One week to go | Today in Japanese politics

The LDP candidates hold their last forum, the Bank of Japan holds steady, and the Japanese government presses China after a tragic death

Thank you for reading Observing Japan. In light of the volume of activity in Japanese politics, “This Week in Japanese Politics” will become “Today in Japanese Politics” through the LDP election on 27 September. I cannot guarantee it will truly be published daily, but my goal will be to update this feature several times a week for paid subscribers.

If you are looking for timely, forward-looking analysis of the stories in Japans’s politics and policymaking that move markets, I have launched a new service through my business, Japan Foresight LLC. For more information about Japan Foresight’s services or for information on how to sign up for a trial or schedule a briefing, please visit our website or reach out to me.

The contest to predict the winners of the LDP and CDP leadership races is now closed. Good luck to all participants!

Readers can also find my views on the LDP race in the following articles:

• Alastair Gale, “Latest Polls Suggest Japan Leadership Race Is a Three-Way Tussle,” Bloomberg

I also spoke with the Sankei Shimbun in an interview about the LDP leadership election published here; it caught the attention of at least one of the nine candidates.

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The rundown

For the day at least, Shohei Ohtani was a bigger story than the Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) leadership election, as he became the first player to hit fifty home runs and steal fifty bases in a single season. The LDP candidates wrapped up their nationwide tour in Matsue, Shimane, while Koizumi Shinjirō sought to mend fences with an old opponent of his father’s. The Constitutional Democratic Party’s (CDP) campaign heads into its final days, with a runoff between Edano Yukio and Noda Yoshihiko likely. Off the campaign trail, Hyōgo Governor Saitō Motohiko is weighing his options after a no-confidence motion passed unanimously. In economic policy, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) held rates steady, while Takaichi Sanae continued to pressure the bank on monetary policy normalization. In foreign policy, the Japanese government decried the violent death of a Japanese national in China, though the two governments moved closer to resolving a trade dispute. Finally, Ohtani was the biggest story in Japan on Friday, but news organizations continued to probe the policy views of the LDP candidates.

LDP leadership election

LDP candidates wave to supporters at the candidates’ forum in Matsue, Shimane on 20 September. Source: @moteging on Twitter.

The LDP held its final two candidate forums in Tokyo on 19 September and in Matsue, Shimane prefecture on 20 September. The Tokyo forum, held in the plaza at Akihabara Station that the party used for campaign rallies under Abe Shinzō’s leadership, featured appeals to younger voters on growth and social security; in Matsue, the candidates emphasized regional revitalization and reducing inequality between urban and rural Japan. The party-sponsored campaign events will resume on 22 September with the first of three livestreamed policy debates. There is now one week remaining until the LDP votes.

Sankei canvassed LDP lawmakers and found that Koizumi Shinjirō is favored by fifty-eight of 368, followed by Kobayashi Takayuki with forty-six and Hayashi Yoshimasa with forty. Ishiba Shigeru and Takaichi Sanae, vying with Koizumi for the support of the LDP’s rank-and-file supporters, are well beyond Koizumi among lawmakers, with thirty-four and thirty-one respectively. The newspaper found fifty-four lawmakers still undecided.