Why Japan’s Government is on the Brink of Collapse (Again)
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Yet another Japanese Prime Minister has found themselves embroiled in a financial scandal, with Shigeru Ishiba seeing his approval hitting record lows. So in this video, we’ll explain what’s happened and whether we could see a fifth PM in as many years.
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Sources:
Gift voucher scandal & Ishiba’s response:
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-pm-apologises-giving-out-gifts-clouding-budget-prospects-2025-03-14/
https://www.nippon.com/en/news/yjj2025031700335/?cx_recs_click=true
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/03/20/japan/politics/pm-kishida-gift-vouchers/
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250319/p2a/00m/0na/018000c
Post-scandal polling:
https://observingjapan.substack.com/p/that-sinking-feeling
https://observingjapan.substack.com/p/tracking-the-japanese-governments-423
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15671613
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2025/03/3e30892c96e2-urgent-ishiba-cabinet-support-rate-dives-to-27-lowest-since-taking-office.html
Inflation and rice price:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-25/ishiba-plans-powerful-inflation-measures-ahead-of-election
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250325/p2g/00m/0bu/014000c
Trump’s tariffs on foreign cars & Japan response:
https://www.ft.com/content/25d5bbfb-a567-4778-a15a-f3c8f56e2bea
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/03/27/economy/auto-tariff-reax/
https://www.jri.co.jp/MediaLibrary/file/report/research/pdf/15624.pdf
Chances of ousting Ishiba:
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/03/18/japan/politics/ishiba-replacement/
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/03/24/japan/politics/ishiba-support-rate-tanks/
Resignation polling:
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15671613
https://observingjapan.substack.com/p/that-sinking-feeling
26 Comments
Well I looks like japan has become like Italy
Your AI generated background shows 0:07 Rices for "prices" 🤣🤣🤣
Ishida's 'every option' considered needs to include the complete decoupling with US dependency. I was just watching a great video by Cyrus Janssen on the subject, and I've commented that Japan seriously needs reconsider its relationship with the US, while opening itself up to China and/or perhaps joining ASEAN as a periphery partner.
Japan: give a few $660 dollar gift cards – calling for resignation
USA: lose a trillion dollars in stock market value two times in the span of a month – no repercussions
What a joke. Give the emperor his power back. MAKE JAPAN GREAT AGAIN!
It's almost like Japan should elect a different party or something.
0:14 sounds like my daikatana anime OC
“Sir, another scandal has hit. Again.”
A lot of japanes cars are assembled in the US which may get them around the tarrif
Blows the mind this makes the news in Japan. Such a unique culture. In my country there was a scandal when a local health board started giving out $100 gift vouchers to get people to take the Covid Vaccine. The scandal wasn’t in the gift cards themselves but in the leftovers being use by staff to go to a fancy restaurant. That was tax payers money. This is not.
Smol pp 😂
So you can't give people presents in any country? Wow who the hell thinks this is a issue other than the media
I always wondered where the British Tories got their inspiration for replacing PM's from.
It’s a made-up story. No one cares about gift voucher ‘scandal’
They have an election in July?
"Poor" LDP
To be honest, I can kind of see Ishiba’s story to be true, because that’s exactly how I’d react in such a situation. It’s also such a minor amount of money that it doesn’t strike me as corruption. I’m not claiming to be familiar with Japanese politics, just claiming that I can sort of understand the situation Ishiba is in personally.
Why do polls matter in Japan? They always vote for the same party anyway.
£600 in gifts seems irrelevant.
This PM seemed like he had genuinely decent policies.
Why can democracies no longer produce good leaders?
Japan was always doomed.
oof
japan is a fail** state just as the us will be in less then 12y if they fail to adres there debt…and stop fueeling there econemy bye debt….if ur from usa next decade you will be downsizing you will live in a closet just as in ja**n…..
Who cares? Employers give employees gift cards all the time. So what's the difference with the PM doing it for their cabinet/legislature?
$600 is Y100K that crazy all those kamikaze die for nun lol not even mentioning those 2 cities
Again? Corruption is very high in politics and companies
Same issue in South Korea.
Crazy as it gets. Blame to America's corruption for many years. The Japan's government has low expectations. In Ishiba-san's cases popularity went top to bottom. In a grain of saltiness.
Pls do Iran and us relations