Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won comfortable re-election yesterday in a snap poll he had billed as a referendum on his economic policies after early success faded into a recession.
However, a low turnout from unenthusiastic voters beset by heavy snowfall across much of the nation could cast doubt on the endorsement he will claim for “Abenomics” — his signature plan to resurrect the country’s flaccid economy.
Media exit polls shortly after voting finished showed his ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP) and its junior partner, Komeito, had swept the ballot, with an unassailable two-thirds majority in the lower house of parliament that will give them the power to override the upper house.
Photo: AFP
TV Asahi said the pairing had won 333 of the 475 seats, while TBS put the figure at 328.
The online version of the Nikkei Shimbun newspaper said the LDP alone had won between 290 and 310 seats, and was “on course to secure the two thirds [317 seats] in the chamber with coalition partner Komeito.”
“This victory will enhance Abe’s political capital and allow him to tackle tough issues more comfortably,” University of Niigata Prefecture politics professor Yoshinobu Yamamoto said.
Abe, 60, was only halfway through his four-year term when he called the vote last month.
Abe has been criticized for not being bold enough in taking on the vested interests that are the real key to reversing nearly two decades of economic underperformance.
His fresh four-year mandate may stiffen his resolve for economic reforms and see off opposition from within his ill-disciplined LDP, a party given to bouts of regicide.
However, with only 34.98 percent of voters casting ballots by 6pm, there might be questions over whether this really is an endorsement, or just the default reaction of an electorate numbed by a lack of viable alternatives.
The turnout at 6pm was down 6.79 points from the 2012 election.
However, early voting — which was completed by Saturday — was up by almost a tenth from the previous poll, to approximately 13 million ballots, according to the government.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga dismissed quibbles over the low turnout.
“We don’t know which party will benefit from a low turnout rate, so we think we received [a mandate from voters],” he told TBS.
“The prime minister feels very strongly about pulling Japan out of deflation and revitalizing the Japanese economy,” he said.
Voters polled in the run up to the ballot were uninspired by the choices on offer.
Only two-thirds of respondents told Kyodo News last week that they were interested in the election.
Many Japanese have been left bitterly disappointed by three years under the Democratic Party of Japan from 2009, which saw three emasculated prime ministers and a series of policy flops.
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
‘COMMITTED TO DETERRENCE’: Washington would stand by its allies, but it can only help as much as countries help themselves, Raymond Greene said The US is committed to deterrence in the first island chain, but it should not bear the burden alone, as “freedom is not free,” American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said in a speech at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s “Strengthening Resilience: Defense as the Engine of Development” seminar in Taipei yesterday. In the speech, titled “Investing Together and a Secure and Prosperous Future,” Greene highlighted the contributions of US President Donald Trump’s administration to Taiwan’s defense efforts, including the establishment of supply chains for drones and autonomous systems, offers of security assistance and the expansion of
Japan’s strategic alliance with the US would collapse if Tokyo were to turn away from a conflict in Taiwan, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday, but distanced herself from previous comments that suggested a possible military response in such an event. Takaichi expressed her latest views on a nationally broadcast TV program late on Monday, where an opposition party leader criticized her for igniting tensions with China with the earlier remarks. Ties between Japan and China have sunk to the worst level in years after Takaichi said in November that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could bring about a Japanese
RSS