Japan’s ruling and opposition parties face off next month for the position of prime minister… Attention is paid to the third party that will become the ‘kingmaker’

Shigeru Ishiba bows his head after completing a press conference regarding the results of the House of Representatives election at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on the 28th. Yonhap News”/>

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba bows his head after completing a press conference regarding the results of the House of Representatives election at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on the 28th. Yonhap News

As Japan’s general election, the House of Representatives (House of Representatives) election, ended with the ruling party failing to secure a majority and the opposition party making progress, the ruling and opposition party leaders, former and current prime ministers, will face each other in next month’s prime ministerial election. As both the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party failed to secure a majority, some analysts say that the second and third opposition parties, the Japan Restoration Association and the People’s Democratic Party, have emerged as unexpected ‘kingmakers’.

Local media, including the Asahi Shimbun, reported on the 29th that the Japanese government and ruling party have decided to convene a special National Assembly meeting to nominate the next prime minister on the 11th of next month. The Special National Assembly is a National Assembly convened within one month after the early general election following the dissolution of the House of Representatives, and is responsible for appointing the Prime Minister and forming standing committees.

Candidates seeking to become prime minister in the special session of the National Assembly include Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, and Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party. Representative Noda served as the last prime minister during the Democratic Party, the predecessor of the Constitutional Democratic Party, for about a year from September 2011 to December 2012, and the match between the two is also attracting attention as a contest between former and current prime ministers.

Prime Minister Ishiba disbanded the House of Representatives in the shortest time since World War II and held an early general election, but suffered a crushing defeat and is under pressure from within the party to claim responsibility. However, at a press conference the day before, he said, “Government cannot be stopped even for a moment. He expressed his intention to maintain a coalition government as prime minister, saying, “I will definitely pursue national affairs.” Representative Noda is also showing enthusiasm for a change in government and challenging the prime minister, saying immediately after the House of Representatives election that “it is natural to aim for the nomination of prime minister.”

Due to the prospect of a confrontation between the representatives of the two major political parties, attention is focused on the actions of the second opposition party, the Japan Restoration Association, and the third opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party. Since both the Liberal Democratic Party and the Constitutional Democratic Party failed to secure a majority of seats, cooperation from other political parties is necessary for the election of the prime minister and maintaining and regaining power. In this election, the Liberal Democratic Party (191 seats) and the ruling coalition Komeito Party (24 seats) won a combined 215 seats, failing to achieve a majority (233 seats) of the 465 seats in the House of Representatives, and the Constitutional Democratic Party also fell far short of the majority with 148 seats, making it its own prime minister. Election is difficult. The Japan Restoration Association won 38 seats and the third opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party, won 28 seats in the election.

In reality, maintaining the Liberal Democratic Party’s government is considered a more likely scenario than changing the government. In the Prime Minister nomination election held in a special National Assembly, the member who receives a majority of the total votes in the House of Representatives and the House of Councilors (Senate) is elected as Prime Minister, and if no member receives a majority of the votes, the top two candidates hold a runoff election. The ruling coalition will secure a majority if it gets the support of either the Japan Restoration Party or the People’s Democratic Party, but the Constitutional Democratic Party will only receive 214 votes even if it gets the support of both the People’s Democratic Party and the Japan Restoration Party, so it will have to add the support of other opposition parties, such as the Communist Party, to change the government. You can glare.

Local media reports that cooperation between the Constitutional Democratic Party and the People’s Democratic Party and the Japan Restoration Association is difficult due to clear differences in their positions on major policies such as constitutional amendment, security, and energy policy. Since the Liberal Democratic Party currently holds the majority in the House of Councilors, it is not expected to be realistically easy to produce a prime minister from the Constitutional Democratic Party.

The Yomiuri Shimbun predicted, “If the National Democratic Party or the Japan Restoration Association does not ultimately vote for Representative Noda, Prime Minister Ishiba will be nominated as prime minister.” Asahi said, “Prime Minister Ishiba plans to seek to maintain power through policy consultations with the opposition party.”