Photo/Illutration The three candidates in the leadership election of Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party), from left, Nobuyuki Baba, Yasushi Adachi and Mizuho Umemura (Taro Kotegawa)

The first presidential election of opposition party Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) has deteriorated into a bitter battleground of complaints directed mainly at the current leadership.

Debate over the policies of the three candidates has been largely absent in the campaign ahead of the Aug. 27 vote.

Critics argue that the outgoing president, Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui, has already fixed the outcome of not only the election but also the direction the conservative party will take under his successor.

One candidate has already said the “unfair” election should be called off.

The candidates are: Yasushi Adachi, 56, a Lower House member and chair of Ishin’s Policy Research Council; Nobuyuki Baba, 57, a Lower House member and the party’s co-leader; and Mizuho Umemura, 43, an Upper House member.

In elections of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the votes of Diet members have considerably more weight than those of rank-and-file members.

But for Ishin, the votes of all party members, regardless of whether they are lawmakers, are each counted as one.

The three candidates have worked hard to appeal to the 20,000 or so general party members.

However, Matsui and Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura, the party’s vice president, had earlier endorsed Baba in the election. The endorsements are believed to have influenced the recommendation process, in which candidates must obtain at least 30 each from “special party members” in order to run.

Baba collected recommendations from 306 special members, including 51 Diet members. Adachi received 39 recommendations and Umemura obtained 30, both including some from local assembly members.

Adachi criticized the current leadership as having already “chosen a de facto successor.”

Umemura has complained, “Once party members feel the outcome is predetermined, their interest in the election will abruptly disappear.”

Fueling such bitterness is the fact that an Ishin members list under the control of a party branch office was provided to the Baba camp.

Adachi has filed a formal objection with Ishin’s board of elections, demanding the nullification of the election.

“The leadership election is not fair and just,” Adachi said.

One senior Ishin official is worried that the angry words uttered by the candidates “might lead to serious problems for the party in the future.”

“Only a negative image is being highlighted in this election,” the official lamented.

One policy issue that has split the party is whether Ishin should continue its drive to spread its influence and become a national party or remain focused on its stronghold of the Kansai region.

Some Ishin members said the party’s “top-down” decision-making process is a root problem that has hampered serious policy discussions.

Many of the party’s policies reflect the ideas of the Ishin’s founders—Matsui and Toru Hashimoto, former governor of Osaka Prefecture and former mayor of Osaka city.

Matsui, in fact, has publicly stated, “What I say is the party’s manifesto.”

He also said Ishin’s policy has already been set.

“It is not something up for debate in the party leadership election,” he said. Rather, the election will “decide who leads the organization.”

The three candidates have advocated the realization of the party’s policy.

“Their arguments are not substantially different from each other,” a party official said.

Ishin was formed in 2012 as an offshoot of an Osaka-based local political party called Osaka Ishin no Kai.

Nippon Ishin entered national politics mainly on its flagship policy of restructuring Osaka city into a metropolis like Tokyo.

The “Osaka Metropolis Plan” policy was rejected in referendums in 2015 and 2020. Since then, the party has been unable to come up with another headline-grabbing initiative.

(This article was written by Taro Kotegawa and Chifumi Shinya.)

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