By Ju-min Park and Kiyoshi Takenaka
TOKYO, Nov 1 (Reuters) – A right-wing Japanese man with a stronghold in the western city of Osaka strangely emerged as the third-largest in Sunday’s election, tapping into some discontent with the central government and left-wing opposition.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) defied expectations and secured its strong majority in the decline of space elections, strengthening its position https://www. reuters. com/world/asia-pacific/japan-pm-kishida-surprises -with-comfort-win-elections-2021-11-01 in a grumpy tone and allowing it to accentuate the economic recovery.
But the opposition left-wing Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) lost a few seats and remained the largest party in the House at the time.
Japan’s Conservative Innovation Party (PIJ), which nearly quadrupled to 41 seats out of 465 seats in the legislature, finished as the biggest winner in the election, even surpassing the Komeito Party, spouse of the LDP coalition.
The right-wing PIJ was seen as a best imaginable friend to the LDP’s push to revise the constitution, but it also called for deregulation, tax cuts and decentralization of powers to aid growth.
“They took a more critical stance toward the central government and controlled to extract votes from those who were reluctant to do so but were not happy with the majority opposition,” said Corey Wallace, an expert on Japanese politics at Kanagawa University.
One of the reasons for the PIJ’s good fortune was Young No. 2 of the party, Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura, and his success on social media combined with common appearances of the COVID-19 pandemic, when classic campaigns had been limited, Hiroshi Shiratori said. professor at Hosei University.
Unlike many other classic Japanese politicians, the 46-year-old, who has 1. 2 million fans on Twitter, talks out of nowhere and makes passionate televised calls to the public to comply with pandemic restrictions.
SECURITY, CASINOS AND CAPITALISM
Yoichiro Sato, a professor of foreign relations at Asia-Pacific Ritsumeikan University, said the PIJ favors small governments and may simply “block Kishida’s new concept of capitalism to further narrow the income source hole between rich and poor. “
However, like the LDP, the PIJ is in favour of revising the post-war charter and defence budget to overcome the occasional ceiling of 1% of GDP. The LDP called for the first time for an increase in defence spending to 2%. in its manifesto.
“If they sign up to announce a policy of strengthening defense, the CDPJ or the Japanese Communist Party won’t be able to do much,” said Mikitaka Masuyama, a professor at the National Institute for Advanced Study in Politics.
A more powerful PIJ can also put more emphasis on Japan’s willingness to build casinos. The party supports the effort and in September Osaka chose MGM Resorts International and his wife Orix Corp to build what could be Japan’s first casino.
Wallace said Osaka’s citizens “are not as strongly opposed to casinos” as at other potential sites like Yokohama, adding that JIP’s victory “even though a casino is one of its clearest and most compromised positions suggests that there is a decent chance that casinos will eventually be victorious. “
Ichiro Matsui, the Osaka mayor who leads the party, said after the election that the organization would remain in opposition and retain Kishida’s management by “saying smart is smart and bad is bad. “-min Park, Kiyoshi Takenaka; more information through Yoshifumi Takemoto; editing via Antoni Slodkowski and Raju Gopalakrishnan)