High approval rating, but serious discrepancy with the public? Prime Minister Takaichi calls a senior official of The Japan Innovation Party “this guy,” and people around him are shocked.

‘This is beyond an aide’s groove.

He said, “I’ve left it to him, so take my word for it. The various government offices should coordinate.”

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (64) pointed to a man with short hair and glasses sitting beside her and said this with a laugh as she received a proposal for comprehensive economic measures from Fumitake Fujita, 44, co-chairman of The Japan Innovation Party, at the Prime Minister’s Office on November 11.

This man, he pointed out, was Takashi Endo, 57, an aide to the prime minister. It was well known in Nagata-cho that Mr. Takaichi, who did not like to dine with others and was known to be a “loner,” called him “To-chan” and relied on him. Finally, the Chief Cabinet Secretary, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary, and bureaucrats in the Prime Minister’s Office turned to Mr. Endo with expressions of surprise when he called them “this guy. Mr. Endo briefly stated.

The Prime Minister’s words are a bit much, aren’t they? It’s beyond the bounds of what an aide would say.”

After this, the details of economic measures, such as subsidizing electricity and gas bills by 7,300 yen for three months as a measure against high prices, which Endo had been advocating for some time, were worked out in the 18.3 trillion yen supplementary budget proposal, the largest since the COVID-19 crisis, regarding measures against high prices and investment for growth.

The FY 2013 supplementary budget was approved at a plenary session of the House of Councillors on the afternoon of December 16. On the other hand, the bill to reduce the number of seats in the House of Representatives by 10%, which was a focal point along with the supplementary budget, has been postponed without debate because the ruling and opposition parties have been unable to reach a compromise in negotiations.

The LDP and the Restoration Association’s coalition government agreement states only that they will submit the bill and aim to have it enacted, not that they will ‘enact it’ in the current Diet session. Even within the LDP, the proposed cuts were questioned from the outset, and Secretary General Shunichi Suzuki (72) and Katsunobu Kato (70), who are the coordinators of the LDP, repeatedly stated that they would ‘make the utmost effort’ and ‘do their best,’ but they made no serious attempt to persuade the opposition within the party, and the senior members of the Restoration Association were growing impatient. (A reporter from the political section of a national newspaper)

When Takaichi became the new LDP president in October, Komeito suddenly withdrew from the coalition and the party was on the verge of nominating him as prime minister in the leadership election. When the coalition between the LDP and the Restoration Association was formed based on the “Takaichi – Endo line,” Hirofumi Yoshimura, 50, the leader of the Restoration Association, repeatedly called the reduction of the number of Diet members “the center pin of reform” and proposed a bill to reduce the number of seats in the House of Representatives by 10% as “an absolute condition for the coalition.

He also said, “The Liberal Democratic Party had no choice but to fold to the Restoration Party, starting with the formation of the new government and considering the management of the Diet. In the end, Acting Secretary General Kōichi Hagiuda (62) moved behind the scenes, and on December 5, the LDP and the Restoration Association jointly submitted a bill in the Restoration Association’s face that included a provision that if the ruling and opposition parties did not reach a conclusion within one year, the number of constituencies would be automatically reduced to “25 for primary election districts and 20 for proportional representation.

Although the details of the electoral districts to be reduced have not been released, there is no way that the relevant branch chiefs will remain silent. At the end of November, the House of Representatives regained its majority (233 seats) by incorporating three independent members into its own faction, but it has yet to reach a majority in the House of Councillors. The opposition parties have protested that the automatic reduction clause in the bill to reduce the number of Diet members is ‘too violent,’ and without the cooperation of the opposition parties, even if the bill is debated in next year’s Diet, it is unlikely to be passed.

No reliable friends within the LDP?

In order to obtain the cooperation of the opposition parties as well, we will have to consider reviewing some of the bills. In addition, the LDP was able to gain cooperation in the supplementary budget because it swallowed the policies of the KDP and Komeito whole. For next year’s ordinary Diet session, the parties agreed to raise the annual income barrier to 1.78 million yen, an issue that the KDP has long demanded, but the stable financial resources needed to realize this goal are unclear.

The KDP’s unprecedentedly high approval rating helped it get through the extraordinary session of the Diet, but the debate in next year’s ordinary Diet session will likely focus on the policy as well as the stable financial resources needed to implement it. One is the increase in defense spending to 2% of GDP promised to U.S. President Trump. The government has decided to raise corporate tax, cigarette tax, and income tax in stages as stable and permanent sources of revenue, but there will be opposition from smokers.

The supplementary budget issued 11.7 trillion yen in deficit-covering government bonds and withdrew the single-year target of bringing the primary balance into the black. Foreign investors will be wary of saying that they will do this without a stable financial resource being presented. The yen is weakening due to the fiscal expansion policy. Prices are rising while take-home pay is not increasing, and mortgages are rising due to higher long-term interest rates.

Many foreign investors are also uncertain about the future of the Koichi policy. Reducing the number of Diet members is a necessary policy, but there are a number of policies that should be done for the people, and how will he raise the funds to pay for them?” (Market watcher Hideo Amano)

Mr. Takaichi has been holed up in his Akasaka lodgings, keeping others at bay and poring over materials late into the night to formulate policies. Since becoming prime minister, he has held only one evening dinner with Vice President Taro Aso (85), Secretary General Suzuki, and others. Only senior officials of other parties are allowed to open their collars and call him “To-chan” or “this guy. Mr. Endo has his own office in the prime minister’s residence, but he rarely visits it. Mr. Endo explains the reason for this.

He says, “It’s a scary place where you lose touch with the world because of all the information from Nagatacho and Kasumigaseki.

It will soon be two months since the prime minister assumed office. Despite his high approval rating, is there a disconnect between him and the public?