Hope, defend, honest: how Japanese are being wooed with election campaign buzzwords
The campaign for the October 22 election kicks off formally on Tuesday
With Japan’s general election less than two weeks away, the eight political parties jostling for seats have unveiled slogans that they believe encapsulate their philosophies and can help propel them to victory.
Some parties have gone for the generic appeal to all, while others preferred to focus on a single issue that was close to their political hearts, apparently in the hope that voters shared that very focused interest.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party have gone with a call to arms, claiming they were “Resolutely defending this country”.
“They are clearly talking about North Korea and the threat that it poses, but I also see this as implying the threat that China is and will be,” said Stephen Nagy, a senior associate professor of international relations at Tokyo’s International Christian University.
“I think Abe’s administration has been pretty stable on North Korea, he is tight on security issues with President Trump and I think that plays well to a large audience here. He has pretty good political capital on this issue and he is using it widely.”
