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Reuters

Japanese voters, puzzled as to why Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is calling an election now and unimpressed by opposition alternatives, may shun a December 14 election in record numbers.
That could help Abe's ruling coalition win the poll for parliament's lower house, but also erode any claim of a new, strong mandate for his economic revival plan.
A survey by the mass circulation Yomiuri daily published on Sunday showed 65 per cent of voters were interested in the election, down 15 points from the 2012 poll that brought Abe back to power - with record low turnout of about 59 per cent.
With his coalition holding two-thirds of the seats in the lower house and two years left in lawmakers' terms, many voters are perplexed.
"I don't understand why they are calling an election," said Hiromi Tanaka, a music teacher. Tanaka said she planned to vote but thought many who, like her, were without regular jobs would not. "They don't think it has anything to do with them."
It hasn't always been this way.
Just shy of a decade ago, Japan's electorate eagerly turned out to hand then-premier Junichiro Koizumi a huge mandate for a reform agenda that was supposed to reboot the stagnant economy.
Four years later in 2009, they even more enthusiastically gave the novice Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) a chance to see if its pledges to put more cash in consumers' hands would work.
Then, in 2012, voters turned back, but somewhat wearily if the record low turnout is any guide, to Abe's conservative LDP, hoping the new leader would rev up the economy with his recipe of hyper-easy monetary policy, spending and structural reform.
Now, Abe is asking for a fresh show of confidence in his struggling "Abenomics" in hopes he can cement his grip on power before his soggy ratings slip further.
The 60-year-old prime minister insists Abenomics is the "only path" to pry growth out of Japan's shrinking, fast-ageing population and indeed, Tokyo share prices have surged and big corporations' profits ballooned since the LDP returned to power.
But real wages have not kept up with the inflation generated by a massive Bank of Japan stimulus programme and an initial sales tax rise to 8 per cent from April, part of a plan to curb Japan's public debt. Abe said last week he would postpone for 18 months plans to raise the tax to 10 per cent from next October.
The main opposition DPJ says its "bottom up" strategy focusing on the middle class would do better. But even the party's No. 2 leader, Yukio Edano, admits the party hasn't fully regained voter confidence after a bashing in the 2012 election.
Given doubts about Abenomics after the economy slipped into recession in the second quarter, and disillusionment with the opposition, voters may stay home in record numbers.
Surveys show those intending to vote for the LDP far surpass those who will opt for the opposition, but many are undecided.
A survey by the Nikkei business daily published yesterday showed 35 per cent planned to vote for the LDP in proportional representation districts compared to 9 per cent for the DPJ. But 45 per cent were undecided.
Some, figuring the LDP-led coalition will win a majority anyway, could register protest votes, leaving Abe in power, but weakened.
 


	Abe's defence policy under fire
Campaigners who support Japan's pacifist constitution yesterday criticised the defence policy of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ahead of the December 14 general election.
"The Cabinet decision in July to allow Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defence means to enable this country to wage wars," said Hisae Sawachi, a renowned writer and one of the nine founders of the Article 9 Association. "And it has ignored the spirit of the war-renouncing Article 9 and of the Constitution itself."
She spoke at a public meeting at Tokyo's Hibiya Public Hall, which drew 2,500 people. "Ten years have passed since we founded the Article 9 Association, but the reality has neutralised the Constitution during this period. But I hope we can elect those who oppose the use of force by the Self-Defence Forces in the upcoming election."
Abe dissolved the House of Representatives last week to call a snap election as a referendum for his Abenomics economic policy.
Kyodo


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Shinzo Abe

Puzzled voters will shun Japanese election: experts

Banri Kaieda, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, speaks at a meeting of senior party officials at the DPJ headquarters in Tokyo. The party presented its platform for the December 14 House of Representatives election aiming to turn around Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic policies. Photo: Kyodo

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Asia

PM wants to boost confidence in Abenomics, but with public unimpressed he may return weaker


Japanese voters, puzzled as to why Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is calling an election now and unimpressed by opposition alternatives, may shun a December 14 election in record numbers.


Abenomics

Puzzled voters will shun Japanese election: experts

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}PM wants to boost confidence in Abenomics, but with public unimpressed he may return weaker

PM wants to boost confidence in Abenomics, but with public unimpressed he may return weaker