Ex-Defense Minister Ishiba mulls running in LDP leadership race

Whenever I get depressed over the leadership choices in the US, I always have Japan to let me know there are still countries with worse barrels of idiots to choose from.

Even if the support for LDP will be lowest from history, the Japanese still going to vote for this incompetent and corrupt party, due to the cultured part now "fear of change". Since younger generation don't give 2 squats about elections, 95% is most likely that LDP will won again.

Just dear Japanese people, don't be surprised in the Japanese =Yen will devalue even more after reaching 200 for 1 USD.

This guy with his deep slow voice gives me the creeps.

"The 12th-term lower house lawmaker has run in the LDP leadership race four times, all of which were unsuccessful bids. He was viewed as a vocal critic of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in July 2022."

Why not go for a fifth unsuccessful bid? We all know that you require zero qualifications to be PM here other than "wait your turn" as the game of musical chairs goes on. Maybe Aso will run again as well. He's only been PM once and has waited a few years. Maybe Suga is ready again?

＠DanteKH

Don't they know that if the LDP is incompetent, then the opposition parties are even more incompetent?

That's why the people have no expectations whatsoever from the opposition parties, and they don't care about change or anything like that.

It's completely irrelevant.

This guy's glowering visage could curdle milk. I'm sure he's a joy to be around.

Please don't, Stick with the defense Dept. BCZ. that's were you belong. May be in times of war but we are not now.

If he's thinking about whether to run or not and incapable of making this simple decision, what possible use is he going to be running a country?

Ignore him and he'll go away.

Agent_NeoToday  07:07 pm JST

＠DanteKH

Don't they know that if the LDP is incompetent, then the opposition parties are even more incompetent?

How do you figure that out, since the LDP have only been out of power for no more than five or six years out of the past seventy or so? Oh - you never figured out anything, you're just parroting that lazy old well, you can't trust the opposition line that LDP hacks always resort to.

DanteKHToday  05:24 pm JST

Even if the support for LDP will be lowest from history, the Japanese still going to vote for this incompetent and corrupt party, due to the cultured part now "fear of change". Since younger generation don't give 2 squats about elections, 95% is most likely that LDP will won again.

There's a bit more to it than that. For instance, in a lot of rural areas that get double the number of Diet members due to vote value disparities there is literally no alternative to the local LDP incumbents. The main opposition parties can't afford to run candidates against them because the risk of losing the huge deposits they have to pay is too high. The LDP on the other hand have mountains of cash lying around. Don't ask where it came from, they don't remember.

Whoever!

He was viewed as a vocal critic of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (within LDP)...

That's good enough for me to like him.

Ishiba is a member of Nippon Kaigi so he is qualified.

This is typical way that LDP and politics section of major media emphasize talks about next PM to distract public eyes from corruption or deception or injustice of LDP itself.

Most of unjust fundraising LDP politicians have been able to escape even resignation.

One thing I remember about Shigeru Ishiba is that he gathered five LDP lawmakers from Okinawa districts who had run and elected on a ticket against the central government's established timeline to build the Henoko new base. The scene was broadcast openly by NHK.

The five lawmakers were seated meekly on chairs like truants being chastised by a teacher

Japan and Japanese politics really need a leader who isn’t an abe disciple who will stop the money printing. Abenomics started in 2012 the end result of the ‘three arrows’ policy is the yen at its weakest in the modern era and the cost of living continually going up. There needs to be a sea change in policy, more austerity, less waste and no more quantitative easing..

Oh, wow. Not to be rude, but the 'eternal loser" title goes well with him.

Though we do have some 'successful' (doesn't mean 'good') examples in other countries. Brazil's president Luiz Inacio 'Lula' da Silva tried 3 or 4 times before being elected for the first time. He was reelected once, went to jail, went out of jail and got elected again.

Yep, Brazil is doomed.

＠Simon Foston

Those few years were enough for the Japanese people to despair of the opposition parties.

The Social Democratic Party's Murayama Tomiichi administration failed in its response to the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, and the Democratic Party's Hatoyama-Kan-Noda administration is still criticized for a number of things, including its response to 3/11.

Former Prime Minister Abe looked back on the Democratic Party administration and called it a "nightmare," but to the people it was no dream at all; it was a dream that actually came true, a very real reality.

If you don't know how tragic that reality was, I recommend you look it up.

That's why the people have no expectations whatsoever of the opposition parties. After a few years of government, the Japanese people can judge whether a party is decent or not.

Agent_NeoJune 30  09:49 pm JST

＠Simon Foston

Those few years were enough for the Japanese people to despair of the opposition parties.

Pft. You have just cited a couple of tragic disasters that I really don't think the LDP would have handled any better. How many more dreadful tragedies have occurred on the LDP's watch, and we're caused by their bungling and short-sighted policies?

As for what Shinzo Abe thought of the other parties, well - he wasn't exactly an impartial observer, was he. He was a third generation, third rate LDP hack. He would hardly say anything else.