Abe wins poll, but not hearts
JAPAN: PRIME MINISTER RULES IN PARLIAMENT, BUT LEAVES THE VOTERS COLD
He wants to change the constitution to build a full-fledged army. Tokyo
Shinzo Abe has seized a “super-majority” in Japan’s parliament but failed to win the hearts and minds of voters suspicious of his nationalist instincts and unenthused by his drive to change the country’s pacifist constitution.
Abe now has the parliamentary numbers to start a process that would bolster the role of the military – an ambition he has long cherished.
But the victory was far from a ringing endorsement of the 63-year-old veteran, whose popularity ratings have sagged in the face of scandal. It was more a win by default after he trounced a disorganised opposition.
The election confirmed Abe’s “difficult relations with the Japanese people”, said Tobias Harris, Japanese politics expert.
“There is a certain amount of appreciation for what he has done.” But, said Harris, “he is not loved”.
An exit poll by Kyodo News showed more than half of voters (51%) do not trust their prime minister, while a survey by the liberal Asahi newspaper found 47% of those questioned would like to see someone else in charge of Japan.
Only a few months ago, that was starting to look like a possibility.
Abe was fighting for his political survival, smarting from an embarrassing defeat in Tokyo municipal elections.
When he suddenly announced snap polls last month, critics saw it as an opportunistic manoeuvre to take advantage of a weak opposition and divert attention from his own woes, including allegations of favouritism to a friend in a business deal – which the premier strongly denies.
The media-savvy and charismatic Governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, unveiled a new party in a blaze of publicity.
The creation of her Party of Hope sparked an unprecedented transformation in the lethargic world of Japanese politics.
The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) effectively disbanded as scores of lawmakers jumped on Koike’s bandwagon.
Meanwhile, left-leaning DP members banded together to form a new progressive party, the Constitutional Democrats. But neither party could organise a campaign in the short time available and both fizzled out.
It could be 10 years before there is an opposition capable of forming a government, said Harris.
Having secured a two-thirds majority in the lower house, Abe now has effective control of the executive and the legislature.
He will likely use the victory to start the lengthy process of amending the constitution, a personal passion for Abe.
The premier wants to change the US-imposed document so Japan can formally transform its well-equipped and well-trained Self Defence Forces into a fullfledged army.
The trouble for Abe is many Japanese feel deep affection for the constitution’s peace provisions, which they believe have served them well over the last seven decades. –