Abe targets N. Korea after big win

Victory to allow Japanese PM to beef up military to deal firmly with Pyongyang

TOKYO: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stormed to a landslide “super-majority” in snap Japanese elections, near complete projections showed, with the hardline nationalist immediately pledging to “deal firmly” with North Korea.

Abe’s conservative coalition is on track to win at least 312 seats with only a handful left to call, according to public broadcaster NHK, giving him a coveted two-thirds majority in the lower house of parliament.

That will allow him to pursue his cherished goal of proposing changes to the country’s pacifist constitu- tion to beef up the status of the military, which is effectively restricted to self-defence.

Abe, 63, is now on course to become Japan’s longest-serving premier, winning a fresh term at the helm of the world’s third biggest economy and key US regional ally.

The hawkish prime minister said the crushing election victory had hardened his resolve to deal with the crisis in North Korea, which has threatened to “sink” Japan into the sea and fired two missiles over its northern islands.

“As I promised in the election, my imminent task is to firmly deal with North Korea. For that, strong diplomacy is required,” stressed Abe, who has courted both US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

However, while local media acknowledged what was described as a “landslide” victory, many chalked up Abe’s win to a weak and ineffective opposition and urged caution.

“The voters didn’t think the opposition parties were capable of running a government... they chose Prime Minister Abe, who is at least better, even if they had some concerns about the ruling coalition,” said the Nikkei daily.

The Asahi newspaper said: “The Abe brand is not as strong as it was before. There are some signs that voters are seeking a change in the situation whereby Abe is the only decent option.

“Winning an election in a democracy doesn’t give the winner carteblanche and he would be overconfident if he thought people were satisfied with the past five years of government management.”

According to an exit poll by Kyodo News on Sunday, 51% of voters said they do not trust Abe, with 44% saying they did.

Turnout was expected to be only a fraction higher than the all-time low set in the 2014 election and was boosted largely by people voting early to avoid a typhoon, which smashed into Japan on election day.

The opposition Party of Hope, formed only weeks before the election by the popular Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, suffered a drubbing. It won just 49 seats according to the NHK projections. — AFP