Appeal for Financial Support

Does Choice Of Takaichi Hurt LDP?

FLASH: Sanae Takaichi was selected by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to be the Prime Minister. Here are some brief comments:

The number of registered rank-and-file LDP voters has fallen by almost a fifth from 2010.

Gerry Curtis declared that the selection of Takaichi is going to hasten the decline and the eventual collapse of the LDP.” In a speech to the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan, Curtis said, “It’s not if, it’s just when. It could happen fairly soon,” as the LDP is likely unable to deliver what the people need. He also stressed that Japanese politics is going through the same process seen elsewhere, with the incumbent ruling and opposition parties losing popular support to more extreme parties, because they remain unable to provide answers to the “anger and resentments” of their voters. For details, see this Nikkei piece behind a paywall.

I’d note two other details.

While other leading candidates for LDP President vowed to increase wages—without giving a clear idea of how they’d so—Takaichi did not even bother to make even an empty promise. She just offered the same promises that lost the LDP the Lower and Upper House elections: some cash handouts and perhaps some temporary tax credits (not tax cuts, even temporarily).

Initially, in a debate, Takaichi was the only candidate who said that trade pact former PM Shigeru Ishiba negotiated with Donald Trump had some unfair elements and she might seek to renegotiate it. Then she walked that back, praising Ishiba’s handling of the issue and dropping any intention to renegotiate.

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