Japanese public misses Ishiba Shigeru: A True Politician

The Japanese media "Mainichi Shimbun" exclusively revealed the election spending of each candidate in the 2024 Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) presidential election. Among them, former Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru spent only 420,000 yen throughout the entire campaign, while current candidate Takahashi Asako spent as much as 45.84 million yen on her presidential campaign. This huge difference has led many Japanese netizens to switch their support, lamenting that Ishiba is the real politician.

The comparison chart of Ishiba's campaign expenses and others is being widely shared on social media, with a total of 3,000 shares so far. Up to now, related tweets have accumulated more than 13,000 likes, and the number of views has directly exceeded 1.49 million.

Initially, Ishiba's low-budget campaign was misunderstood by the outside world as "lack of desire to campaign." However, after the LDP exposed several black money scandals, this campaign expense comparison chart made the Japanese people re-evaluate Ishiba. A Japanese netizen admitted: Although Ishiba comes from a "money-power faction," he has truly broken away from money politics.

Many supporters praised Ishiba as a "politician with backbone," possessing a rare political nobility. One netizen said: "If you want him to spend more on modern-style campaigning, then he wouldn't be Ishiba."

Some netizens also said: In the past, Ishiba has always been smeared by online armies, mainly because he does not belong to a typical faction within the LDP, and dares to cut ties with corrupt legislators, which has caused dissatisfaction among the old forces, ultimately leading to his downfall.

In addition, many people are still shocked by the huge difference in expenses. They question the relationship between politics and funds behind the high campaign expenditures. One netizen said: Takahashi will probably be controlled by her donors in the future.

Original article: www.toutiao.com/article/1850206576972812/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.