Lower House election on February 8th

Recently, Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi announced an election for the lower house (aka House of Representatives) for February 8th, with campaigning starting today.

This has caused quite a bit of stir, as the timing is highly unusual, among other things. For one, priority is usually given towards deliberation of the budget for the 2026 fiscal year. The call for the election has meant that the 2026 budget gets delayed, though the LDP is compiling a provisional budget in the meantime.
The timing of calling the election is also rather convenient, as it means that Takaichi doesn't have to explain why she gave several members in her party key posts in her cabinet, despite being involved in financial corruption, instead of... you know, kicking them out for financial corruption. Publicly, the LDP claims that those involved have been punished, but to the common folk, they only got a slap on the wrist at best. 
Observers believe that Takaichi called the election to capitalize on her current high approval ratings, suspecting that once parliamentary debates begin, her ratings will take a significant hit. The LDP has seemingly done nothing to address the increasing costs of living (with the price of rice still high, despite the previous PM's measures to address the issue). In addition, the sudden call for an election means that all political parties have very little to present in the way of policies.

The one major topic has been addressing the increasing cost of living, with parties all pitching the idea of either temporarily halting the 8 - 10 % consumption tax, or outright abolishing it - though no explanation has been given on how they will make up for all that lost tax revenue.

On another interesting front, a new political party has emerged - The Centrist Reform Alliance (中道改革連合, Chudo Kaikaku Rengo), or simply known as "Chudo". This party is made up of the combined Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, and Komeito. For those who don't know, Komeito was the former ruling coalition partner of the LDP for 26 years until they decided to break off last October, due to issues with Takaichi keeping scandal hit LDP members in her cabinet, and her apparent unwillingness to address any kind of campaign finance reform. As a result, this new party holds 172 seats in the lower house against the LDP's 199.

This article gives a very simplified take on each party's policies (which aren't many, given the sudden announcement), but at first glance, it seems that hating on foreigners is still trendy at the moment.

From what I have observed, there is a bit of grumbling that their workload has suddenly increased to be able to prepare for the election on time. As mentioned also, there is very little put forward in terms of policies aside from what is covered in the article above, with voters having to take leap of faith going with either the devil they know or the devil they don't know. 

New female Japanese PM, but is it really that big of a deal?

Ok, a lot has happened recently here in Japanese politics, so I'll try and keep it brief.

As you already know, Japan has it's first female Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi. Personally, I'm not so quick to jump for joy, as Australia had its first female PM in Julia Gillard years ago, and that did not go over well - though I felt that was a combination of high expectations, undelivered promises, and Kevin Rudd. From what I have seen of Takaichi, I don't see her pushing for more inclusion of women in positions. I am also concerned that her cabinet is also made up of ministers that have in recent years been tangled up in financial corruption. Takaichi says the matter been resolved, and the ministers involved had been punished - but the fact they have kept their jobs, when your average peasant's head would be rolling in an instant if they did the same thing. Rules for thee but not for me I guess. 

Regarding the policies I have seen so far - the issues of foreigners is the current trend at the moment here in Japan. Most likely in a reaction to Sanseito's sudden rise to relevance in the Upper House elections back in June this year made foreigners the scapegoats by puffing up how crime is rising because of foreigners (it isn't). Some of her policies make sense - basically kick out any foreigner who is breaching their visa or illegally staying in Japan: That is a no brainer. Another is for Japan to refuse "economic refugees" - those leaving their country not because their lives are in danger, but fleeing from poverty and lack of job opportunities. Keep in that mind that successfully getting asylum in Japan is pretty damn difficult, only a handful of people get their refugee status recognized in Japan each year, way less than other countries. Thing is though, some misinformation has been popping up recently about Sanae Takaichi's policies:

The post is absolute BS, if you watch the video in that post, she is reiterating her stance against economic refugees that those illegally staying in Japan. That's it. Don't get why some folks are trying to claim that it's more than that. The fact of the matter is, Japan needs foreigners for labor due to the ongoing declining birth rate, and to get rid of the people who not only fill in gaps in labor, but also contribute to Japan's Health insurance and pension systems would be absolute stupidity on Japan's part. If some politician was dumb enough to pitch that idea, good luck explaining to the people why their health insurance premiums and pension fees are increased without any significant improvements. Very hard sell. 

Unrelated, but the Japanese government did revise the business manager visa earlier last month. The rules and requirements have been tightened to stop certain people from abusing the benefits of the business manager visa. By that, I mean it was clearly intended to stop mainland Chinese from abusing the system to easy Permanent Resident visas for themselves and their families. When this revelation came out, a lot of Japanese people were pissed, and the fact that a of Chinese were bragging about it online did not help one bit. I think there's nothing wrong with tightening the requirements - if you're not going to contribute to the betterment of Japan and simply leach off the benefits, why should you be rewarded with permanent residency?

PM Shigeru Ishiba resigning

I'm a little late to the party on this one, but it was announced last Sunday that Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will resign within one year. On one hand, it's rather surprising considering it hasn't even been one year since he took over as PM of Japan. On the other hand, given that his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lost control of of the lower house in October last year, and the control of the upper house in July this year, along with increased costs of living has not helped him much. The price of rice is a particular sore point - despite his strategy of releasing stocked rice meant for emergency purposes, the price of rice still hasn't come down in price. 

This has created a mess as there is no clear agreement that Ishiba should have stepped in the first place. Apparently there are many who thought that Ishiba's resignation was unnecessary. Apparently, Ishiba planned to resign to avoid any fracturing within the LDP. 

Whatever the case, it's going to be a rough ride for the LDP, now that they have to make deals with opposition parties to get any of their policies through. Among the opposition includes the crackpot group known as Sanseito.

Upper House elections - Hating on Foreigners is trendy now

With the House of Councillors / Upper house elections happening this weekend, there's been a lot of talk about the future of the ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Last October, they lost the majority in the Lower House elections, creating a minority government. As a result, the LDP has had to make deals the opposition parties to get legislation through parliament. A loss in the Upper house elections is the last thing they want right now.

A lot of smaller political parties have been making their pitch recently in the lead up to the elections. What's unusual this time is that many of them are touting policies regarding foreigners. The short story is that many of these smaller parties are using foreigners as scapegoats for the country's failures in recent years. 
One prominent minor party is Sanseito (参政党) who's catch phrase is "Japan first" (ironically, expressed as 日本ファースト). Among some of their policies is deporting those who are staying illegally - of which I have no problems with that. All that needs to be done is enforce the existing laws to deport staying illegally. My issue with parties like Sanseito is that their implication that foreigners are the reason for perceived increase in crime, as well as receiving special treatment when it comes to benefits like health. 
Here's the thing though: the claims of foreigners leading to the increase in crime is false. Based on reports by the National Police Agency (NPA) and the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), foreigners only make up a small percentage of national crimes. This page gives a pretty good summary of the situation in Japan. The TL:DR version of that report is that nationally, crime in Japan is low, foreigners only account for 6% of all crimes, of which most foreigner-related crimes fall under visa violations or theft, and the recent increase in crime is due to Japanese offenders. However, despite the facts showing that parties like Sanseito are full of it with this claim, a lot of Japanese voters are gravitating towards them, feeling like the LDP doesn't really care of their plights 

I feel that painting all foreigners as the bad guys is quite a reach. Especially as there has been recent news about fraud committed by Vietnamese and Chinese living in Japan when it comes to taking exams like TOEIC or the JLPT.  I found a recent article about a Vietnamese woman arrested, along with a recent video of Chinese students in Japan getting busted for proxy test-taking. In case you don't know what this means, basically someone pays somebody else who looks very similar to them to take the test on their behalf, including borrowing their residence card for ID verification purposes to pass the tests. Many need to take theses tests either to be able to get a job, or to even change their existing visa in to a better one that would allow them more work opportunities.
Unrelated, but when I was living in Kawagoe, near my station I saw a lot of warning signs in Chinese and Vietnamese (as well as Japanese), but never in English. It seems that this is because they are the ones causing problems in the area. Of course, parties like Sanseito can't single out specific nationalities out of fear of being accused of hate speech, but I mean, they're already on that slippery slope and are shrugging off all accusations of targeting their hate at foreigners.

It is concerning, though on the other hand, there are a lot of Japanese political parties out there batting for foreigners, and pointing the finger at the Japanese government for the country's failures. It is good to see that not everyone is falling for the "all foreigners are criminals" rhetoric that's being spouted. I just hope that common sense will prevail in this upper house election.

(Not) Everybody Loves Shinzo

An opinion piece I happened to come across here on Japan Today probably best describes my thoughts on the late ex PM Shinzo Abe, and why the rest of the world seems to adorn him with praise, yet it's like a completely different feeling within Japan, the country he was serving. 

Basically, he put more work towards international policies, but on the other hand, seemingly neglecting domestic policies, and the people he was supposed to be serving. 
Also, it was no secret that he was really pushing for the amendment of the Japanese constitution, especially Article 9, which dictates the role of Japan's military in that it cannot operate outside of Japan, and is only meant to defend the country. Changing article 9 would have meant that Japan could send it's forces overseas - currently, Japan can only send non-combatants to other countries to help in technical/engineer type of roles. Yet while people in Japan are against any kind of change to article 9, the LDP is still hoping to push through eventually, though with things the way they are now in Japan and the rest of the world, amending the constitution isn't exactly a priority right now.

Most people will probably remember his domestic economic policies - or "Abenomics" as being a complete dud in the end after 2 years. And let's not forget the Abenomask, or as some had unflatteringly called it, the Ahonomask (aka, the idiot mask). Oh, and a quick reminder that I did a review on the Abenomask when they were eventually distributed out to residences for free - but only two per household. Basically, those masks weren't great for grown adults, but good as an extreme last resort if you can't purchase any other masks - but fortunately compared to 2020, finding masks to purchase ain't that hard anymore.

On the other hand, you don't get to be the longest serving prime minister in Japan without doing a few things right along the way, but the circumstances of his resignation really changed how I perceived Abe. His resignation citing health reasons seemed to be a really poor way to hide the fact he was running away like a coward because he dropped the ball on the handling of the CCP virus. While I wasn't a fan of his first successor, Yoshihide Suga, I definitely respected him more when he just came right out and said he wasn't up to the job of PM when he resigned. At the moment current PM Fumio Kishida seems to be trying his best to avoid the mistakes made by his predecessors.

It is tragic that Abe was killed, but it is good to see an opinion piece that highlighted why views and perceptions of him are so different domestically and internationally.

Former PM Shinzo Abe dead

In case you haven't heard yet, former Prime Minister Abe has been shot and killed today while giving a speech in Nara. The suspect was a 40-something year old former SDF officer, who shot Abe twice in the back. 

I'm not a fan of his, and I'm sure I am not the only one with similar sentiments about the man and his political career. Though I won't deny that this was definitely surprising news that someone wanted a piece of him and followed through on it. 

Since he's only just passed away today, I'll save my commentary and thoughts about the man until later.

Abe retiring.

 So, it was announced yesterday that Prime Minister Abe will be resigning before the end of his term:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/08/29/national/politics-diplomacy/shinzo-abe-japan-coronavirus/

Honestly, I say good riddance. I have heard people praising Abe, but it seems many have forgotten that he made no secret of his intention to amend Japan's constitution to allow for Japan's military to operate outside of the country. For those not familiar, Japan's constitution only allows for the country to have a self defence force, and it cannot be deployed in any function overseas. This has been in place since the end of World War II, and from what I've observed, the average citizen is rather content to maintain that part of the constitution. Many feared that the change in the constitution would lead to conscription, due the rather small size of the country's defence force, and for Japan's military to be anything of substance when operating outside the country, conscription would be the logical way to go. Even my girlfriend was concerned with this, as this would have potentially meant that she could be conscripted - the backup plan was to leave Japan before conscription began. 

In any case, considering that the LDP kept on getting re-elected numerous times over the years, clearly people forgot what Abe's overall plans for the constitution were. 

Basically, it was

Abe/LDP: We want to amend the constitution to allow for our military to operate outside the country

Japan: We don't want the constitution amended!

*Japan vote for Abe/LDP*

Abe/LDP: We want to amend the constitution to allow for our military to operate outside the country

Japan: 

Then there's me, as a foreigner, looking from the sidelines:

Yeah, I'm not sad to see him go, considering he accomplished so little, aside from jacking up the consumption tax, then wondering why people are spending less.