<figure id="attachment_396839" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1675px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-396839"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="aa907848"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/10/94b525e087d3c16a4d66f6713c39fe68.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-396839" class="wp-caption-text">Sanae Takaichi narrowly lost the LDP presidential election. Some in the party are hoping for her &#8220;return to power.&#8221; &#8230;&#8230;</figcaption></figure>
<p>In the lower house election held on October 27, the ruling LDP and New Kōmeitō fell short of a majority of 215 seats, a harsh result.</p>
<p>The decisive factor in the ruling parties&#8217; defeat was a report in the Communist Party&#8217;s newspaper &#8220;Shimbun Aka Hata&#8221; on October 23 that the party had provided 20 million yen in party subsidies to a political party branch headed by a candidate who was not approved by the LDP.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> The &#8220;Red Flag&#8221; burst at the most inopportune time for the LDP in the midst of an election that had already been thrown into a headwind by the &#8220;slush fund issue&#8221; and the &#8220;Unification Church issue. The &#8220;Red Flag Cannon&#8221; exploded at the most inopportune time for the LDP. On January 21, in the middle of the election campaign, Prime Minister Ishiba, Vice President Suga Yoshihide, Secretary General Yutaka Moriyama, and Election Committee Chairman Shinjiro Koizumi had just met in Tokyo to review the election strategy. Prime Minister Ishiba abandoned constituencies where he was losing by large margins to opposition candidates and focused his support on 40 constituencies where the race was reportedly close, but it was not enough to turn the tide,&#8221; said a reporter for a national newspaper.</span></p>
<h2>He is popular not only among LDP members but also among the conservative intelligentsia.</h2>
<p>The &#8220;Ishiba Liberal Democratic Party&#8221; suffered a historic defeat in the lower house election. Because of this predicament, some in the party are hoping for the return to power of Sanae Takaichi, who fought hard in the LDP presidential election in September. Celebrities, influencers, and university professors who are members of the Takaichi faction are also stirring up a sense of crisis.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> &#8220;There is no one else but Takaichi.</span></p>
<p>However, the reality is sometimes cruel.</p>
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<p>The reality, however, is sometimes cruel. A reporter for a national newspaper wrote</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> &#8220;After the lower house election, Mr. Takaichi&#8217;s influence has diminished.</span></p>
<p>after the lower house election.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead="Why the spearhead of the anti-Ishiba movement still cannot regain power"></div>
<p>The reason is simple. Because a number of Diet members who supported Mr. Takaichi in the presidential election lost their elections, &#8220;even if I wanted to carry him, there is no one to do so.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> &#8220;Even if I wanted to carry him, there was no one to do so,&#8221; said a reporter for a national newspaper.</span></p>
<p>The reason for this is that the number of Diet members who supported Mr. Takaichi in the presidential election has been declining.</p>
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<p>This can be seen in the 11 Lower House members who have lined up to endorse Mr. Takaichi.</p>
<p>Mizuta Sugita, who has been in the news for some time, has given up her candidacy for the Lower House election. Shuichi Takatori in Niigata&#8217;s 5th district, Tomu Tanikawa in Osaka&#8217;s 19th district, Kenta Wakabayashi in Nagano&#8217;s 1st district, Junji Suzuki in Aichi&#8217;s 7th district, Toru Doi in Miyagi&#8217;s 1st district, and Hiromi Mitsubayashi in Saitama&#8217;s 13th district were not selected.</p>
<p>Shigeki Kobayashi in Nara&#8217;s 1st Constituency and Hiroyuki Nakamura in Hokkaido&#8217;s 4th Constituency, which Prime Minister Ishiba had designated as a priority constituency, were defeated in their respective constituencies, but were able to win back in the proportional elections. Keiji Furuya in Gifu&#8217;s 5th Constituency and Yoshihiro Seki in Hyogo&#8217;s 3rd Constituency, both of whom have been elected 11 times, won their constituencies handily.</p>
<h2>There were also whispers of a &#8220;merger&#8221; with the Japan Conservative Party.</h2>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> It has been said that the number of Takaichi Faction members might be reduced by half in this election. However, only four of the eleven members returned to the Diet. Although Prime Minister Ishiba will suffer a significant loss of seats in the election, he may have succeeded in his aim to inflict serious damage on the Abe faction.</span></p>
<p>There is a theory that Takaichi will &#8220;join&#8221; the Japan Conservative Party, which includes writer Naoki Momota and former Nagoya City Mayor Takashi Kawamura, but a political insider said, &#8220;He has no intention of joining the party.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> However, a political insider said, &#8220;As expected, he doesn&#8217;t have the guts to go that far. He is well aware that he can shine only because he is a member of the LDP.</span></p>
<p>He knows that he can only shine because he is a member of the LDP,&#8221; said a political insider.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> If Mr. Ishiba fails and Mr. Takaichi fails, the LDP itself will be cornered. Well, there are young hopefuls such as Kobayashi Takayuki Kobahawk, but it will be difficult to quell the public&#8217;s anger. Nagata-cho is now a whirlwind of intrigue and intrigue, including regime change and political realignment,&#8221; said a TV news source.</span></p>
<p>Shinjiro Koizumi is expected to take responsibility for the defeat and resign as head of the election task force, but Prime Minister Ishiba has indicated his intention to continue. It is inevitable that the LDP will face strong criticism from within and outside the LDP, and the future management of the government is likely to be extremely difficult.</p>


 Takeshi Kinugawa

 The general election was held in the midst of headwinds, such as the Unification Church issue and the back taxes issue. Although Shigeru Ishiba took over the government, four days before the vote, the "stealth approval" issue by the "red flag gun" was reported, and the self-government and public sectors lost their majority. ......

Takaichi on Why She Can’t Stage a Comeback After LDP’s Defeat

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