Yokohama
\nJapan\u2019s shaky minority government looks poised for another setback in a crucial upper house vote this weekend, in the first national election since Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba took office last year.
\nHalf of the 248 seats in Japan\u2019s Upper House of Parliament will be contested on Sunday. Ishiba\u2019s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), along with its longtime junior coalition partner Komeito, need to win 50 of its 66 seats up for re-election to hold on to its majority.
\nBut polling suggests the coalition will fail to do so, in a potential repeat of October\u2019s disastrous election, when the LDP-Komeito coalition lost its parliamentary majority in Japan\u2019s more powerful lower house \u2013 the worst result since briefly losing power in 2009.
\nThe LDP has ruled Japan for almost all of the country\u2019s post-war history.
\nInflation has been a killer issue for Ishiba, with the price of rice \u2013 which has doubled since last year due to poor harvests and government policies \u2013 becoming a lightning rod for voter discontent.
\nIn response, opposition parties have promised tax cuts and welfare spending to soften the blow of Japan\u2019s long-running economic stagnation.
\nWhile locals face a rising cost of living, the country\u2019s weak Yen has attracted significant numbers of foreign tourists. Concerns about over-tourism and a lack of respect for local customs have fed local discontent, which has been capitalised on by upstart populist party Sanseito.
\nInitially launched on YouTube by streamer Kazuya Kyoumoto, politician Sohei Kamiya, and political analyst Yuuya Watase in 2019, the party rose to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic as it peddled conspiracy theories and far-right talking points.
\nIn the years since, Sanseito has successfully appealed to a small but growing section of Japan\u2019s electorate with its \u201cJapanese First\u201d campaign and anti-immigration stance, rallying against what it describes as a \u201csilent invasion\u201d of immigrants.
\nWhile foreigners still only make up a small fraction of Japan\u2019s population, at about 3 percent, the country has taken in about a million immigrant workers over the past three years to fill jobs left vacant by its ageing population.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yokohama Japan\u2019s shaky minority government looks poised for another setback in a crucial upper house vote this weekend, in the first national election since Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba took office last year. Half of the 248 seats in Japan\u2019s Upper House of Parliament will be contested on Sunday. Ishiba\u2019s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), along with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-491416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n