Each week, here at Osaka.com, we bring you a selection of some of the top stories about Osaka making the local and national news here in Japan. Sometimes it’s serious, sometimes it’s funny, but it’s always direct to you, from Osaka.
Table of Contents
Election Sends Shockwaves Around Osaka
Last Sunday saw all of Japan head to the polls to vote in the Upper House Election. This is roughly comparable to the US Senate or the UK House of Lords. The Upper House doesn’t have the same policy making power as the main, Lower House, but it remains an influential body nonetheless. Particularly, it has to vote through new laws and regulations the Government may wish to adopt.
So, the huge losses incurred by the ruling LDP and their coalition partner Komeito will definitely shake things up. The LDP lost a number of votes to the far right Sanseito Party, who increased their number of seats from 1 to 14. In Osaka, the locally based Japan Innovation Party also lost votes to Sanseito, despite also being something of a right-wing, populist party.
At the time of writing, neither Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba nor JIP Leader and Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura have indicated they will resign. This is in spite of increasing pressure from some within their own parties to do so.
Rise of Far Right at Election Has Osaka Foreigners Concerned
Whilst 14 seats is nowhere near the level required to directly impact policy-making, Sanseito’s rise has many foreign residents in Osaka worried. The party has pledged to restrict foreigners entering Japan, remove eligibility for benefits from foreign residents (they still plan to charge them the same level of tax though), and a number of other “anti-globalist” policies.
The party is also overtly hostile to sexual minorities. Part of their election platform was a pledge to revoke the LGBT recognition legislation passed recently by Japan’s government.
Sanseito claims that such recognition of LGBT people “damages traditional Japanese Family Values.”
Perhaps most bizarre though is the reconciling of the party’s policy platform with the background of Sanseito’s leader. Sohei Kamiya is a former English teacher. So, one would think that, having interacted with foreigners every day for several years, he would have an understanding of why his populist policies won’t work, and will only sow division.
Kamiya is currently under investigation for using an anti-Korean racial slur during a campaign speech near Osaka last week.
Osaka Hate Speech Enabler Fails in Election
It wasn’t all bad news though for Osaka’s immigrant communities this week. LDP candidate Mio Sugita, who was found culpable for Human Rights violations by courts in both Osaka and Sapporo in recent years, lost her latest bid to get back into politics.
Sugita has a well-documented past record of discriminatory and racist comments about Koreans and the Japanese indigenous Ainu people. It was these comments, among others, that led to her being censured by both the Osaka and Sapporo district courts in 2023.
Not even the endorsement of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, against the advice of many within his own party, could save the hate speech peddler from a resounding defeat in her bid for election to the Upper House.
The loss may well spell the end of 58-year-old Sugita’s political career. Though with the aforementioned rise of right-wing populism in this election cycle, a comeback cannot be rules out.
And Finally…
The Osaka Expo 2025 got a new pavilion this past weekend. After lengthy delays, and more than 3 months after the rest of the event opened to the public, the Nepal Pavillion finally opened to the public on July 19th.
The reason for the big hold-up was a dispute over non-payment of construction costs to a Japanese company subcontracted by the Nepalese government to construct the pavilion. Stakeholders finally resolved the dispute last month. Construction resumed on June 16th.
Safety inspectors and Expo organizers finally gave the Nepal pavilion the green light last Friday night, after final checks were completed.
After a number of early teething problems, the Osaka Expo 2025 finally appears to have found its stride. Visitors continue to pile in every day, and the whole operation is running far smoother now than its somewhat chaotic opening back in April.
The event will continue until the end of its 6-month run on October 13th.
That’s all for now but be sure to check back again same time next week for another round of this week in Osaka!
