Japanese media calls for stronger government to handle China, South Korea rows

Japan needs a strong government to handle rows with China and South Korea as the world is losing patience with the county’s revolving door politics, a major daily said on Sunday ahead of next month’s polls.

After six premiers in as many years, local media are hoping for the emergence of a stable government after Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda called snap elections for December 16 which are widely expected to end his centre-left party’s three years in power.

The influential Asahi Shimbun said such instability would not help Japan resolve diplomatic problems such as its territorial rows with China, South Korea and Russia.

The Asahi commented that the rest of the world was not following the election so “fervently” as it did in 2009 when the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) toppled the long-ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party.

“It may possibly be because they think that the next government will be unstable with yet another short-lived prime minister,” the Asahi’s commentary said.

“Even in China, it is often heard said recently: ‘It is impossible to pursue serious diplomacy with Japan’.”

Tokyo and Beijing are locked in a row over the sovereignty of an archipelago in the East China Sea, while Japan and South Korea are in dispute over who owns a pair of islands in waters between the two countries.