Voters in Japan Hand Prime Minister Abe Vote of Confidence
By: Alex LaRosa
Staff Writer
On December 15th, news broke from Japan, declaring a winner in the nation’s election, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s political allies held control of the lower house of parliament. His party, the Liberal Democratic Party, and their allies in the Komeito party effectively dominated the election, keeping a supermajority with 317 of 475 seats secured. This election was widely viewed as a referendum on whether Prime Minister Abe’s economic policies, known as “Abenomics,” were working.
The LDP’s victory in this election shows that for the most part, the Japanese electorate showed confidence in Abenomics, even as critics pointed out reasons to believe otherwise. For one, the turnout of the election was a record low, and the main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, actually gained 11 seats of parliament (“Japanese Election: Voters Back Shinzo Abe”). Nonetheless, while some would suggest that the vote was really a non-confidence vote against the DPJ, Prime Minister Abe and his supporters see this as a major victory.
The economy was obviously the biggest issue in question in this election. Prime Minster Abe’s policies garnered plenty of controversy, as Japan is still effectively in the Great Recession that began in 2008 with the stock market crashes around the world. Despite this, Prime Minister Abe has suggested that Japan’s consumption tax should be increased from 5% to 8% by the year 2017. Abe has publicly mentioned that this would undermine efforts to rebuild the struggling Japanese economy, but believes it necessary to fund his government.
Another key issue was that of nuclear power. In this country, Japan since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant meltdown of 2011, the populace has generally turned away from nuclear power as an answer to energy needs. However, Prime Minister Abe has proclaimed that he will eventually turn all Japan’s nuclear power plants back on, to much fear and criticism.
Furthermore, Abe’s foreign policy was under fire, but presumably has passed the test in the minds of voters. His LDP party—which, despite its name, is a fairly conservative political party—has supported expanding Japan’s military and reinterpreting the article of its constitution that disallows Japan to ever go to war again. Under the new interpretation, Japan could expand their military and, while they would focus on self-defense first and foremost, could potentially get more involved in the global fight against terrorism. Some critics, however, have bashed this idea and labeled it as a return to the nation’s pre-World War II belligerence. However, Abe suggested that this election would show whether the people supported him or not in his foreign policy, and based on the results, they did (“Japan Decides: Key Issues”).
Prime Minister Abe and the LDP were not the only ones pleased with the outcome of this election. Over in the United States, President Barack Obama’s White House sent out a press release congratulating the LDP on their victory. In part, the release read, “The U.S.-Japan alliance is the cornerstone of peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific. We appreciate Prime Minister Abe’s strong leadership on a wide range of regional and global issues” (“Japanese Election Results 2014”).
All things considered, while Abenomics has been in the hot seat for a while now, it appears that the voters of Japan have placed their collective stamp of approval on Abe’s policies. While some fear that Japan will be pushed far to the political right by Abe and his allies, for the time being, the LDP and its friends in parliament will have four more years in power. If they cannot turn this economic decline around, then in four years, or whenever parliament is dissolved again, it is unlikely that Japan’s voters will show as much confidence in Abenomics like they did this time around. For now, however, Japan will trust in Abenomics, full speed ahead, to bring back their nation’s prosperity of old.
Works Cited
Japan election: Voters back Shinzo Abe as PM wins new term. 14 December 2014. 17 December 2014 <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30444230>.
Rabouin, Dion. Japanese Election Results 2014: Officially A Huge Win For Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party. 14 December 2014. 17 December 2014 <http://www.ibtimes.com/japanese-election-results-2014-officially-huge-win-shinzo-abes-liberal-democratic-1755570>.
Salvador, Iain. Japan Decides: Key issues that will dominate the 2014 election. 14 December 2014. 17 December 2014 <http://thetypewriter.org/japan-decides-key-issues-that-will-dominate-the-2014-election/>.