Japan Votes With New PM On Shaky Ground

AFP/APP

Tokyo: Japan votes in its tightest election in years on Sunday, with new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and his juggernaut Liberal Democratic Party facing potentially their worst result since 2009.

Opinion polls suggest the conservative LDP and its junior coalition partner may fall short of a majority, a result that could deal a knockout blow to Ishiba.

The 67-year-old former defence minister took office and called a snap election after being narrowly selected last month to lead the LDP, which has governed Japan for almost all of the past seven decades.

But voters in the world’s fourth-largest economy have been rankled by rising prices and the fallout from a party slush fund scandal that helped sink previous premier Fumio Kishida.

“We want to start afresh as a fair, just and sincere party, and seek your mandate,” Ishiba told supporters at a rally on Saturday.

He has pledged to revitalize depressed rural regions and to address the “quiet emergency” of Japan’s falling population through family-friendly policies such as flexible working hours.

But he has since rowed back his position on issues including allowing married couples to take separate surnames. He also named only two women ministers in his cabinet.