Eyes to be on Whether Japan's Ruling Bloc Can Win 50 Seats in Upper House Vote; Opposition Parties Aim to be on the Offensive After Tokyo Election Results
Focus will be on whether the ruling parties can win the 50 seats needed to maintain a majority in the 248-seat upper house.
The Liberal Democratic Party, which suffered a major defeat in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election on Sunday, is rushing to rebuild itself in preparation for the July 20 election. Opposition parties, on the other hand, have been gaining momentum following the Tokyo election and aim to be on the offensive through candidate coordination and other means.
'We discussed the need to learn from the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election and work hard for the upper house election,' said Shinji Inoue, the chairman of the LDP's Tokyo metropolitan chapter and former Expo minister, to reporters after an emergency meeting of the chapter at LDP headquarters on Tuesday.
At the meeting, attendees expressed various opinions, including that the LDP's policies did not quite appeal to voters. The number of seats the party won in Sunday's election was a record low for the LDP in a Tokyo assembly election.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is also LDP president, said Monday that the goal for the upcoming election is to maintain a majority, or hold at least a combined 125 seats between the LDP and its junior coalition partner Komeito.
The LDP holds 62 seats that are not up for grabs this election, while Komeito has 13, so the goal can be achieved by winning 50 seats in the upcoming upper house election.
'It's important for the LDP and Komeito to maintain a majority in the upper house to help the government ensure stable management,' Komeito Secretary General Makoto Nishida said Tuesday.
This time, 125 seats will be contested, 124 of which are held by members whose terms are set to end and one seat to fill a vacancy in the Tokyo constituency.
As winning 63 seats this election would mean winning a majority of the contested seats, some within the LDP are dissatisfied with the goal set by Ishiba.
'That's too low of a target,' a former cabinet minister said.
But in light of the major defeat in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election, the view that the LDP cannot be optimistic is growing.
LDP executives are hoping the poor results in the Tokyo election will have a motivating effect, with one saying, 'With the results of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election being this bad, [our candidates] will have to fight hard in the upper house election.'
Meanwhile, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan held an election strategy meeting on Tuesday and confirmed a policy to make every effort to stop the ruling parties from securing a majority in the upper house election.
At the start of the meeting, CDPJ chief Yoshihiko Noda, referring to his party's five-seat increase in the Tokyo assembly election, said: 'The approach of protecting people from high prices has proven effective. We will confidently appeal to voters by talking about this policy during the upper house election [campaign] as well.'
The CDPJ plans to coordinate and consolidate candidates with the Japanese Communist Party in the two-seat constituencies in which one seat is up for grabs. According to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey, the two parties are competing in seven of the 32 such constituencies, and they are trying to quickly reach an agreement.
The Japan Innovation Party plans to announce its campaign pledges for the upcoming election on June 30. It aims to win at least six seats up for grabs. The party is expected to push for a reduction in social insurance premiums, among other items, during the campaign.
The Democratic Party for the People, which focuses on supporting young people and those of working age, aims to secure at least 16 seats.
DPFP leader Yuichiro Tamaki criticized the government for scheduling the upper house election in the middle of a three-day holiday.
'If they think that young people won't vote and that parties supported by elderly people will benefit [from such scheduling], they will face a severe backlash,' Tamaki said.
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