Lawmakers from the largest opposition party went on the attack against Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday, demanding the new leader explain why his predecessors’ coronavirus responses and economic policies failed, while at the same time offering counterproposals of their own to differentiate themselves ahead of a general election.
In the first debate at the national legislature, Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP) leader Yukio Edano rebuked Japan’s “complete failure” over its delay in imposing entry restrictions on people arriving from mainland China in the early stage of the pandemic. Criticizing the government’s move to shorten the self-isolation period at government-designated facilities to either three or six days, Edano proposed a 10-day stay and three rounds of PCR testing as an alternative.
Edano also railed at previous administrations’ shortcomings in beefing up the nation’s medical resources, expanding PCR testing and facilitating a quick vaccine rollout. The opposition party leader criticized Kishida’s plan to strengthen the chain of command in the realm of crisis management as “devoid of specifics.”