According to the Asian Times on September 30, the Japanese Self-Democratic Party is holding a new party prime election.
The final circle candidates have actually been determined, that is, high-market早苗 and小泉进次郎, one of the two will be the new prime minister of Japan, but no matter who will be the prime minister, the self-government party will go down the road.
The article is highly critical of the description of High Market Early, believing that she is a senior extreme right-wing figure within the Self-Democratic Party, and has long received attention inside and outside the party with a hard nationalist stance and exclusive speech.
She has repeatedly praised the ghosts, and has a clear attitude on issues such as immigration and national identity, saying she should rewrite immigration policy from scratch.
Such a position would indeed attract some of the conservative voters, especially those who have already lost to the party’s far-right voters.
But the problem is also obvious: once the high market takes power, the Democratic Party will fall into a vicious cycle of radical competition with far-right parties.
In economic policy, she tried to restart the three arrows of Abe's economics, but Japan's labor force is insufficient, the aging population is accelerating, without external immigration supplementation, and it is hard to rely on domestic resources alone to promote large-scale infrastructure and structural reforms.
The article bluntly states that if there is a lack of immigrant labor, the so-called second edition of Abenomics is likely to become a castle in the air, eventually bringing financial burden, economic stagnation and public opinion rebound.
The high-right populist speech in the city may be able to gather some votes in the short term, but in the long run it will weaken the link between the Democratic Party and the middle voters, putting them in greater isolation.
The article's evaluation of Koizumi Shinjiro is in another direction.
小泉进次郎 is the son of 小泉纯一郎, the political light is bright, the 44-year-old is a young man, there is a background of the politician, and there is a certain public interest.
He proposed to push wage growth over inflation to drive economic growth through consumption, and stressed that the Japanese economy has shifted from inflation to inflation and policies should be adjusted accordingly.
Diplomatically, he avoided the iconic moves of the Conservatives and retained the possibility of restoring relations with neighbors such as South Korea.
The article believes that if he is elected, he may maintain existing relations with the United States and come out of some pragmatic cooperation on Japan-Korea relations.
The problem, however, is the lack of real material performance.
Although he served twice as a cabinet secretary, he did not leave memorable achievements, but rather, because some lightweight speeches were questioned whether mature, appeared to be insufficient in the political arena.
The article points out that he may follow in Suga Yoshihide's footsteps and become a lame duck prime minister, being overhead by the party's factions and ignored by the opposition party.
In other words, he can bring freshness, but he lacks the power to control the situation.
Overall, the self-government party's election situation belongs to a card game, but it's all bad cards.
High-market early-size has a certain mass base, but her cards are exchanged by the extreme right-wing vocabulary, and its rule is at great risk.
小泉进次郎 has shape and ring, but lacks hard strength and political prestige.
As for several other candidates, such as Lin Feng, Mushroom Sensitive, and so on, although they have a heavy history, there is little sense of presence at the social level.
The article emphasizes that ordinary voters are concerned about wages, livelihood and population issues, while these old-school figures are often addicted to the balance between factions and valves within the party and bureaucratic consultation. Their speeches are cautious and their styles are boring, making it difficult to touch public opinion.
The result is: old can’t, young can’t.
Although the Liberal Democratic Party has many candidates on the surface, none of them can really convince the public.
This situation reveals the embarrassment of Japanese politics: on the surface, the card is full, in fact, there is no one that can stabilize the overall situation, and it is already in the state of uninhabited.
Therefore, no matter who will be prime minister at the end of this election, it is difficult for the Self-Democratic Party to really reverse the trend.
After the resignation of石破茂, the Self-Democratic Party has actually entered a state of dragonlessness.
Although the election is lively, the result can only accelerate the decline of political parties.
The game of party leaders, the extreme right-wing pull-up, and the powerlessness of the younger generation are intertwined, so that what people see is not new life, but consumption.
After all, when all candidates can only play Abe's flagship campaign, it shows that the years after Abe, the Self-Democratic Party is really one that can do nothing.