Official campaigning kicked off in Japan yesterday before a Dec. 14 election which Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has described as a referendum on his faltering “Abenomics” growth blitz.
“We are determined to win,” Abe told hundreds of voters at his initial stump speech in the northern port of Soma. “I promise to make Japan a country that can shine again at the center of the world.”
The town lies about 40km from Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, which was sent into meltdown by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Its fragile economy and aging populace are a stark reminder of the challenges Abe’s government faces as it struggles to reinvigorate Japan’s lethargic economy.
Photo: AFP
“There will be no revival of Japan without Fukushima’s reconstruction,” Abe said. “I firmly vow to speed up that reconstruction.”
More than 1,180 candidates nationwide are vying for 475 legislative seats in the powerful lower house of parliament, with Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party of Japan seen likely to cruise to a majority.
The 60-year-old still has two years left in his mandate, but he called the vote in the wake of his decision last month to delay a planned sales tax rise to 10 percent.
A levy rise in April — from 5 to 8 percent — slammed the brakes on growth and pushed the country into recession. The tax increase, aimed at tackling Japan’s eye-watering national debt and huge public welfare costs, dealt a serious blow to Abe’s plan to conquer years of growth-sapping deflation.
Ratings agency Moody’s on Monday downgraded Japan’s credit rating, citing “rising uncertainty” over the country’s debt situation and Abe’s faltering efforts to kickstart growth, but Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshige Seko brushed aside the downgrade, saying: “Our prime minister has clearly said he will firmly maintain the fiscal soundness target and map out concrete plans by summer next year to achieve the goal.”
While Abe’s once soaring popularity has taken a hit, there is little in the way of credible opposition. Observers say the poll is likely aimed at fending off internal party rivals before a leadership vote next year.
However, in the wake of several Cabinet minister spending scandals, and with much of the public opposed to his plan to restart nuclear power plants, the ruling party may lose some of the 295 seats it held before parliament was dissolved on Nov. 21.
Critics have derided the vote — which will cost taxpayers about US$500 million — as “an election without a cause,” but Abe has insisted the poll is necessary as a referendum on his controversial big-spending, easy-money policies.
“This is an election to judge the economic policies called Abenomics that we have been pushing,” Abe said.
For voters, the state of the economy, streamlining the size of Japan’s parliament and better child care programs to lure more women into the workforce are the top three issues, according to a survey published by the Asahi Shimbun on Monday.
About 34 percent of surveyed voters said they would vote for Abe’s party, followed by 13 percent for the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan.
The survey showed that the Cabinet maintained an approval rating of 40 percent.
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