Ishiba and Noda Jointly Criticize Takaichi on TV: Both Say the Explanations for Her G7 Online Summit Absence Do Not Hold
Former Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party and also a former prime minister, jointly criticized Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on a television program broadcast on November 12. One sits in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the other leads the opposition, a rare cross-party alignment against Takaichi.
Ishiba explained on the program why he walked out of the House of Representatives on November 6 just before the vote on the Takaichi government's consumption-tax cut bill. He said he could not publicly oppose the government's tax policy but absolutely could not support it either, so he left the chamber to abstain, and that he would take full responsibility for doing so. The LDP has since issued warning punishments to Ishiba and three other members who walked out, as GSM has reported.
On Takaichi's absence from an online G7 summit in early October, both Ishiba and Noda said the explanations the government later offered, that equipment could not be adjusted in time and that the topics were unrelated to Japan, do not hold. Japanese media reported in October that on the night of the summit Takaichi dined and drank with senior LDP figures at the prime minister's residence, prompting speculation that she missed the meeting because of drinking; Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara denied on November 9 that she had drunk anything that night, as GSM has reported.
Ishiba is Takaichi's predecessor and a former LDP president; Noda leads the largest opposition party. Their joint appearance shows the pressure on Takaichi over the tax bill and the summit absence now comes from inside the ruling party as well as from the opposition.
(Source: CCTV News)
Source: CCTV News
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：日本前首相石破茂官方肖像。照片：日本内阁广报室，CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Official portrait of former Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Photo by the Cabinet Public Relations Office of the Cabinet Secretariat, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
