Ruling LDP on shaky ground as Japan votes in general election

Ishiba risks being holder of shortest post-war premiership if party loses the polls on Oct 27

- Walter Sim

The political obituaries are already being pre-written for what could well be Japan's shor-test post-war premiership, if the outcome in a hastily called snap election on Oct 27 does not favour Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

But it was not meant to be this way. Mr Ishiba, 67, had for years topped the public's choice for prime minister, and he is supposed to be enjoying a "honeymoon period" after taking office on Oct 1.

Yet he now finds himself on the precipice of rewriting a record currently held by Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni, Japan's post-war prime minister who resigned after 54 days in 1945, having rolled the dice on a general election one year ahead of schedule.

If that ends up being the case, Mr Ishiba and his aides would appear to have misread public anger over a political slush fund scandal, in which dozens of LDP lawmakers kept fund-raising income off the books.

His Cabinet approval was between 28 and 41 per cent, according to various media surveys last week, which was generally lower than around the time he became Prime Minister.

Media polls, including by the centre-right Yomiuri Shimbun, have also suggested that the LDP and its coalition partner Komeito might struggle to win a simple majority of 233 seats in the 465-seat Lower House. Mr Ishiba has set 233 seats as his baseline target, a modest goal given that the ruling bloc had held 279 seats in the dissolved chamber.

Not that the public's anger could be sensed in Mr Ishiba's penultimate campaign rally appearance on Oct 26, when he stumped for former Olympic minister Tamayo Marukawa at a packed plaza in front of Ebisu Station in Tokyo.