Shigeru Ishiba, who was the Defense Minister of Japan, will now become the new Prime Minister of the country. He won the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) election on Friday, according to the New York Times. He will take charge with the commencement of the Parliament session on October 1.
Actually in Japan the head of the ruling party is elected as the Prime Minister. The LDP party has a majority in both houses of Parliament. In such a situation, Ishiba, who was elected as the party president, will now hold the post of PM till July 2025. After this, general elections are to be held in the country.
Ishiba, 67, defeated his rival Sane Takaichi by a margin of 21 votes. Ishiba got 215 votes from party members. Ishiba has contested for party leadership four times. He also stood against Shinzo Abe in 2012, but lost each time.
After winning the election, Ishiba said, “Now the party will stand anew and I will win the trust of the people. I will speak the truth to the people of the country during my tenure. I will continue to work to make the country safe and prosperous.”
Pictured is Japan's current Prime Minister Kishida with party president-elect Shigeru Ishiba
Promised to shut down Japan's nuclear power plants Ishiba has been Minister of Defense and Agriculture of Japan. He won the first election in 1986 at the age of 29. He then became the youngest member of the Japanese Parliament. This time in his campaign, Ishiba has promised to phase out the country's nuclear power plants.
Apart from this, he has also talked about forming NATO in Asia to deal with threats like China and North Korea. Ishiba criticizes PM Kishida. Contrary to the policies of the LDP, he advocated the creation of a female empress in Japan. Due to which many party leaders are against him. In fact, most members of the LDP believe that women should perform the traditional duties of mother and wife.
Surrounded by allegations of corruption, Kishida's popularity declined Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on August 14 that he would not contest the party's election. He was elected President of the Liberal Democratic Party in 2021. His three-year term will end at the end of this month. During this period, Kishida faced several serious corruption allegations which caused his popularity to decline drastically.
Nikkei Asia reported that Kishida's approval rating was below 20% in July. This is the eighth consecutive month that Kishida's rating has fallen this low. PM Kishida's rating in 2021 was close to 65%. After Shinzo Abe's death, his ratings began to decline. In fact after Abe's death, the LDP's ties to the Unification Church were revealed. This church helped the party financially.
Later many scams related to this came to light. The LDP faced a crushing defeat in the local elections in April this year. This was followed by a crushing defeat for the party in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly by-election in July. This was the reason why most of the LDP MPs were insisting on the need for a new face ahead of the next general election.
This picture is of 9 candidates standing in the election of the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan.
What were the allegations of corruption? MPs from Kishida's party were accused of embezzling money from political donations received by the party. By manipulating the account, he transferred the party's money to his own account. PM Kishida removed several cabinet ministers and others from their posts after the matter came to light.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
