Japan's ruling party wins another election | The Economist - 0 views
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OBARA HIROYUKI, a 33-year-old office worker in Tokyo, considered voting for the first time this year. But he overslept on October 31st—election day—and had other plans in the afternoon. When it comes to politics, “nothing grabs my attention,” he says. “Nobody around me votes—at work, there's a sense that you shouldn't talk about politics.”
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Along with its coalition partner, Komeito, the LDP kept control of the country's lower house despite posting its worst results since it briefly lost power in 2009:
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Frustration with the government’s handling of covid-19 fuelled the losses. While Japan has seen relatively few deaths as a share of population and has reached relatively high rates of vaccination (after a slow start), voters have given the national government little credit.
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Party grandees hoped the ire would recede after Kishida Fumio replaced the unpopular Suga Yoshihide as party leader and prime minister in October. But Mr Kishida, a milquetoast figure, has not done much better at connecting with the public.
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Mr Kishida’s administration's approval ratings have hovered between 45% and 60%, relatively low for a new prime minister.
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news was even worse for Japan’s embattled opposition, which failed to make use of the political tailwinds. It could not motivate independent voters. And memories of its messy rule from 2009 to 2012 remain potent.
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The biggest beneficiary of the LDP’s slide was instead the Japan Innovation Party, an Osaka-based right-leaning populist outfit, which more than tripled its seats, from 11 to 41
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But it has limited appeal beyond its home region, and it is rare for regional parties to go national in Japan.
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On the whole, voters opted for stability. The ruling coalition secured more than 261 of the lower house’s 465 seats, a threshold known as an “absolute stable majority”
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His first order of business will be his debut on the world stage: he is expected to travel to the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow on Monday, November 1st.
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That will force him to begin fleshing out his economic policies, which have thus far consisted of lofty-sounding but fuzzy pledges to create a “new model of capitalism”.