VOTERS HEAD TO POLLS NEXT MONTH
Ruling Democratic Party of Japan not expected to be re- elected
TOKYO — Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda dissolved the lower house of parliament Friday, paving the way for elections in which his ruling party will likely give way to a weak coalition government divided over how to solve Japan’s myriad problems.
Elections were set for Dec. 16. If Noda’s centre- left party loses, the economically sputtering country will get its seventh prime minister in seven years.
“Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!” shouted some of the about 480 legislators in the lower house, raising their arms each time in celebration, after the house speaker read a proclamation approved by Emperor Akihito, delivered wrapped in a cloth of imperial violet.
Fate of country at stake
The opposition Liberal Democratic Party, which led Japan for most of the post- Second World War era, is in the best position to take over. The timing of the election likely pre- empts moves by more conservative challengers, including former Tokyo Mayor Shintaro Ishihara, to build up electoral support.
Campaigning is set to begin Dec. 4, but leaders were already switching into campaign mode.
“What’s at stake in the upcoming elections is whether Japan’s future is going to move forward or backward,” Noda declared to fellow leaders of the Democratic Party of Japan. “It is going to be a crucial election to determine the fate of Japan.”
The Democratic Party of Japan, in power for three years, has grown unpopular thanks largely to its handling of the Fukushima nuclear crisis and especially its recent doubling of the sales tax.
Noda’s most likely successor is LDP head and former prime minister Shinzo Abe. He resigned as Japan’s leader in 2007 after a year in office, citing health problems he says are no longer an issue.
Coalition expected
The path to elections was laid suddenly Wednesday during a debate between Abe and Noda. Noda abruptly said he would dissolve parliament if the opposition would agree to key reforms, including a deficit financing bill and electoral reforms, and Abe jumped at the chance.
Polls indicate that the conservative, business- friendly LDP will win the most seats in the 480- seat lower house but will fall far short of a majority. That would force it to cobble together a coalition of parties with differing policies and priorities.
“It’s unlikely that the election will result in a clear mandate for anybody,” said Koichi Nakano, a political- science professor at Sophia University.
The election, and the divided government that will follow, complicate efforts to extricate Japan from its two- decade economic slump and effectively handle the cleanup from its 2011 nuclear disaster.
Still, many saw the prospect of change as positive: Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock index jumped 2.2 per cent Friday to close at 9,024.16.
Debt, China key issues
Japan’s leaders urgently need to devise strategies for coping with a soaring national debt. Japan must also decide whether it will follow through with plans to phase out nuclear power by 2040 — a move that many in the LDP oppose.
Perhaps most pressing is Japan’s festering territorial dispute with China, which has hammered exports to its biggest trading partner.
A staunch nationalist, Abe has railed against China in the dispute over a cluster of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea controlled by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan.
The DPJ ousted the LDP in a 2009 landslide, raising hopes for change.
But the DPJ’s failure to keep campaign promises and the government’s handling of the Fukushima nuclear crisis triggered by the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami have left many disillusioned.