Opposition Asks Prime Minister To Delay His Policy Speech Until After By-Elections

Japanese media outlets note that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will deliver a policy speech during an extraordinary session of parliament set to kick off on October 20, with the main opposition party asking him to postpone it until October 23.

• Jiji reports that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) wanted the speech to take place at the start of the session on October 20, but the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) suggests that it could have an unfair influence on the House of Representatives by-elections scheduled for October 22.
• The two by-elections will be held this Sunday to fill vacant seats in the Nagasaki 4th district and the Tokushima-Kochi district. The former seat was vacated due to the death of incumbent lawmaker, LDP's Seigo Kitamura. In Tokushima-Kochi, LDP's Kojiro Takano resigned after confessing that he had assaulted his secretary.
• Both elections will feature one-on-one races between LDP-backed and CDP-backed candidates. Note that Nagasaki 4th District will be abolished in the next general election, with the city losing one seat under the reapportionment law passed last year.
• The LDP is approaching the elections in a precarious position, with the government's approval ratings sitting at all-time lows, according to opinion polls conducted for Sankei/FNN and Kyodo over the weekend.
• The Sankei/FNN survey showed that an overwhelming majority of respondents felt the impact of rising prices on their household finances, while most respondents in the Kyodo poll believed that the LDP still had links with the so-called Unification Church.