Landslide win shifts power to right

TOKYO — Japan’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party returned to power in a landslide election victory Sunday after three years in opposition, according to early returns, signalling a rightward shift in the government that could further heighten tensions with China, a key economic partner and rival.

The victory means that the hawkish former prime minister Shinzo Abe will get a second chance to lead the nation after a one-year stint in 2006-2007. He would be Japan’s seventh prime minister in six-and-a-half years.

In this first election since the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters, atomic energy ended up not being a major election issue even though polls show about 80 per cent of Japanese want to phase out nuclear power.

Public broadcaster NHK’s tally, showed that the LDP, which ruled Japan for most of the post-Second World War era until it was dumped in 2009, won 293 seats in the 480-seat lower house of parliament, with nearly all early results in. Official results were not expected until Monday morning. LDP, the most pro-nuclear power party, had 118 seats before the election. A new, staunchly anti-nuclear power party won just eight seats.

In the end, economic concerns won out, said Kazuhisa Kawakami, a political-science professor at Meiji Gakuin University.

“We need to prioritize the economy, especially since we are an island nation,” he said. “We’re not like Germany. We can’t just get energy from other countries in a pinch.”

The results were a sharp rebuke for Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s ruling Democratic Party of Japan, reflecting widespread unhappiness for its failure to keep campaign promises and get the stagnant economy going during its three years in power.

With Japan stuck in a twodecade slump and receding behind China as the region’s most important economic player, voters appeared ready to turn back to the LDP.