Public urges Ishiba to do something about high cost of living

They need to be petitioning the Bank of Japan. Most of the energy and food inflation is the result of its policies, not the govt's.

Just cut taxes. People have no incentive to work when much of their salary is eaten up in taxes. Get rid of consumption tax and prune the civil service.

Ishiba, a newly elected president of LDP, will automatically become Prime Minister of Japan.

That means Japan's Prime Minister is elected only by a small fraction of the nation's voters: LDP lawmakers and LDP-registered members.’

Isn't there any way to improve the system?

That means Japan's Prime Minister is elected only by a small fraction of the nation's voters: LDP lawmakers and LDP-registered members.’

Isn't there any way to improve the system?

Amazing how often this needs to be explained.

Japan - like Australia, the UK, NZ, Germany, Canada, and many more - has a parliamentary system of democracy. The Prime Minister is not directly elected in these places. He/She is the first among equals - the first Minister. If you change this so as the PM is directly elected as a leader, you effectively have a Republic.

I highly doubt there is any appetite to go down the direct election of a leader Republic system.

voiceofokinawa, That means Japan's Prime Minister is elected only by a small fraction of the nation's voters: LDP lawmakers and LDP-registered members.’

Almost all constitutional monarchies have this same system. The party leader becomes the defacto leader. So if the PM of Canada, or the UK dies, or retires or is forced out, whoever wins the leadership race becomes the next prime minister. Same thing happened in the UK with a string of PM's before an election was finally held.

The only certainty is defence spending will go up and taxes to cover those increases will go up. Expect an increase in consumption tax to 12 % when the LDP gets re-elected.

It is call a Constitutional Monarchy. The fairest political system and most sucessfully employed throughout the western world. Constitutional monarchies range from countries such as Liechtenstein, Monaco, Morocco, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain and Bhutan, where the constitution grants substantial discretionary powers to the sovereign, to countries such as the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Lesotho, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Japan.

I agree with the comments about Ishiba not being elected by the public. If a country is to use this system, it should not concentrate power in the executive (cabinet).

The clearest example of why this shouldn't happen is the UK where Boris Johnson was elected on one set of policies and was replaced by Liz Truss who replaced these with other policies spoonfed to her by a rich persons' think tank. These policies crashed the markets and Truss was kicked out in no time, leading to another bod getting the job without being selected by the public.

"Even just talking of price hikes, conditions vary between the city and regional areas," Miyako Shibamura, a 36-year-old resident of Takamatsu in western Japan's Kagawa Prefecture, said. "People in regional areas are reliant on cars, and the soaring gasoline prices are being felt particularly hard."

Hikaru Tanaka, a 20-year-old student living alone in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, said he wanted "measures like subsidies on electricity and gas bills for students and those in need so we can live more comfortably."

Japanese vox pops in the papers regularly come up with some bizarre takes. We have two cars and I can tell you that gasoline prices are not "soaring". As we read yesterday, Umaibo snacks are up 50% compared to 2021. Other food items are similar Gasoline is up maybe 10-15 yen compared to 2022, probably 10% at most. In most people's case, the big cost of car ownership is the cost of buying the car. Our eldest is 19 and has lived alone for two years in a one room apartment in Nagano, with a similar climate to Sendai. Her utility bills are tiny. Even a big percentage rise in energy, which would hit big families in a house much more, means little for students. A student living alone facing a 2000 yen increase a month is not an OMG in the big picture of what's wrong with Japan.

he wont

the whole political system here is based on nothing changing

Inflation is taxation without legislation. Despite market interventions, the yen will collapse just as the won did, the baht did, and the USD will too.

Please don't be a puppet of the geopolitical whims of good old US..

He will NOT do anything for the benefit of the people, just like his predecessors did.

However, during Kishida's reign, one of the most disastrous from the post war history, the currency lost between 40 to 60% of its value, inflation came into force, taxes got a huge increase (resident taxes, social taxes, medical insurance taxes, etc), other callous taxes were added, such as "forest" tax, child support tax, etc, and also the prices hikes for everything, including food, utilities, etc, price hikes that are done every 3 months, the next huge one being this October.

Yes, let's continue to vote for LDP, the most corrupt and incompetent Party that can be.

The J gov subs energy over the summer months to reduce utility bills. Do the same with basic food stuffs to reduce monthly household outcome. Until the greedy corporations give in.

Tokyo resident Risa Takahashi said she found it difficult when changing her surname for personal identification and other documents after getting married.

She can apply for a "double-barrelled" name at the family court. My wife did that and can use my family name or her original one (or both) depending on what she wants to do. The judge involved was very understanding and apart from it taking time, it was a relatively smooth process. Plenty of YouTibe videos explain the process.

Get rid of consumption tax and prune the civil service.

the answer right here, he isn’t serious so it won’t happen and Japanese people won’t do anything about his inaction but if he removed the consumption tax , today, Japanese people would instantly be better off and the economy would be moving again.

ore consumption tax Japan was a much better place.

If Risa Takahashi is Japanese and married to a Japanese then her name is the one on her Koseki. She can't legally change that. If she is non-Japanese she can apply for a name change at the family courts.

My partner after marriage continued to use her family name but eventually decided to change.

If she is non-Japanese she can apply for a name change at the family courts.

You forgot to add, if she is married to a non-Japanese she can also change her name at the family court. Another reason to go Dutch eh?

Burning Bush

You forgot to add, if she is married to a non-Japanese she can also change her name at the family court. Another reason to go Dutch eh?

If  Risa Takahashi is Japanese and married to a foreigner she can retain her family name or take the name of her husband and apply for a new family Koseki.

Sounds like she is Japanese and married to a Japanese husband taking his name but retaining her family name at work which many women do. Some professions are legally allowed to do that, like doctors.

Sounds like she is Japanese and married to a Japanese husband taking his name but retaining her family name at work which many women do. Some professions are legally allowed to do that, like doctors.

Yes. It sounds like as you say. But I know most serious Japanese don't really give a fig about names considering the other challenges Japan us facing domestically and internationally.

Burning Bush

Yes. It sounds like as you say. But I know most serious Japanese don't really give a fig about names considering the other challenges Japan us facing domestically and internationally.

Why did you introduce the topic then?

What? Did you read the article?

Are you here to get the last word? Or for a discussion?

High cost of living?! Japan has the lowest cost of living in the developed world.

Yeah. But it's creeping up. Next month we are due another. And any concern PM should be keeping an eye on it.

It would be easier for a government to intervene on price rises rather wages.

Instead of giving subsidies to oil companies, they should investigate them for price gouging. World oil prices have gone down 25 percent in the past month, yen has strengthened 15 percent and gasoline prices have stayed at 165 yen all September.

Just cut taxes. People have no incentive to work when much of their salary is eaten up in taxes.

Right.

Get rid of consumption tax

Wait, don’t you mean the income tax?

If people have the incentive to work then they can earn more money and care little of the 10% consumption tax, which ensures that everyone pays a fair share.

The cycle of fooling start again. Every Japanese PM talks big and wonderful dream but after one or two years they knew nothing can be done to save Japan. Because the LDP is a big bureaucracy, they are the obstacle to be removed !

The Meiji government during the Restoration period tried hard to emulate Western powers in everything military, political, music and fine art. 

 As for the military system, the German Empire was a role model to emulate; as for a political system, Great Britain was.

Don't people in these countries as well as in the U.S. wish to elect their leaders by direct voting?

Public urges Ishiba to do something about high cost of living

Er, this is your now job pal. Is this the tone from this muppet? A self service government?

Prices of foods or daily necessities increasing 30~50 percent, but wages or pensions are stagnant.

But, LDP government who still calls present situation "deflation" is doubtful.

His role is party leader and PM. Those are public roles on the local stages, parliament, media etc and global stages like bilateral meetings and international conferences. That's an acting and entertaining job, nothing that ever could fill your wallets or shopping carts. Even if he ever wanted, he simply cannot meet all your individual expectations. Everything to generously distribute among everyone has to be generated beforehand, in industry and service sectors, when they all work hard there, make inventions and new products and then sell them on local and global markets. So I guess you see the situation clearly, when there is less working or more high aged population, this general concept will fail. More children, better education, then a certain amount of those many well-educated young people become experts in a field, make inventions, sell their products and services. Everything else, especially an easier or faster problem solution is very improbable or nearly impossible.