In my July 22 column (“The LDP’s ‘Death and Dying’”), I compared the situation immediately after the Upper House election to the five stages reported by American psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her book On Death and Dying, which describes how terminally ill patients proceed through (1) denial, (2) anger, (3) bargaining, (4) depression, and (5) acceptance.
In that analogy, after “denial” and “anger” comes the stage of “bargaining,” when one realizes that denial is no longer possible and tries to postpone death.
If the LDP finds itself unable to govern effectively, it may enter such a bargaining phase by seriously considering expanding its coalition.
After that, knowing the disease cannot be cured, one falls into despair and depression, before finally reaching acceptance.
The LDP is scheduled to release its official postmortem of the Upper House election defeat on September 2.
A draft report presented at the August 29 meeting of the review committee reportedly pointed to
(1) the failure of the cash handouts promised as part of measures to offset rising prices to gain voter support—especially compared to the opposition’s pledge of a consumption tax cut—alongside
(2) scandals over “money and politics,” and
(3) a gaffe referring to the Noto earthquake as “fortunate.”
However, Kyodo reported that “there was dissent that the draft avoided touching upon the responsibility of Prime Minister (and party president) Shigeru Ishiba and other party executives,” and as a result, the committee decided not to finalize the report at that meeting.
