Abe outlines goals after poll win
JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won a ruling party leadership vote yesterday, setting him on track to become Japan’s longest-serving premier.
If Abe, who quit after a troubled 2006-2007 term, stays in office up until November 2019, he will have exceeded the 2 886 days marked by Taro Katsura in the early 20th century.
“I want to tackle constitutional reform together with all of you,” Abe told his Liberal Democratic Party.
Abe, who surged back to power in 2012, defeated former defence minister Shigeru Ishiba in the LDP leadership election.
Abe won 553 votes to Ishiba’s 254. Of the 810 votes up for grabs from LDP parliamentarians and rank-andfile members, 807 were valid.
Abe said he would reshuffle his cabinet after returning from a trip to New York for a UN General Assembly gathering next week.
He declined to comment on posts, but the Nikkei business daily said his allies, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga and Finance Minister Taro Aso, would stay.
Abe also said he would compile an extra budget for relief from the natural disasters that have battered Japan in recent months.
Abe’s first immediate challenge, though, is an expected summit with US President Donald Trump next week.
They have forged close ties, but Trump has made clear he is unhappy about the bilateral trade imbalance.
Tokyo opposes a bilateral deal for fear it would boost pressure on sensitive sectors such as agriculture.
The Trump administration is also exploring raising tariffs on Japanese auto exports, a step Japanese officials say would do serious damage to the two economies and world trade.
Abe, whose policymakers must keep growth on track with a dwindling policy toolkit, said the central bank’s efforts to achieve its 2% inflation target, coupled with government steps to beat deflation, had succeeded in creating more jobs.
He added that he would strive to pave the way to end deflation during his new three-year term.
After years of heavy money printing, the Bank of Japan has little ammunition left. Japan’s huge public debt and rising social welfare costs for a fast-ageing population also leave Abe with little room to ramp up fiscal spending.
Abe has pledged to reform social security, making it easier for people to stay in the workforce and offset Japan’s shrinking population by raising the retirement age to above 65.
He has said he will implement a planned rise in the sales tax to 10% from 8% in October next year.
Revising the constitution’s Article 9 to clarify the military’s ambiguous status is one of Abe’s long-held goals.
The article, if taken literally, bans maintenance of armed forces, but has been interpreted to allow a military for self-defence. | Reuters | African News Agency (ANA)