Japanese PM vows action on economy
TOKYO — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s gamble on early elections paid off with a sweeping victory that also puts pressure on Abe to show results from an economic program that’s failed to excite much of the public.
With the lowest voter turnout in the postwar era, Abe’s coalition won more than two-thirds of the 475 seats in the Diet’s lower house, getting at least 325. Abe, 60, strengthened his mandate to lead the Liberal Democratic Party before his current term is up in September, and boosted chances of staying in office until 2018 — becoming the longest-serving prime minister in four decades.
While Abe’s reflation program has driven the benchmark Topix index of stocks up more than 70 per cent in his two years in office, he has yet to boost real incomes for Japan’s workers, and is now working to stoke a recovery from a mid2014 recession amid sagging manufacturer sentiment. Another goal is overcoming resistance to plans to reduce limits on the military.
“First of all I will tackle economic policies as the top priority,” Abe told public broadcaster NHK late Sunday. “At the same time I will prepare national security laws to protect the lives and happiness of the Japanese people.”
Sunday’s vote underscored the weakness of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, which has been riven by infighting and hit by a shortage of funds.
With many opposing Abe’s calling of the vote two years before one was due, turnout fell to 52 per cent, from 59 in 2012. The LDP won 291 seats, including the party’s endorsement of an independent candidate, and its coalition partner Komeito garnered 35, according to results published by NHK. This compares with 294 and 31 seats last time. Abe will not rejig his cabinet, NHK reported.