Japan’s Opposition Party Calls On Kishida to Hold Snap Elections

(Bloomberg) -- Japan’s main opposition party urged Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to call a snap election to seek a fresh mandate from voters, saying the public had “completely lost trust” in his leadership over a slush fund scandal within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

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“The Kishida cabinet should all resign, or he should dissolve parliament,” Katsuya Okada, secretary general of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, said in a TV program on public broadcaster NHK on Sunday.

Appearing on the same program, LDP Acting Secretary General Tomomi Inada said a bill proposed by the party to tighten political funding rules was supported by other groups and would be effective in preventing similar scandals.

Local media have reported Kishida intends to wait to call a snap election until after a party leadership race in September, though his low level of public support means he could face challengers for the top job.

The Kishida cabinet’s approval rating fell 4.7 percentage points to 25.1% in an opinion poll conducted by JNN earlier this month. The LDP has also suffered a series of defeats in special and local elections amid voter dissatisfaction over the slush fund issue.

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