Japanese PM wins votes, but not hearts

Tokyo, October 23 

Shinzo Abe has seized a “super- majority” in Japan’s parliament but failed to win the hearts and minds of voters suspicious of his nationalist instincts and unenthused by his drive to change the country’s pacifist constitution.

But the victory was far from a ringing endorsement of the 63-year-old veteran — whose popularity ratings have sagged in the face of scandal — and more a win by default after he trounced a disorganised opposition.

The election confirmed Abe’s “difficult relations with the Japanese people”, said Tobias Harris, Japanese politics expert at the Washington-based Teneo Intelligence consultancy. “There is a certain amount of appreciation for certain aspects of what he has done.” But, said Harris, “he is not loved.”

An exit poll by Kyodo News showed more than half of voters (51%) do not trust their prime minister, while a survey by the liberal Asahi newspaper found 47% of those questioned would like to see someone else in charge of Japan.

Only a few months ago, that was starting to look like a possibility. Abe was fighting for his political survival, embroiled in scandal and smarting from an embarrassing defeat in Tokyo municipal poll. — AFP