
50% want Japan ruling bloc to lose upper house majority: Kyodo poll
KYODO NEWS - 31 minutes ago - 17:01 | All, Japan
Half of Japanese voters want Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's ruling coalition to lose its majority in the House of Councillors in next month's election, a Kyodo News survey showed Sunday.
In the nationwide telephone poll conducted on Saturday and Sunday, 38.1 percent of respondents said they want the coalition of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito party to retain their upper house majority following the July 20 election.
Related coverage:
Japan gov't asks operators to address disinformation before election
Japan PM aims to retain upper house majority after July poll
FOCUS: Tokyo rebuke puts Ishiba at risk in national election

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Japan Times
15 minutes ago
- Japan Times
Measures to ease inflation must be speedy, says Prime Minister Ishiba
Any measures to ease inflation in Japan must be speedy and shouldn't impede the government's ability to fund social services, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Sunday, in a comment reflecting his aversion to sales tax cuts as opposition parties campaign to lower the duty ahead of a key election next month. "We must secure the necessary funds for medical care, elderly care, and pensions. On top of that, the response to the current inflationary trends needs immediacy. It needs to be speedy,' Ishiba said on Sunday at a conference hosted by nonprofit organization Japan Productivity Center. He added that measures to counter inflation must reach those most in need, and touted recent steps that eased rice and gasoline prices as examples. Ishiba has opposed lowering the sales tax ahead of an Upper House election where voters will vote on the performance of his minority government. The ruling coalition suffered its worst-ever result in a Tokyo metropolitan election last week, with voters raising the high cost-of-living as well as anger over political scandals as factors that helped determine how they voted. A Kyodo News poll conducted over the weekend showed that 50.2% of respondents hoped to see the ruling coalition lose their majority in the Upper House, while 38.1% hoped to see them maintain it. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner Komeito need to win only 50 out of 125 contested seats to maintain a majority in the Upper House. The same poll showed that 70% of respondents want a cut in the consumption tax to deal with persistent inflation, while Ishiba's pledge to provide cash handouts was supported by 23.8%. Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the country's largest opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, promoted his party's promise to temporarily lower the consumption tax on food, saying that a major factor for Japan's inflation, currently the highest among Group of Seven countries, is rising food prices. "I believe the most effective way to counter inflation is by bringing down the current 8% consumption tax on food down to 0%,' Noda said at the same conference, adding that his plan would call for a temporary cut with a pre-determined time limit of up to two years. Inflation in Tokyo slowed in June for the first time in four months as a result of government steps to reduce utility and gasoline prices. Still, voters across Japan have seen more than three years of inflation at or above the Bank of Japan's 2% target.


Kyodo News
17 minutes ago
- Kyodo News
China to invite Trump to Sept. military parade marking WWII victory
KYODO NEWS - 15 minutes ago - 21:00 | World, All China is planning to invite U.S. President Donald Trump to a military parade scheduled for Sept. 3 in Beijing's Tiananmen Square to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, sources familiar with the matter said Sunday. The United States, meanwhile, has proposed that Chinese President Xi Jinping visit the country during the same month, coinciding with a U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York, the sources said. If either plan is realized, it would be the first in-person meeting between the leaders of the world's two largest economies since Trump's return to the White House in January for a nonconsecutive second four-year term. Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to attend the parade in Beijing, held to commemorate what China calls its victory in the 1937-1945 War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. A joint celebration of war victory by the leaders of China, Russia and the United States would likely pose a diplomatic challenge for Japan. During their phone talks on June 5, Xi invited Trump to visit China again, for which the U.S. president expressed heartfelt appreciation, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Trump, who last visited in 2017, said he reciprocated the invitation. Even if Trump himself is eager to travel to China, Beijing believes U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, known as a longtime China hawk, and many other senior U.S. officials may oppose the president's attendance at the military parade, the sources said. Meanwhile, the Chinese government is reluctant to have Xi visit the United States, concerned about a Xi-Trump version of the Oval Office meeting in February where Trump publicly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the sources said. It is considering having Premier Li Qiang attend the U.N. meeting instead. The United Nations marks the 80th anniversary of its founding this year. A Chinese source suggested Beijing aims to set up the first Sino-U.S. summit talks since the start of the second Trump administration on Chinese soil so it can limit press coverage and engineer a "successful" summit. China and the United States, which have been engaged in a tit-for-tat tariff war, agreed to lower trade tensions by establishing a 90-day truce in May, with the two countries committed to backing away from their respective triple-digit tariffs. But tensions remain over such issues as Beijing's slow removal of export controls on critical rare-earth minerals used in high-tech products and Washington's policy to "aggressively" revoke the visas of Chinese students, specifically those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party or those studying in sensitive fields. China has staged large-scale military parades in the Tiananmen Square. In 2019, a parade to mark the 70th anniversary of Communist rule showcased the country's state-of-the-art weapons including a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile believed capable of hitting almost anywhere in the United States. In 2015, Putin and then South Korean President Park Geun Hye were among the foreign leaders who observed a military parade in Tiananmen to mark the 70th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II. Related coverage: China to hold military parade Sept. 3 for 80th anniv. of end of WWII


Japan Times
an hour ago
- Japan Times
Ishiba cautious about expanding ruling coalition
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba sounded cautious Sunday about expanding the ruling coalition between his Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito. "A coalition should be formed after a certain level of agreement is reached on diplomacy, security and public finances," Ishiba said in a speech ahead of Thursday's start of the official campaign period for the July 20 election for the House of Councilors, the upper chamber of Parliament. At a conference hosted by a private policy proposal group, Ishiba also expressed support for the idea of establishing a nonpartisan consultative body on social security reform. On measures against persisting inflation, he stated, "What is needed now is immediate effects," reiterating the need to provide a cash benefit of ¥20,000 to ¥40,000 per citizen, included in his party's election pledges. "We must secure financial resources for medical care, elderly care and pensions," he said, indicating a negative view about opposition proposals for lowering the consumption tax. At the conference, opposition party leaders expressed skepticism about joining the coalition. "It's impossible to form a grand coalition just with one issue," Yoshihiko Noda, president of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, said adding that a coalition with the LDP "would not be easy." Hirofumi Yoshimura, leader of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party), declared, "We have no intention of joining the (LDP-Komeito) coalition." In contrast, Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People, refrained from taking a position, saying that things would depend on the Upper House election results. Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito stated, "Now is not the time to think about any partner other than the LDP and Komeito." Noda and Yoshimura, Osaka governor, approved the idea of setting up the consultative body for social security reform. They also called for a temporary consumption tax cut for food. Japanese Communist Party leader Tomoko Tamura said that the consumption tax rate be lowered to 5%.