New Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan made a final plea for votes yesterday during the last day of campaigning for upper house elections seen as a referendum on his party’s 10 months in office.
Today’s vote will be the first national test at the ballot box for Kan since he took office last month, and for his center-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) after it swept to power last August under a different leader.
A total of 437 candidates across the nation as well as party leaders urged the public to support them. A total of 121 seats are up for grabs — half the members of the upper house.
“Eventually, today is the final day,” Kan told supporters in Fukui, central Japan, according to Jiji Press. “Our election [campaign] will continue to the last minute.”
Kan, a pragmatist who has vowed to restore Japan’s tattered finances, is seeking popular support to draw a line under a period of revolving-door politics that has seen five new prime ministers in four years.
The outcome of the poll will determine whether Japan emerges with a strong government that can tackle the country’s problems — including sluggish growth and a public debt mountain — and one that remains mired in coalition politics.
However, Kan, a 63-year-old former leftist activist and a fiscal hawk who has called for debate on a possible doubling of the consumption tax to 10 percent, faces a tough test.
Recent newspaper polls predict Kan’s coalition may fall short of holding on to its majority in the upper chamber, meaning he could face a deadlocked parliament unless he seeks new political allies.
Surveys show support for Kan and his Cabinet has plunged with voters put off by talk of a tax hike.
The Asahi Shimbun’s latest poll found Kan’s approval rating had nosedived to 39 percent from 60 percent a month ago, while the Yomiuri Shimbun reported his support at 45 percent, down from 64 percent.
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