Shinzo Abe: Economy is Japan's priority

Japan's disillusioned voters on Sunday gave Shinzo Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party a handsome majority to pursue whatever policy they wish unhindered by opposition sniping or spoiling in parliament.

But if Abe uses his time and energy, as he has suggested he might, to get tough with China over disputed uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, he risks opening old war wounds with their deep scars and could seriously damage Asia and the world, as well as Japan itself.

When he takes over tomorrow Abe's priority should be the economy. He has already got a plan - Abenomics - it has been called. But there is nothing really new about it, a mixture of a massive public works and construction spending programmes along with pressure on the Bank of Japan to vigorously pursue monetary easing as a way out of the deflation and recession into which Japan has fallen.

Such a policy would be reckless, a policy "to print and spend", as Robert Feldman of Morgan Stanley called it. It would be a gamble that would do nothing for Japan's budget deficit or the country's mounting debts, already 240 per cent of gross domestic product, or twice the level they do in Greece.

Japan does need to spend money on infrastructure, but it is on the tedious but important tasks of checking and repairing ageing tunnels, roads and bridges that are bearing the strain of heavier traffic than they were built to withstand.

Politicians keen to show they are doing something prefer glamorous new projects such as new express railway lines to remote parts of the country, swanky town halls in the countryside and bridges connecting rural islands.

I remember many sessions at the Ministry of Finance in the early 1990s when the officials rolled out massive public spending on a series of supplementary budgets to boost the then faltering economy.