Shinzo Abe’s cabinet survives no-confidence motion

Shinzo Abe

Shinzo Abe, Japanese Prime Minister

Shinzo Abe, Japanese Prime Minister

The cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe survived a no-confidence motion jointly submitted by opposition parties on Friday amid a series of scandals and what the opposition bloc has described as “high-handed” politics.

The motion was put forward by the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and five other opposition parties in a show of protest about numerous issues, including Abe’s response to the recent flooding disaster and a number of protracted scandals that have rocked Abe and his administration.

On the flooding disaster issue, the opposition camp slammed Abe’s cabinet for failing to make sufficient efforts to respond to the disaster which, killed more than 200 people across western Japan, choosing instead to prioritize wrangling over bills that were not deemed important, sources close to the matter said Friday.

Other issues that have vexed the opposition bloc are a number of contentious bills that have been steamrollered through parliament owing to the ruling camp’s overwhelming majority in both caucuses, particularly in the more powerful lower house of parliament where the no-confidence motion was voted down Friday.

One such bill, which has drawn widespread political and public condemnation, that will likely be enacted Friday at an upper house plenary session, regards the opening of Integrated Resort (IR) facilities across Japan that will include casinos for gambling.

Another, which was enacted on June 29, was a contentious labor reform bill, which the opposition parties believe could counter-intuitively lead to more instances of “karoshi” meaning death from overwork.

On July 18, again, using the ruling camp’s majority in both chambers of parliament, a bill was passed to increase the number of seats in the upper house of parliament.

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This marks the first time the number of seats in the upper caucus has been altered in almost half a century.

Opposition parties believe that the move is to safeguard Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmakers who will be unable to run in next year’s summer election due to the electoral system being reformed to address regional vote-weight disparities.

Abe’s cabinet and party have also been under fire for a series of scandals, including two school-linked cronyism scandals, implicating the prime minister himself, that according to the opposition bloc have yet to be resolved, along with a scandal involving the Finance Ministry tampering with official documents.

A top bureaucrat of the Finance Ministry also drew the ire of opposition party members following allegations of sexual harassment made against him by a female TV reporter.

The current Diet session, already extended to push through the ruling camp-backed bills, will end on Sunday.

Yukio Edano, president of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, said he still intends to address the cronyism and other scandals in a bid to pressurise Abe’s cabinet to resign, sources close to the matter said on Friday.

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