28 October 2024
Morning Shot: Japan’s ruling coalition loses lower house majority in blow to new PM Shigeru Ishiba
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s ruling coalition lost a majority in the 465-seat lower house in a key parliamentary election held on Sunday (27th October).
According to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, the Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed Japan for all but four years since 1955, lost more than 50 seats in an election for the House of Representatives, the influential lower chamber of Parliament.
Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party remains the top party in Japan’s parliament, and a change of government is not expected but falling short of a majority could make it difficult for Ishiba to get his party’s policies through parliament.
Official results are expected later today (28th October)
On this episode of Morning Shot, Professor Tomohiko Taniguchi, Special Advisor to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet and Specially Appointed Professor at the University of Tsukuba shares his analysis on what’s in store for Japan’s political landscape moving forward.
Presented by: Audrey Siek
Produced & Edited by: Yeo Kai Ting (ykaiting@sph.com.sg)
Photo credits: Richard A. Brooks/Agence France-Presse / Getty Images

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29 August 2024
Morning Shot: Who will be Japan's next President?
The race for the coveted title of Japan’s next Prime Minister is on.
Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party is finalising its plans to hold the party's leadership election on 27th September. This comes after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced that he will not re-contest for a second term as leader of the incumbent Liberal Democratic Party, after his tenure ends in September.
The upcoming election, the first since 2021 when Kishida was elected party's leader, is expected to see several lawmakers vie for the post to succeed Kishida, with the winner to be anointed prime minister given the ruling coalition controls both houses of parliament.
On this episode of Morning Shot, Professor Tomohiko Taniguchi, Special Advisor to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet and Specially Appointed Professor at the University of Tsukuba weighs in.
Presented by: Audrey Siek
Produced & Edited by: Yeo Kai Ting (ykaiting@sph.com.sg)
Photo credits: Getty Images

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7 November 2023
Morning Shot: Can golden agers solve Japan's labour crunch?
Labour shortages are becoming more apparent in Japan, with its working-age population decreasing by more than 10 million over the past 30 years.
On this episode of Morning Shot, Special Advisor to Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet, Professor Tomohiko Taniguchi, who’s also Special Advisor at the Fujitsu Future Studies Centre weighs in on Japan’s labour crunch and whether Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's plan to get companies to factor in pay hikes that will be "several percentage points higher" than the country's inflation rate is a sustainable move amid other labour issues the country is facing.
Presented by: Emaad Akhtar & Audrey Siek
Produced and edited by: Yeo Kai Ting (ykaiting@sph.com.sg)

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