NHK, Monday 19 October: Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Yasutaka Nakasone met officials from Mahmoud Abbas’s political force and told them that postponing the Palestinian Legislative Council elections, set for November, was “extremely regrettable”. He asked for them to be held as soon as possible. We did not find the same quote on MOFA’s release list that day. We keep it on NHK’s account.

The legislative vote had been set for 28 November 2026. On 10 October the PLO Executive Committee approved a delay to September 2027, together with the presidential election. Wafa: the joint date is 11 September 2027. Japan Times: Abbas signed a decree and blamed Israeli “obstacles”. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar denied, on X, that Israel was blocking the process. Those are two versions. We have not picked one.

The last Palestinian legislative elections were in 2006. A 2021 round was also postponed. A joint statement by the foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, France and the United Kingdom, on 13 October, said they deeply regretted the decision and asked the Palestinian Authority to reverse it. They also asked Israel not to impede participation. That is not Japan’s line in that text.

On 7 October, still MOFA, Parliamentary Vice-Minister Ozora Koki received Ambassador Waleed Siam. Both sides were still talking about elections “next month”. The postponement came after. Nakasone, on 9 October, still with Siam, spoke of a two-state solution and Authority reform, with no delay in the communiqué.

Abbas spoke of security, of stabilization forces that did not arrive and of election-commission access to Gaza and East Jerusalem. That is Ramallah’s argument. Saar called it evasion. We have not turned either into a verdict.

Japan did not hold a poll. It did not recognize a result. It conveyed, according to NHK, a regret and a request for haste. The ballot remains, in these texts, in 2027, unless it moves again.

Image: Kasumigaseki, Tokyo, 2 June 2007, 663highland, CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia Commons. Not Monday’s meeting.

Sources consulted: Palestinian election delay “extremely regrettable”, Vice-Minister Nakasone conveys — NHK; PLO Executive Committee approves postponement of Palestinian elections to September 2027 — WAFA.