CDPJ Punches Back after LDP Criticizes Predecessor

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:28 JST, October 24, 2024

The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan is firing back at the Liberal Democratic Party for its growing criticism of policies implemented by the CDPJ’s predecessor when it was in power more than a decade ago.

As campaigning for the House of Representatives election heats up, the CDPJ is highlighting the policy accomplishments of the Democratic Party of Japan government from 2009 to 2012, including the introduction of child allowances and other steps intended to counter Japan’s chronically low birth rate. Though the CDPJ has hit back at LDP attempts to stigmatize the opposition party, there is no denying that the DPJ’s policies split the party and its administration went off the rails. This has left the CDPJ’s counterpunches sometimes lacking force.

During a speech Tuesday, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said the DPJ administrations were “like a nightmare.”

CDPJ Executive Deputy President Kiyomi Tsujimoto returned fire on Wednesday. “With their hidden funds scandal and links to the former Unification Church exposed, it is the LDP administrations that are a nightmare,” Tsujimoto told reporters in Tokyo.

Tsujimoto heaped praise on the DPJ’s signature policies, which included child allowances and making tuition free at public high schools. “The DPJ blazed a trail, and the other parties have been trying to catch up,” Tsujimoto said.

Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe frequently used the expression “like a nightmare” when deriding the DPJ administrations. Abe’s use of that term in 2019 even prompted Ishiba to complain, “It’s dangerous to refer to previous governments and assume that we are correct.”

CDPJ leader Yoshihiko Noda touched on Ishiba’s comment while he was in Fukuoka on Wednesday. “Did he forget what he said?” Noda asked reporters. “He forgets what he says too often.”

The DPJ’s policy goals, such as making expressways toll-free, fell into disarray as it attempted to fulfill its pledges despite lacking funding to do so. The party’s bungled handling of the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture and other issues also led to a deterioration in Japan-U.S. relations. Further wounded by rifts within the party, the DPJ government limped along until it was booted from power after three years and three months.

CDPJ Executive Deputy President Akira Nagatsuma, who served as health, labor and welfare minister during the DPJ government, believes his party has learned from the experiences of the DPJ’s time in power. “I’ve taken to heart the lessons learned by the DPJ government,” Nagatsuma said during a street speech in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, on Wednesday. “I’m also confident about our preparations to stably assume the reins of government.”

However, the LDP believes the CDPJ is little changed from the party it was before. “Nothing will change as long as the prime minister and cabinet ministers from that time are still leading the CDPJ,” a senior LDP official said.