Saika Kawakita: Japan is now “Mini USA”… Hopeless beyond redemption!
“Are you serious?” The Kishida Cabinet submits a bill to increase the salary of politicians. The salary of the Prime Minister would increase by 6000 yen per month… More @ Tokyo Shimbun
Kishida Cabinet support rate falls to 24.5% over scandal, second-lowest
Japan Times — The support rate for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Cabinet has fallen 2.8 percentage points to 24.5%, marking its second-lowest rating, a Kyodo News survey showed Sunday, with most respondents indicating discontent with his fact-finding efforts regarding the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s political funds scandal.
Some 84.9% said LDP lawmakers who failed to report income from fundraising parties should explain what they used the funds for, while 87% do not expect the party’s reform proposals drawn up in an interim report to help the LDP restore public trust.
The approval rating of the Kishida Cabinet hit an all-time low in December last year at 22.3 percent, wavering in the 20 percent range for the past four polls, including the previous survey in January.
The disapproval rating rose 1.4 point from the previous poll to 58.9 percent… More @ Kyodo News
As a result,
CDP leader calls for regime change after LDP funding scandal
Kenta Izumi, leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, gives a speech at the party convention in Tokyo on Feb. 4.
Asahi Shimbun — Sensing blood in the water amid a political funding scandal, the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan is calling for a change in government in the next Lower House election.
“Let’s remove the ruling Liberal Democratic Party from power and form a new government to realize political reforms, support for children and youth and free education,” CDP leader Kenta Izumi told his party’s convention in Tokyo on Feb. 4.
The CDP’s action plan for fiscal 2024 adopted at the convention calls on the party to surpass the LDP and become the top party in the next Lower House poll.
Izumi said even if the CDP cannot win a single-party majority, it can still form a “mission-oriented Cabinet” focused on policies on which it can agree with other parties.
He said he had instructed senior party officials to discuss the possibility with other opposition parties.
The CDP has not mentioned a “change in government” since it lost seats in the 2021 Lower House election.
The wording was not in an initial draft for the fiscal 2024 action plan but was hastily included before the party convention after the political fund scandal rocked the LDP, according to CDP sources.
“A blunder by our opponents has brought a windfall,” a senior CDP official said… More @ Asahi Shimbun
Meanwhile,
LDP Presents List of Members Involved in Funds Scandal
Jiji Press — Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Monday presented opposition parties with a provisional list of member lawmakers who have failed to report some income appropriately in their political funds statements.
The list includes five key lawmakers in the LDP faction once headed by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as well as former LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai.
The list covers incumbent lawmakers who belong to the Abe and Nikai factions. It contains the names of lawmakers and their political groups that received slush funds from the factions in the three years through 2022 and the amount of such money.
According to the list, the number of Abe faction members who received such funds stood at 67 in 2020, 57 in 2021 and 56 in 2022. The number came to five each year for the Nikai faction… More @ Jiji Press