Latest news with #IshibaShigeru
NHK
10 hours ago
- Politics
- NHK
Calls for official LDP lawmakers' meeting growing after Upper House election
Calls are growing in Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party to convene an official decision-making meeting on Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru's responsibility for the party's defeat in Sunday's Upper House election. Ishiba on Thursday received a briefing from the country's chief tariff negotiator Akazawa Ryosei on a trade agreement reached recently with the United States. Ishiba said it is important that he and US President Donald Trump put the deal steadily into force. He again expressed intent to remain in office, saying he will continue working fully to remove anxieties of people in industries that could suffer under the deal. Meanwhile, the LDP leadership plans to hold a meeting of party lawmakers on Monday. It also plans to review the results of Sunday's election by the end of next month. But some in the party say Ishiba's responsibility for the loss as party president should be discussed at the Joint Plenary Meeting of Members of Both Houses of the Diet, which is the party's official decision-making body. Requests from one-third or more of LDP lawmakers are needed to convene a meeting. An initiative to gather lawmakers' signatures in favor of doing so by those who belonged to the former Motegi faction is now expanding to lawmakers of other former factions. Some of them also hope that their action may eventually help move up the party's presidential election now scheduled for 2027. The move requires support from a majority of the party's lawmakers and prefectural representatives. Other LDP lawmakers are refraining from joining the move, saying that they do not want to help invite political confusion. Japan next month will mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two, and host an international conference. Meanwhile, moves by Liberal Democrats who lost to Ishiba in last year's party presidential election are now gaining attention. Former Economic Security Minister Takaichi Sanae met former Prime Minister Aso Taro on Wednesday and former Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Nishimura Yasutoshi on Thursday. Nishimura was a senior member of the former Abe faction. Earlier this week, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hayashi Yoshimasa held a meeting of lawmakers who belonged to the former Kishida faction, and former Economic Security Minister Kobayashi Takayuki met with those holding similar views.
NHK
12 hours ago
- Business
- NHK
Japan PM Ishiba meets other party leaders to explain US tariff deal
Japan's Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru has told leaders of the ruling and opposition parties that the country's tariff deal with the United States was reached in a way that meets the national interests of both sides. The party leaders met on Friday morning. The participants alongside Ishiba were: Noda Yoshihiko of Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Maehara Seiji of Japan Innovation Party, Tamaki Yuichiro of Democratic Party for the People, Saito Tetsuo of Komeito, Kamiya Sohei of Sanseito, Oishi Akiko of Reiwa Shinsengumi and Tamura Tomoko of Japanese Communist Party. Ishiba said at the start of the meeting that since he made a proposal to US President Donald Trump in February, the Japanese side consistently called strongly for US officials to prioritize investment over tariffs. The prime minister went on to say that this has resulted in an agreement that meets the national interests of Japan and the US while protecting what needs to be protected. He noted that he received various opinions at the three previous meetings of party leaders, and expressed gratitude for their suggestions. Ishiba is believed to have explained the contents of the deal with the US, expressed intent to take all possible measures to support domestic industries, such as consultations on financing, and asked for the leaders' cooperation.
The Diplomat
18 hours ago
- Business
- The Diplomat
A Summer of Reckoning for Japan's Economy
Aside from the question of growth, the question is whether policymakers can reorient the country's future trajectory before serious problems set in. Japan's economy in 2025 stands at an uncertain juncture. Exports are slipping, the yen is tumbling, and Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru is racing against time to avert a trade cliff with the United States. The once-reliable playbook of industrial exports and fiscal stimulus is looking increasingly outdated in the face of shifting geopolitical alliances, aging demographics, and mounting trade tensions. Yet beneath the surface of weak GDP figures and softening trade data lies a more complicated and paradoxical reality. Japan continues to maintain near-full employment, stable domestic consumption, and world-class infrastructure, all while carrying the highest public debt-to-GDP ratio in the developed world. Its rural economy is quietly innovating, and major firms are adapting supply chains for resilience rather than efficiency. The question confronting policymakers, businesses, and global investors alike extends beyond the question of growth to the question of whether it can reorient the country's future before a tipping point is reached. For every member of the National Diet, the current talk of the day is how to handle the trade headwinds and tariff tensions with the United States. Japan's exports have now declined for two consecutive months, with June's drop driven largely by weakened semiconductor and auto shipments to China and the U.S. Washington's threatened 35 percent tariffs on Japanese imports could tip the economy into a technical recession. This sent the Japanese government scrambling to hold high-level talks in Washington ahead of the August 1 deadline, resulting in a last-minute deal, announced on July 22, that will see the tariff rate lowered to 15 percent – including for Japanese automotive exports. Yet this outcome can't hide the reality that Japan's reliance on global exports is again proving to be a vulnerability. The United States remains Japan's most important trade partner, leaving Tokyo dependent on an increasingly volatile U.S. administration. Underneath these immediate trade tensions is the persistent issue of government debt. Japan's public debt now stands at over 260 percent of GDP, the highest among developed nations. Despite this, bond yields remain remarkably low, and the country continues to finance its massive spending domestically. How long this can last, however, is unclear. Inflation remains above the Bank of Japan's 2 percent target, wages have only modestly increased, and social spending pressures, particularly from an aging population, are intensifying. A recent Deloitte analysis highlighted how a strong yen, combined with cautious consumer spending, is squeezing corporate margins. The yen's appreciation has helped tame import costs and rein in inflation, but at the same time, domestic consumers remain hesitant, dampening firms' ability to pass on costs or foster volume growth. With these challenges confronting Japan in both the short and long term, policymakers are beginning to pivot toward 'economic security.' This includes, for example, reducing reliance on single-source suppliers, especially from China, and investing more in semiconductors, batteries, and hydrogen. This marks a major shift from past decades, when Japan heavily outsourced manufacturing to reduce costs. The World Economic Forum also highlighted a grassroots dimension to this strategy, showcasing how rural areas are leveraging traditional practices and renewable energy to build local resilience. For example, some prefectures are powering microgrids through biomass and geothermal power projects rooted in centuries-old forest management techniques. With these types of investments and innovations, Japan has demonstrated the know-how to maintain a technological edge over its rivals. While the government continues to pursue measures to stimulate domestic growth and address foreign trade issues, redefining economic success in Japan will require addressing its demographic realities. With 29.3 percent of the population over age 65, Japan faces both a labor shortage and a narrowing tax base. For the United States, a sinking birth rate barely makes headlines due to the large influx of immigrants each year. For Japan, however, accepting foreigners into the country comes with immense challenges. Sanseito, for example, enjoyed its best-ever showing in the July 20 upper house election on a platform of opposition to what it described as a 'silent invasion' of immigrants. Even tourism has become a sticking point: the government has established a national body to rein in overtourism after a record-breaking 36.8 million tourists came to Japan in 2024. Animosity toward foreigners is only one side of the coin of Japan's demographic crisis. With a birthrate of 1.15 in 2024, Japan entered its 18th consecutive year of deaths outpacing births, with a population drop of nearly a million people. This population decline is closely tied to Japan's entrenched work culture, which continues to discourage family formation and work-life balance. Add to that the phenomenon of 'nominication,' company-sponsored after-work drinking parties meant to strengthen team bonds, which remain a key part of corporate life. While intended to foster workplace cohesion, these gatherings often reinforce work-first priorities and eat into personal time, making parenthood feel like an increasingly difficult choice for many young professionals. Meanwhile, another trend offers an illustration of changing attitudes: younger workers are now hiring 'resignation agencies' to quit their jobs for them, paying about $350 to bypass the anxiety and discomfort of direct confrontation with their bosses. These resignations are often driven by harassment, unpaid overtime, or inflexible workplace expectations. The real question now becomes: will there be a tipping point for Japan? This will come when demographic decline and fiscal strain begin to feed on each other, setting off financial instability or other social problems. On the financial front, the recent bond market data is worrying: yields on Japan's 10‑year government bonds recently hit their highest levels since 2008 at around 1.59 percent, while 30‑year bonds soared to 3.21 percent, reflecting investors' growing concern over potentially unsustainable debt levels. Even the typically stable auctions for long-term bonds are now failing to find buyers: the 20‑year bond auction recorded its weakest demand since 2012, signaling a dangerous erosion of investor confidence. Should global conditions tighten, say via a U.S. rate spike or tariff shock, Japan could face a debt sell-off that forces either painful fiscal adjustments or, worst-case, a credit rating downgrade, diminishing the government's ability to roll over its debt. Economists warn such a downgrade could push Japan toward default. A further collapse in workforce numbers, paired with shrinking consumer demand, risks a vicious cycle of lower tax revenues, higher debt-servicing costs, and reduced capacity to invest in innovation. In that scenario, societal confidence, measured through voter turnout, trust in institutions, or the stability of public services, could erode, marking a true crisis for Japan's social contract.
2 days ago
- Politics
Sanseitō Makes a Splash: Populist Politics on the Rise in Japan
The July 20 election for Japan's House of Councillors saw 125 of the chamber's 248 seats up for grabs—half the total plus one vacant seat to be filled. The stakes, though, were higher than suggested by the numbers. When the dust had cleared, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party had secured just 39 of the seats being decided—a slightly higher number than their all-time low of 36 seats in 1989, but still a drubbing that left it with 13 fewer seats than before the election took place. The LDP's junior coalition partner Kōmeitō, meanwhile, lost 6 seats from its preelection total, winning just 8, in part due to the rapid dwindling and aging of the membership of the religious group Sōka Gakkai, which provides the bulk of its support. The LDP-Kōmeitō coalition holds 75 of the upper house seats that were not up for election this time, meaning that the parties had to achieve Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru's modest target of 50 combined wins to maintain their majority hold on power in the chamber. Their record of 47 fell short of the mark, though, leaving them in a diminished position in the House of Councillors as well as the House of Representatives, where they became a minority government following the October 2024 general election. The LDP, which celebrates the seventieth anniversary of its founding in November this year, has never in all that time been a member of a minority government in both houses of the Diet until now. This means Japanese politics has entered uncharted territory. Following a spate of political money scandals up through the early 1990s, Japan sought to refresh the scene by shifting in 1994 from an electoral system of multimember districts to one with a combination of single-seat districts and proportional-representation bloc voting. The aim was to achieve a framework supporting two powerful parties that could wrest power from one another as the political winds shifted. This represented a break from the previous reality, where any problems that might crop up could be done away with by replacing one set of LDP leaders with another, in an ersatz form of regime change. And it did, in fact, eventually lead to a different group, the Democratic Party of Japan, stepping up to take the reins of power in 2009. The 1994 reforms, though, left the House of Councillors largely untouched. Popularly considered less important than the powerful House of Representatives, this upper house had long offered less to voters in the way of meaningful actions on which to base voting decisions, and its actions in the political sphere tended to be swayed by the popular mood of the time. This introduced a degree of unpredictability, and there were numerous cases where prime ministers were pressed to step down following unexpected electoral shifts in House of Councillors contests. This month's election may end up in this category. Generally speaking, though, the natural way of things is for a ruling party that has fallen out of favor with the electorate to see its seats go to an opposition party, which gains influence in its place. This time, though, we have seen no simple transfer of seats from the LDP to an alternative: Rather, the anti-LDP vote has been split across numerous options, producing a crowded field of diverse opposition forces. Two opposition parties making marked gains in the July 20 election are the DPFP, or Democratic Party for the People, which won 17 seats to bring its total in the upper house to 22 (up from 9), and the Sanseitō, which took 14 seats to bring its total to 15, up from just 2. The largest opposition party in the chamber, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, saw no change in its total seats, winning 22 seats to stay at 38. On paper these parties would seem to have the numbers to make an impact as a unified opposition, but politically speaking they range from the DPFP and Sanseitō on the right to the CDPJ on the left, leaving little room for cooperation. The stage is therefore set for fluid, unpredictable dealings on both the minority ruling and fractured opposition sides of the aisle. Going to Extremes? Many expected Sanseitō to be little more than a flash in the pan going into this election. But even as it trotted out its exclusionary 'Japanese first' slogan, the party was running relatively unknown candidates in districts across the nation, and placing them near the top in the voting in many of them. This signals a turning point in Japanese politics, I believe. If we are to describe the 2025 upper house election as 'historic' in some way, it will likely be not because it saw a sound defeat for the ruling LDP, but because it marked the serious rise of right-wing populist forces in Japan, a trend seen in various Western nations in recent years. Kamiya Sōhei, Sanseitō's leader, founded the party in 2020. Prior to that he had served in the Suita municipal assembly in Osaka Prefecture and unsuccessfully run for seats in the National Diet (with LDP backing) and the Osaka Prefectural Assembly. His political career languished until he began building a name for himself online, with antivaccination screeds on his YouTube channel. In the 2022 House of Councillors election he rode this momentum to a seat in the Diet, gaining the first foothold for his new party. At its core, Sanseitō is a nationalist, restorationist political force on the far right of Japan's political spectrum. In May this year it released its draft of a 'New Constitution of Japan,' defining the state as one in which the emperor reigns over a unified polity of the imperial house and the people. The document also lists 'the spirit of cherishing Japan' as one requirement for the people, and can be read as allowing for the stripping of citizenship from those who fail in this regard. The Sanseitō draft constitution further demands that the people honor the Imperial Rescript on Education, promulgated in 1890 by Emperor Meiji, and goes so far as to position the cultivation of rice, 'Japan's staple food,' as a central part of food policy. In its clause commanding media organizations to fulfill their duty to 'report on national policy fairly and without bias,' it comes across as little different from basic laws seen in authoritarian states like China or Russia. The Sanseitō candidate Saya, a jazz vocalist who goes by a single name, came in second in the July 20 election in the Tokyo district, winning her seat with some 670,000 votes. She was formerly one of the 'Tamogami girls,' high-profile supporters of Tamogami Toshio, who made a foray into politics after his 2008 dismissal as chief of staff of the Air Self-Defense Force for publishing an essay claiming that Japan was not an aggressor, but had been tricked into fighting in World War II by the Chinese and Americans. On July 3, soon after campaigning kicked off, Saya appeared on an Internet broadcast where she stated that arming itself with nuclear weapons would be 'the cheapest way for Japan to defend itself' going forward. Russian Influence Comes to Japan at Last Sanseitō has staked out a series of extremist positions, as outlined above, gaining rapidly rising levels of attention for them via its use of social media. During the election period, this even led to accusations that the party had support from Russian information operations after Saya appeared in a program broadcast by the Japanese edition of Sputnik, the Russian state-operated online news channel. The European Union has suspended broadcasting activities by Sputnik in EU territories, describing it as a propaganda outlet. Foreign information manipulation and interference, or FIMI, has been noted in Japan's White Paper on Defense as a potential threat to the integrity of the country's elections. FIMI was recognized as a factor as long ago as 2016 in Britain's Brexit referendum and the US presidential election that sent Donald Trump to the White House for the first time. Now, nine years later, its impact appears to have reached Japan as well. Analysts have explained Sanseitō's success as due in part to its ability to peel off the LDP's 'bedrock conservatives' who once supported Prime Minister Abe Shinzō when he headed the party. While this has no doubt played a part, it pales in comparison to the larger issues of rising consumer prices, stagnant wages, and the perceived ineptitude of Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru. Without these factors in play, there would have been no boom in popularity for Sanseitō. According to the Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions released by the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare on July 4, fully 28.0% of households reported 'very difficult' conditions this year, a rise of 1.5 percentage points from the 2024 survey. Indeed, Japan's rate of inflation rests near the highest level among all developed economies. For the people of Japan who sense their standard of living in decline—particularly those under age 40 in more precarious career positions—this malaise has been paired with the sight of constantly growing crowds of free-spending foreign tourists and news on wealthy overseas investors buying up real estate in Japan. Sanseitō's 'Japanese first' messaging has tapped into this discomfort, creating a chemical reaction of sorts that boosted the party's fortunes in the upper house election. Politics that aims at pressure points like these can be described as little other than populism. Rising prices in Japan can largely be ascribed to the policies of Abenomics, which reduced the value of the yen on exchange markets. But there is no debate that looks squarely at this underlying reason. And meanwhile, we see Sanseitō attracting crowds estimated upward of 20,000 to its final campaign rally in the Tokyo city center earlier this month. Late in the evening on election day, Prime Minister Ishiba noted his intention to remain in office, fulfilling his duty as head of the largest party in the House of Councillors, a status his LDP did manage to hold on to despite its drubbing. Even if his party rejects this course and decides to hold a presidential election to replace him as party head, there is no guarantee that the new president will be duly selected by the Diet as the next prime minister, though. And whether it is Ishiba or someone new in office, he will face the same dismal reality of a ruling coalition without a majority of seats in either of the Diet's chambers. The upshot? Japan is in for a prolonged period of aimless political drifting, with no clear way out. (Originally published in Japanese on July 21, 2025. Banner photo: Sanseitō leader Kamiya Sōhei speaks to journalists in Shinjuku, Tokyo, on July 20, 2025, as the day's election results come in. © Jiji.)
International Business Times
2 days ago
- Business
- International Business Times
Trump Announces Massive $550B Trade Deal with Japan Weeks after Threatening with 25% Tariffs
President Trump announced Tuesday that his administration had reached a major trade deal with Japan, two weeks after he warned the U.S. ally of possible 25% tariffs, as he termed it "the largest deal in history" during a celebration with Republican lawmakers at the White House. The celebrations came on a day when Trump's White House was rocked by the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, with the president cheerfully announcing a win just hours after sharply criticizing former President Barack Obama. Trump, who had previously announced deals with Indonesia and the Philippines ahead of the August 1 deadline he set after temporarily halting his 'reciprocal' tariffs, said that more talks were underway. Major Deal Reached Donald Trump X "We just completed a massive Deal with Japan, perhaps the largest Deal ever made. Japan will invest, at my direction, $550 Billion Dollars into the United States, which will receive 90% of the Profits," Trump, 79, wrote on Truth Social. "Perhaps most importantly, Japan will open their Country to Trade including Cars and Trucks, Rice and certain other Agricultural Products, and other things. Japan will pay Reciprocal Tariffs to the United States of 15%." Trump repeatedly gushed about its size of the deal, saying, "This is, they say, the biggest deal ever made." He also confirmed that more deals will be announced in the coming days. If agreements aren't reached after his administration promised '90 deals in 90 days,' it could trigger another market crash — a scenario Trump is keen to prevent as he continues to promote the booming markets. "We have Europe coming in tomorrow," said Trump, days after reports of the tariffs he could slap on the European Union. Big Win for Trump Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru X On July 7, Trump warned Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru that Japan would face a 25% tariff on exports to the U.S. if a trade deal wasn't finalized by August 1. According to the Census Bureau, the U.S. recorded a $69.4 billion trade deficit with Japan in 2024. Japan is the fifth-largest trading partner of the United States, after Mexico, Canada, China, and Germany. The deal was announced after Japan's lead tariff negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, engaged in lengthy discussions with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and had a short meeting with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, as reported by The Japan Times. During an Oval Office meeting on Tuesday, Trump also announced a new "tough" trade agreement with Philippine President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., which included the implementation of 19 percent reciprocal tariffs. Indonesia also signed a trade agreement with the Trump administration on Tuesday, locking in a 19 percent reciprocal tariff — just a week after the president warned of imposing a 32 percent tariff.
