By-election losses a blow to Japanese ruling party

Reuters

Japan’s ruling party suffered a triple blow at weekend by-elections, as voter frustration at scandals and government management of the coronavirus risked weakening the influence of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s government.

Suga’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party lost all three seats in parliamentary by-elections on Sunday, polls widely seen as a verdict on his administration and a bellwether for a crucial Lower House election this year.

The votes, for seats in both the Upper House and the more powerful lower chamber, were the first significant ballots since Suga took power in September. Two of the seats were open due to political scandals and the third after the death of a lawmaker from COVID-19.

“I intend to take the people’s decision with humility, and make amends where amending is necessary after conducting further analysis,” Suga said on Monday, adding fighting the pandemic is his priority.

Anger at separate vote-buying and bribery scandals, as well as with the government’s handling of the pandemic and a tortuously slow vaccine rollout, played equal roles on the elections, analysts said.

Although Japan has not suffered as badly as some other nations, the government has struggled to cope with a recent surge in cases and on Friday imposed a third state of emergency on parts of the country just three months before the Olympics are set to open. Only one vaccine has been approved, with roughly 1 percent of the population fully vaccinated so far.

“Two of the elections were held due to scandals, so that was definitely in the background,” said Airo Hino, a political science professor at Waseda University.

“But anger and frustration on the part of the people due to how the pandemic’s being handled, and the slowness of the vaccine rollout, also played a part.”