime minister Suga obviously had a problem with communicating with the people and did not provide accountability.”
The contenders need to attract votes from grassroots LDP members and young lawmakers – who have emerged as a force in the brief campaign preceding the vote, and who are more likely to be swayed by popularity ratings – while also appealing to party bosses.
But rank-and-file members will have less say if no candidate wins a majority in the first round of voting and a second round is held between the top two contenders.
Kono and Kishida are unlikely to trigger a huge shift in policies as Japan seeks to cope with an assertive China and revive an economy hit by the pandemic. But Kono’s push for renewable energy and to remove bureaucratic obstacles to reform have made him appealing to investors and business chiefs.
Takaichi had been more outspoken on hot-button issues such as acquiring the ability to strike enemy missile launchers. She also said that as premier she would visit Yasukuni, a controversial war shrine that is regarded by China and South Korea as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism. Kono has said he would not visit the shrine.
Kono and Kishida have pointed to the failure of Abe’s signature “Abenomics” mix of expansionary fiscal and monetary policies and growth strategy to benefit households, but they have offered few specifics on their economic policies.
The candidates have also clashed over cultural values, with Kono favouring legal changes to allow same-sex marriage and separate surnames for married couples, both anathema to the ultra-conservative Takaichi.
Runoff between former ministers Taro Kono and Fumio Kishida to take place after Yoshihide Suga announced he would step down
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
29 Sep 2021
https://i.imgur.com/h8GPIXj.jpg
Candidates in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership election pose for photographers in Japan Photograph: Eugene Hoshiko/AP
Wednesday’s contest to elect a new leader of Japan’s ruling party – who will almost certainly become the next prime minister – will end in a runoff between two former foreign ministers with very different personal styles.
Whoever wins – vaccination minister Taro Kono or former foreign minister Fumio Kishida – will face a general election within weeks, as well as the threat of a winter coronavirus outbreak and an economy struggling to emerge from the pandemic.
The outgoing prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, recently announced he would step down after only a year as the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader, leaving the race to succeed him wide open.
The new party chief is expected to become the next prime minister due to the LDP’s majority in the powerful lower house of parliament, but the new leader’s identity was still uncertain after the first round of voting among party MPs and local chapters.
While Suga was assured of victory a year ago thanks to support from major party factions, Wednesday’s contest is unusually tight, partly because most factions have decided not to back a particular candidate and allow their members a free vote.
Running for the top post were Kono, a US-educated former defence and foreign minister whom some regard as an antidote to Japan’s staid political culture. Kono was due to face off against Kishida, who has a reputation for being an effective, if uninspiring, consensus builder, in a second round of voting on Wednesday afternoon.
Sanae Takaichi, a former internal affairs minister who hails from the ideological right of the LDP, had surprised some pundits with encouraging poll results, while the other woman in the race, Seiko Noda, from the party’s weaker liberal wing, trailed some way behind her three rivals.
With a general election looming, the LDP is aware that its choice of leader must also appeal to the country’s voters after a year of Suga, whose support plummeted over his handling of the coronavirus and his insistence on hosting the Tokyo Olympics during the pandemic in defiance of public opinion.
His unpopularity has also been attributed to the continuing influence of his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, who has been blamed for establishing a high-handed style of leadership, discouraging internal debate and dragging the LDP to the right.
Wednesday’s vote is seen as a test of whether the party can move out of Abe’s shadow, said Yu Uchiyama, a political science professor at the University of Tokyo.
“What’s at stake is the state of democracy in Japan, and if or how the new leader is willing to listen to the people’s voices and take them into political consideration,” Uchiyama said. “Prime minister Suga obviously had a problem with communicating with the people and did not provide accountability.”
The contenders need to attract votes from grassroots LDP members and young lawmakers – who have emerged as a force in the brief campaign preceding the vote, and who are more likely to be swayed by popularity ratings – while also appealing to party bosses.
But rank-and-file members will have less say if no candidate wins a majority in the first round of voting and a second round is held between the top two contenders.
Kono and Kishida are unlikely to trigger a huge shift in policies as Japan seeks to cope with an assertive China and revive an economy hit by the pandemic. But Kono’s push for renewable energy and to remove bureaucratic obstacles to reform have made him appealing to investors and business chiefs.
Takaichi had been more outspoken on hot-button issues such as acquiring the ability to strike enemy missile launchers. She also said that as premier she would visit Yasukuni, a controversial war shrine that is regarded by China and South Korea as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism. Kono has said he would not visit the shrine.
Kono and Kishida have pointed to the failure of Abe’s signature “Abenomics” mix of expansionary fiscal and monetary policies and growth strategy to benefit households, but they have offered few specifics on their economic policies.
The candidates have also clashed over cultural values, with Kono favouring legal changes to allow same-sex marriage and separate surnames for married couples, both anathema to the ultra-conservative Takaichi.