Japan, long considered a model of political stability, has entered a zone of turbulence at an inopportune time, to say the least. Slow economy despite a slight rebound, inflation, wage stagnation, weakening of the yen and, in the event of Donald Trump’s re-election in the US presidential election on November 5, a struggling prime minister unable to resist his demands.
The political instability that has taken hold since the defeat of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the October 27 legislative elections risks compromising Japan’s more assertive international positioning, initiated by the outgoing Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, and of worry foreign investors who, in the last two years, have moved away from China to focus their interest on the archipelago, which is now mired in an unusual climate of concern.
For the moment, the situation is blocked. No party has a majority. Neither the LDP and its center-right ally Komei nor the main opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party (PDC), despite their advances in the elections. The alliances are necessary before the opening of the new extraordinary parliamentary session that must be held within thirty days following the elections.
reach compromises
The Prime Minister, Shigeru Ishiba, who has no intention of resigning despite calls from part of the LDP to assume responsibility for his party’s defeat, is trying to gather the dozen elected officials from the ranks of his party who are They had presented themselves in the elections as independents and, above all, to obtain the support of one of the small opposition groups.
The talks began with the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), which quadrupled its seats (28) and seems willing to play this role of supporting the PLD-Komei coalition with which it has political affinities, seeking at the same time to position itself as a third way. between the PLD and the Constitutional Democratic Party.
From a position of strength, the president of the DPP, Yuichiro Tamaki, is demanding: he announced that he would not join the LDP-Komei coalition but that he was willing to cooperate little by little with it. This conditional support will lead to laborious negotiations to reach compromises, particularly on economic issues that risk slowing down the decision-making process and delaying structural reforms to escape deflation.
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