Abe has shot at extended PM run and planned charter reform
TOKYO: Already rare among Group of Seven leaders for the stability of his reign, Shinzo Abe will have a shot at becoming Japan’s longest- serving prime minister after his party changes a rule allowing him to serve a third consecutive three-year term.
That would give Abe, whose resignation in 2007 after an earlier stint started a spate of revolvingdoor premiers, a chance to achieve his goal of revising the US-drafted, post-war constitution, which has never once been amended.
Revising the constitution’s pacifist Article 9 to loosen limits on the military remains a divisive issue domestically, but China’s rising regional influence has given conservatives in favour of the change fresh ammunition.
“Constitutional revision will be a major theme,” former education minister Hakubun Shimomura, a close Abe ally, told Reuters in an interview, referring to a possible third term.
Abe would also focus on reviving an economy faced with deep-rooted problems of an ageing, shrinking population, he said.
The LDP is set on Sunday to formalise a rule change to allow party presidents a third consecutive three-year term, clearing the way for Abe to run again after his current tenure as party chief ends in September 2018.
If the LDP stays in power, that would make it highly likely Abe remains premier. But Japan must hold its next general election by late 2018 and an upper house poll must be held the following year.
So even after the LDP changes its rules, nothing was for sure, Shimomura said.
“Just because he can extend his term as LDP president doesn’t automatically mean he can extend his stay as prime minister,” he said.
Japan has avoided the sort of populist surge that helped Donald Trump win the US presidency, and is boosting right-wing parties in Europe.
That is partly because Abe’s return to office in 2012 has given his ultra- conservative backers a voice in the corridors of power.
Popularity ratings at a robust 60 percent, buoyed by a chummy summit with Trump last month, a lack of viable rivals in his party and single- digit support for the main opposition Democratic Party, would appear to mean Abe is well-placed for a third LDP presidential term.
“It’s never over ‘ til the fat lady sings, but it’s his for the taking,” said Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University’s Japan Campus.
“He wants to be there for the Olympics,” he said, referring to the 2020 summer games in Tokyo.
Recent questions in parliament about a sweetheart land deal benefiting a private school with a nationalist agenda and links to Abe’s wife have, however, been a reminder that Abe may be vulnerable, although he has denied any wrongdoing.
“Abe has been considered as the most stable government among major countries. So this is really worrying,” said a senior currency trader, who declined to be identified. — Reuters