DPP withdraws election candidacy of scandal-hit Shiori Yamao
The Democratic Party for the People (DPP) on Wednesday decided not to field former Lower House lawmaker Shiori Yamao in the forthcoming Upper House election, a day after she announced her candidacy.
The move came in the wake of backlash aimed at the party for fielding Yamao, who has been mired in a series of scandals, including an extramarital affair.
The latest incident is expected to deal a blow to DPP leader Yuichiro Tamaki, who strongly pushed for Yamao to run for the party despite opposition from other members and supporters, and his party.
During her tenure in the Lower House representing a district in Aichi Prefecture, Yamao had been involved in a number of scandals, including allegations over misuse of her train pass to access parliament. She was expected to run under the national proportional representation bloc in the upcoming election.
In 2016, Yamao's secretary was accused of including other people's gasoline receipts in office expense claims. The secretary later admitted to the wrongdoing. On Tuesday, Yamao said she had nothing to do with the incident.
When Yamao announced her candidacy during a news conference Tuesday, which lasted for over 2½ hours, she apologized for her handling of the scandals. However, she also said she had nothing in particular to add.
'My actions and response at the time were naive,' Yamao said. 'However, at this time I would like to refrain from talking about these issues here.'
Yamao also expressed a strong desire to return to the world of politics. She completed her last term in October 2021.
The news conference overall was received coldly, with many netizens turning to X to express their disappointment with Yamao's stance.
After months of the party enjoying the highest popularity in the opposition field, support rate for the DPP has been declining in the last few weeks, with an NHK poll released earlier this week showing 5.8% of respondents supporting the party, down 1.8 percentage points from the previous month.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
5 hours ago
Ishiba Says Japan, U.S. Apart in Tariffs Talks
News from Japan Politics Jun 12, 2025 20:59 (JST) Tokyo, June 12 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told opposition leaders on Thursday that Tokyo and Washington are considerably apart in negotiations over U.S. tariffs, people familiar with the conversations said. Ishiba said the Japan-U.S. negotiations are focused on investment rather than tariffs, adding that Tokyo will not rush into a quick agreement with Washington at the risk of undermining its national interests. He said that Japan focuses on mutual interests, economic security and the expansion of bilateral trade. Japan will not sacrifice agricultural products for automobiles, he said. Ishiba held the talks with opposition leaders to win support from them over the tariff negotiations. He apparently thinks that winning cooperation with them will help him avert a no-confidence motion. Leaders of opposition parties who met with Ishiba on Thursday included Yoshihiko Noda of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Seiji Maehara of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party) and Yuichiro Tamaki of the Democratic Party for the People. [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] Jiji Press
Japan Times
6 hours ago
- Japan Times
Cultural anxiety and Japan's immigration pains
Hello Kitty seems an unlikely trigger for an immigration debate. But that's what happened in Japan this week when Megumi Hayashibara, a prominent voice actress behind icons from Kitty to the long-running anime franchise "Evangelion's" Rei Ayanami, took to her blog to discuss the growing population of outsiders. She called for a crackdown on rule-breaking foreigners and criticized overseas students on free scholarships while locals pay for their education. The thrust of her post was a call for readers to vote. But her most cutting remark was a fear that local habits and Japaneseness itself might be lost if current trends continue, like the native crayfish endangered by an "invasive species' of crustacean threatening its natural habitat. (After online outrage, Hayashibara deleted the reference to crayfish.) While it's hardly the protests in Los Angeles, her comments show how immigration is becoming a heated topic in a country where it has only recently become a feature. And it's one that authorities should not ignore, as politicians elsewhere were content to do until fringe groups become seen as the only ones with the answers. I wrote in 2022 about how Tokyo, long stereotyped as being closed to immigration, was accepting more foreign nationals than many realized. That trend continues, with immigrants nearly doubling in the past decade and a record 10% jump in 2024. It's less the absolute level as the pace of change: Foreign residents have gone from less than 1% to more than 3% of the population in the past three decades and will reach around 10% in 2050. Criticism is fueled by the mistakes of Western nations and promoted by influencers who conflate Japan with other countries. Tokyo's strategy has been far subtler than many nations now struggling with anti-immigration populism, but it's no less vulnerable to the YouTube algorithm: A quick search for "Japan immigration issues' immediately turns up videos by the likes of the ubiquitous Hiroyuki Nishimura, the message-board entrepreneur with millions of followers and a controversial take on everything. These videos have titles like "Why should Japanese have to provide for foreigners?,' "Japan is defenseless' and "Japan will no longer be a country for Japanese!' What they ignore is that Japan doesn't have a vast force of idle foreign residents who are burdening the state. It accepts few asylum seekers, has been selective about the nationalities it attracts and has functioning border control. The number of illegal residents is a quarter of three decades ago, despite the increase in foreign nationals; the number of foreign-committed crimes shows a similar downtrend. Copy-pasted arguments from other countries don't apply here. But there are also areas of legitimate concern where authorities have not kept pace. From worries that short-term stayers are exploiting Japan's generous medical insurance system, to a bizarre loophole allowing tourists to easily get Japanese drivers' licenses, there's a worry that the country's hospitality is being exploited. The declining domestic population is complicating things. Working-age locals fell by 224,000 last year. This simultaneously lifts the need for foreigners to supplement the labor force, while heightening concerns about Japanese being "replaced' in their own country. The truth of Hayashibara's comments lies in the fact that the thing many love about Japanese society — the "it just works' nature of public life, from mass transit to health care to the low crime rate — is deeply dependent on everyone following the rules. Newcomers are often irked by all the procedures, from putting out garbage to talking on the subway. But these are necessary for residents, in particular those in cities stacked cheek-by-jowl, to coexist in harmony. Hayashibara's complaints about bad manners will be familiar to those who live in Japan, foreign or local; everyday annoyances have increased since the borders were reopened after COVID-19. In a Justice Ministry survey, nearly 78% said they most wanted foreign residents to follow local rules and customs. The government hasn't kept up with the times. Only now is Tokyo discussing simple issues, such as stopping tourists with unpaid medical debt from returning or rejecting visa extensions for those who haven't paid health care. I recently noted Japan doesn't track how easy it is for foreigners to buy property. A highly followed story since then concerns a Tokyo building where foreign ownership is seemingly seeking to force out residents to operate an illegal Airbnb. Politicians are reacting, slowly. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has pledged the country "will accept foreigners who follow the rules' while cautioning that those who don't "will be dealt with strictly.' Longtime ruling party leadership candidate Taro Kono has recently been burnishing his credentials by criticizing illegal immigration. It's all the growing pains of a changing nation. Talk of "invasive species' is unhelpful at best. But Japan also shouldn't repeat the mistakes of countries that dismissed citizens' concerns about immigration and ghettoization, only to watch them turn to fringe politicians when no one else would listen. The way to stave off the rise of populist talking heads is to address these worries and enforce a sense of fairness and equal treatment. After all, what else would Kitty want? Gearoid Reidy is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Japan and the Koreas.
Japan Times
6 hours ago
- Japan Times
Japan to move up auctions for imported rice
The Japanese government will move forward the first round of annual auctions for rice imported under a minimum market access agreement as part of efforts to stabilize rice prices, agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi said Thursday. This year's first auction for rice as staple food will take place on June 27 instead of the usual September, Koizumi told reporters, adding that delivery would be possible in September. Japan imports up to 100,000 tons of rice as staple food under the minimum access agreement, which is sold through several batches of auctions. The June auction is expected to cover 30,000 tons, with additional auctions scheduled monthly, ahead of the usual timeline. Higher rice prices have become a serious concern for consumers and policymakers ahead of key elections in Tokyo and the Upper House in the parliament. The government has been releasing rice from its emergency stockpile in an effort to stabilize prices, and consumers have been standing in long queues to buy it at less than half the average supermarket price. About 800,000 metric tons out of the 900,000-ton stockpile has already been earmarked for sale by August, and Koizumi had said the government would utilize imports if needed to keep supplying the grain to the market.
