THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
June 18, 2022 at 17:54 JST
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, center, listens to an explanation at the Motomachi Plant of Toyota Motor Corp. on June 17 while Akio Toyoda, left, the company president, looks on. (Kazuhiro Nagashima)
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made a rare pre-election campaign stop June 17--one of the main plants of Toyota Motor Corp. where the labor union is a strong supporter of the opposition camp.
The management, however, is a staunch backer of Kishida’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Kishida’s visit to Toyota’s Motomachi Plant in Aichi Prefecture was viewed in some quarters as a veiled attempt to win the votes of workers.
A Toyota labor union official is running in the July 10 Upper House election on the proportional representation ballot of the opposition Democratic Party for the People. The labor union is also backing the DPP candidate running in Aichi Prefecture.
A labor union source insisted members would not be affected by Kishida’s visit, although a former labor union official thought otherwise, even though official campaigning does not start until June 22.
Kishida insisted it was purely coincidental his visit came less than a week before the start of the campaign and said he went to meet with Akio Toyoda, the company president, to discuss setting up a forum between Cabinet ministers and auto executives on ways to move toward a carbon-free future.
But later the same day, Kishida also visited plants in neighboring Mie Prefecture operated by Kioxia Holdings Corp., a major semiconductor manufacturer, and Honda Motor Co.
The labor unions of those two companies are also supporting the DPP in the Upper House election.
Politicians are not alone in seeking to move closer to labor unions.
Officials of Rengo (Japanese Trade Union Confederation) have attended meetings with LDP lawmakers and pledged that the organization would not support a specific party in the election.
Kishida attended Rengo’s New Year gathering in January, a move political pundits viewed as an attempt to drive a wedge between the opposition parties.
(This article was written by Kei Kobayashi, Tomohiro Yamamoto and Shino Matsuyama.)
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