00:00Seijiro Takeshita is Professor of Management and Information at Japan's University of Shizuoka.
00:06It was pushed, but we all were kind of expecting this because tomorrow was a deadline of whether to have LDP election or not this fall.
00:17So obviously, if this went on to have an LDP election in fall, it would mean that there would be further division within the LDP,
00:25which would be very devastating, especially at this point when LDP faced a very, very big loss on their upper house election this year and also on the lower house election before that.
00:39So obviously, I think there's a lot of LDP members who urged Mr. Shiba to sustain the solidarity within the LDP,
00:48therefore for him to resign or at least make an announcement of resignation today.
00:53Now, of course, this comes just after the settlement over U.S. tariffs with Washington.
00:58Was that not seen as a success for Shigeru Ishiba?
01:02Well, to a certain degree, yes, he did set some milestone.
01:07But we all know that the request or, I should say, requirement is totally unpredictable and we could change tomorrow.
01:15And the fact of the matter is, yes, we have a bit of a relief, you know, that came from down from 25 percent to 15 percent.
01:22And as far as especially like auto tariff is concerned, but there is no logical consistency in the number that was given out in the first place.
01:30Just to remind you, you know, we have 15 percent tax that's a label on our Japanese cars to the United States.
01:37But the United States and American cars to Japan, the taxation is zero.
01:42So, you know, there's a lot of logical inconsistency that has not been answered, that has not been questioned by the Japanese government.
01:49And from that point of view, I really don't blame them because you're not going to get any answer or any feasible answer from that administration in Washington.
01:56Now, you mentioned the LDP's recent losses.
01:59The Liberal Democratic Party, of course, has governed Japan for nearly 70 years.
02:03But under Ishiba, it lost its majority in the lower house for the first time in 15 years, then lost its majority in the upper house.
02:10I mean, could you say the party is in crisis?
02:12What has really led to this?
02:13Firstly, they really didn't answer the needs of the public to make their life a lot easier.
02:21For example, you know, widening the income tax exemption limit, which the, I think it was Democrat Party for the people in Japan, has been yelling about.
02:33You know, the government basically halted to do that.
02:36They didn't really explain about the continued complexity of our, you know, pension system, social security system.
02:44You know, so what has happened to the Japanese public is they don't have any strong milestone or target for things to get better.
02:53And at the same time, anxiety has been mounting, especially exacerbated by the inflationary fears.
02:59So, you know, the LDP, in my opinion, really didn't do anything.
03:03They didn't really listen or they didn't really touch the areas where, you know, the voters are concerned the most.
03:10And some of the smaller party did exactly that, you know, the American Party for the people or Sunseto, who are not the major, you know, opposition, but, you know, gain a very, very big, you know, support because they are the ones who at least tackled or at least addressed these problems.
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