Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba formed his second Cabinet after failing to win a public mandate in the Oct. 27 Lower House election and seeing the ruling coalition lose its majority.

Ishiba’s government is in a precarious position in a new era of political uncertainty. It must seek the cooperation of opposition parties to pass budgetary or other important bills.

Ishiba must understand that the only way to pursue his policy agenda is to engage in open discussions with opposition parties to build a careful consensus.

A special Diet session was convened on Nov. 11 for a prime ministerial election. In the Lower House, no candidate secured a majority in the first round of voting, leading to a runoff for the first time in 30 years.

Ishiba defeated Yoshihiko Noda, president of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. Ishiba was aided by the fact that 84 votes, or nearly 20 percent of the total, were invalid.

Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) and the Democratic Party for the People likely decided they could not support either the coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito or the CDP. So they chose their respective leaders in the final round of voting, thus invalidating their ballots and effectively paving the way for Ishiba to stay in power.

Their actions are hard to justify.

The decision is especially questionable in terms of Nippon Ishin’s political responsibility, with its leader, Nobuyuki Baba, set to step down.

The Ishiba Cabinet was only initiated about 40 days ago, and in its second formation, 16 members were reappointed and three successors were picked.

The justice minister and agriculture minister in the first Cabinet both failed to be re-elected in the Oct. 27 vote. The land minister vacated his Cabinet post to take over as Komeito leader.

This is the first Cabinet supported by a minority ruling camp since the one led by Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata that started in April 1994.

The Hata Cabinet proved short-lived, as he was forced to resign after only 64 days in office due to the departure of the now-defunct Japan Socialist Party from the ruling coalition. The departure resulted in the loss of a majority and made the passing of a no-confidence motion certain.

Ishiba’s vulnerable political position requires him to tread cautiously in governing while performing a delicate political balancing act.

The first test of his political leadership will be how to handle the political funding scandal, which fueled unexpectedly strong public anger and mistrust during the election. He also needs to formulate a supplementary budget to rev up the economy.

At a Nov. 11 meeting of LDP lawmakers from both houses, Ishiba expressed a desire to take two key steps for political funding reforms.

He said that by the end of the year, he wants to complete reviews and reforms of how Diet members spend their fixed monthly allowances, formally called “buntsu-hi,” for research, travel and communications expenses, as well as reforms concerning the spending of policy activity expenses, which the LDP distributes to individual party executives.

While Ishiba has called for talks with opposition parties over funding reforms, other issues, such as banning donations by businesses and organizations, should also be considered.

Regarding the new government’s policy agenda, Ishiba has prioritized collaboration with the DPP, and talks between the LDP-Komeito coalition and the DPP have begun.

Instead of simply focusing on securing a majority, the three parties should work to ensure a transparent policy-making process and meaningful Diet debate.

Many chairs of Lower House committees are now opposition party members. The Budget Committee, the primary arena for Diet debate, is now chaired by the CDP.

Both ruling and opposition sides have two duties.

They need to restore the function of the legislative branch that was overbearingly hollowed out after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned to power and secured political dominance.

The two sides must also respond to the public’s choice of a balanced Diet with neither the ruling nor opposition camps enjoying a solid majority.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 12