Even before Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was sworn in and his Cabinet was in place, the new Ishiba administration made an unusual start with the announcement of the earliest-possible dissolution of the Lower House on Oct. 9 for a snap election.

What happened to Ishiba's repeated belief that there should be no Lower House dissolution before the Diet has had a chance to debate it?

A big question like this is not going to make it easy for the Liberal Democratic Party to regain its lost credibility.

CONSEQUENCES OF CABINET APPOINTMENTS

As LDP president, Ishiba's task is to restore the public's trust in politics in the wake of the LDP slush fund scandal. On Oct. 1, the Diet elected Ishiba as the new prime minister, and he formed his Cabinet.

Of the 20 LDP members who endorsed Ishiba when he ran for president, six were awarded Cabinet posts.

Yoshimasa Hayashi, who was the chief Cabinet secretary of former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida who contributed to Ishiba's come-from-behind victory in the runoff election, remains in this key Cabinet post.

As with the appointment of party executives the day before, Ishiba made no bones about favoring those who had supported him.

But Sanae Takaichi, his rival in the runoff, rejected his offer of a party executive position.

And with some hard feelings from members of the former Abe faction, none of whom were named to the Cabinet because of the faction's deep involvement in the slush fund scandal, the Ishiba administration is anything but an embodiment of "party unity."

But Ishiba's task is to get to the bottom of the slush fund scandal and the party's shady relationship with the former Unification Church (now known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unity) and focus on the implementation of policies for the people.

And he needs to bear in mind that winning the support of the people is the only way to compensate for the fragility of his intraparty support base.

Among his Cabinet ministers, Hayashi and two others--Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and Defense Minister Gen Nakatani--as well as LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Itsunori Onodera--have all held the defense portfolio before.

As for his chief secretary who controls all secretaries, Ishiba chose a former Defense Ministry official whom he has known for years. This is quite unusual.

We ask Ishiba to make full use of his expertise and insight in the establishment of sensible defense capabilities that fully suit Japan.

At the same time, he must make the utmost effort to improve the economy and all other matters that are linked directly to the daily lives of the Japanese people.

The number of women in the Cabinet has plummeted from five to two, even though "protect" was the keyword of Ishiba's policy package, the fifth pillar of which was "to protect young people's and women's opportunities."

Ishiba also used to stress the importance of women's participation in important decision-making.

We feel betrayed.

PRIORITIZING 'PARTY INTERESTS AND STRATEGIES'

The plenary sessions of both chambers of the Diet, during which the new prime minister was elected, started about half an hour behind schedule.

That was because of opposition parties' objection to the LDP's proposal to hold a Diet session based on the premise of dissolving the Lower House on Oct. 9.

The opposition reaction was understandable. In the first place, Ishiba did something highly anomalous when he announced, even before he was officially proclaimed prime minister, that the Lower House election would be held on Oct. 27, stressing the "importance of facing voters' judgment as soon as possible."

The intervals of eight days and 26 days, between the assumption of the prime minister's office and the dissolution of the Lower House and the ensuing balloting, respectively, are the shortest in post-World War II history.

The LDP intends to reject opposition parties' demand to hold budget committee meetings and limit the Diet session to questioning by party representatives in the Upper House and Lower House and a debate by party leaders on the final day.

At the start of the LDP presidential election campaign, Ishiba chided Shinjiro Koizumi for calling for an early dissolution of the Lower House with an Oct. 27 election day in mind.

At the time, Ishiba was insistent that it was the responsibility of the new prime minister to provide voters with sufficient information to base their decisions on, and that instead of just routine questioning by party representatives, budget committee meetings should also be held for issue-by-issue discussion.

Doesn't Ishiba remember any of that?

In any case, this ultra-tight timetable does not leave any time for the LDP to decide whether to endorse members who have been involved in the slush fund scandal.

The reality appears to be that Ishiba was unable to go against the majority of the LDP leadership, including Hiroshi Moriyama whom he has picked as the party secretary-general, who insisted on an early Lower House dissolution.

By denying opposition parties any chance to argue their cases in the Diet and rushing into an election while the new administration's appeal to the public is still fresh, what Ishiba has done is none other than to prioritize the party's interests and strategies.

The reason why Ishiba received high support ratings as the next prime minister in surveys conducted by news organizations was that the public apparently rated him highly for his "principle" of refusing to put the party's convenience above everything or fawn to party bigwigs.

But this time, the glaring inconsistency between his words and deeds have cost Ishiba dearly: He has lost the trust of the public, which was his most important asset.

ISHIBA BEARS CLOSE WATCHING

While we hope Ishiba will "govern with humility" as he says he intends to, there are many things among his personal views and proposals he made during the LDP presidential election campaign that we cannot support.

For example, if he is committed to establishing an "Asian version of NATO" as he mentioned in his policy package, that presupposes fully accepting Japan's right to participate in collective self-defense.

But given the historical and geographical diversity of the nations that make up this region, we seriously doubt the desirability of the framework being envisioned by Ishiba.

In a paper he contributed to a U.S. think tank, Ishiba proposed revising the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty and sharing nuclear weapons with the United States and allowing them into Japan.

But such proposals presupposes a fundamental overhaul of Japan's security policy, which is hardly likely to receive wide public support.

As for his economic policy, which he said will be a continuation of his predecessor's, we do not know exactly what he intends to focus on.

And what is he going to do about issues that were mostly overlooked during the election campaign, such as how to sustain the social security system and what to do about the nation's energy policy, including issues related to nuclear power generation?

Will he try to consolidate the divided opinions among his presidential election competitors about introducing a system to allow married couples to have different surnames? And reworking the inadequate political funds reform is another task that needs urgent attention.

With those issues, we demand that not only Ishiba, but also all Cabinet members in charge, explain their positions clearly before the Diet. If they cannot be bothered to make that effort, they are not even qualified to seek the public's judgment.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 2