USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
    Home / World

    No easy road for Abe agenda

    By Linda Sieg in Tokyo | China Daily | Updated: 2013-07-23 07:32

    Low voter turnout and public opposition spell trouble for prime minister's mandate

    Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's landslide election victory at the weekend was anything but a ringing endorsement from voters - the vast majority of whom never voted for his coalition.

    Abe's mandate is much smaller than his ruling bloc's win in the upper house poll suggests, as only about one in four voters gave their support. Three-quarters of the electorate either did not vote at all or backed opposition parties.

    The opposition, though, was badly fractured, with the Communist Party emerging as one unlikely beneficiary of those who felt unable to back Abe's Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition or the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan.

    That means Abe - who returned to power in December promising to revive the stagnant economy, bolster Japan's defense posture and revise its pacifist constitution - may find that the only potential brake on his agenda comes from his dovish coalition partner and rivals inside his own LDP.

    "The opposition is currently totally ineffective," said Chuo University political science professor Steven Reed.

    "Neither the opposition nor public opinion is going to put a brake on his policies to any significant degree. The thing that will restrain him is the (coalition partner) New Komeito and the need to maintain unity in his own party."

    Perhaps reflecting a sense of fait accompli among voters, turnout was just over 52 percent, more than five percentage points less than the previous turnout for upper house elections.

    The LDP and its partner got just less than 50 percent of the total vote, and since only about half of eligible voters went to the polls, that means only one in four Japanese cast their ballots for the LDP-led bloc.

    Nonetheless, the LDP and New Komeito won 76 of the 121 seats up for grabs in the 242-member upper house. Together with the coalition's uncontested 59 seats, that gave it a comfortable majority, raising the chances that Abe can stay in office until the next general election, which need not be held until 2016.

    The Japanese leader's "Abenomics" recipe for reviving the economy has inspired a rare atmosphere of hope after decades of stagnation, bolstering support levels to around 60 percent.

    "I think that through this election, the LDP's new stance has received a mandate," Abe told a news conference on Monday.

    But media surveys show a disconnect between some of his key policies and the preferences of many voters.

    The Tokyo Shimbun metropolitan newspaper said 42.9 percent were opposed to Abe's proposal to lower the hurdle for revising the US-drafted, post-war constitution by changing the charter's Article 96, which requires a two-thirds majority of both houses of parliament before a public referendum can be held. That compared to 37.5 percent in favor of the change.

    Revising Article 96 would ease the path to revising the constitution's signature Article 9 to legitimize the military.

    Almost 55 percent of voters oppose restarting nuclear reactors that went offline after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, the newspaper said, although the LDP wants those units to get up and running if they are confirmed safe by a new regulator.

    Reuters

    (China Daily 07/23/2013 page10)

    Today's Top News

    Editor's picks

    Most Viewed

    Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
    License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

    Registration Number: 130349
    FOLLOW US
    亚洲Av无码国产情品久久| 免费 无码 国产在线观看观| 久久婷婷综合中文字幕| 亚洲Av无码乱码在线播放| 国产午夜精华无码网站| 中文字幕亚洲精品无码| 中文字幕久久精品无码| 精品久久久久久无码专区不卡| 中文字幕日本精品一区二区三区| 丰满岳乱妇在线观看中字无码 | 久久精品中文字幕无码绿巨人| 中文字幕免费观看| 亚洲精品午夜无码专区| 成年无码av片在线| 亚洲av日韩av高潮潮喷无码| 中文无码字慕在线观看| 中文字幕av高清有码| 中文字幕av无码专区第一页| 亚洲AV综合色区无码一区爱AV| 最近中文字幕大全中文字幕免费| 亚洲AV永久无码天堂影院| 久久亚洲AV无码精品色午夜 | 久久精品中文字幕有码| 日韩爆乳一区二区无码| 久久精品aⅴ无码中文字字幕重口 久久精品天天中文字幕人妻 | 办公室丝袜激情无码播放| 亚洲AV无码一区二区乱孑伦AS| 免费无码H肉动漫在线观看麻豆| 亚洲不卡无码av中文字幕| 最近中文字幕完整版免费高清| 久久婷婷综合中文字幕| 最近中文字幕高清中文字幕无 | 最近免费中文字幕MV在线视频3| 亚洲Av无码乱码在线播放| 人妻少妇看A偷人无码精品视频| HEYZO无码综合国产精品| 久久久久久无码国产精品中文字幕 | 亚洲国产精品无码久久青草| 亚洲中文字幕AV在天堂| 中文字幕一区二区人妻性色| 亚洲av中文无码乱人伦在线播放|