PM Abe on track for big win

Tokyo, October 22

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling bloc was headed for a big win in Sunday’s election, bolstering his chance of becoming the nation’s longest serving premier and reenergising his push to revise the pacifist constitution.

Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party-led (LDP) coalition was set to win 311 seats, keeping its two-thirds “super majority” in the 465-member lower house, an exit poll by TBS television showed.

Public broadcaster NHK also said the ruling bloc was closing in on a two-thirds majority, although some other broadcasters had the ruling bloc slightly below the two-thirds mark.

A hefty win raises the likelihood that Abe, who took office in December 2012, will have a third three-year term as LDP leader next September and go on to become Japan’s longest-serving premier. It also means his “Abenomics” growth strategy centred on the hyper-easy monetary policy will likely continue. Final official results from the election are expected early on Monday.

The US-drafted constitution’s Article 9, if taken literally, bans the maintenance of armed forces. But Japanese governments have interpreted it to allow a military exclusively for self-defence.

Backers of Abe’s proposal to clarify the military’s ambiguous status say it would codify the status quo. Critics fear it would allow an expanded role overseas for the military.

Abe said he would not stick to a target he had floated of making the changes by 2020. “First, I want to deepen debate and have as many people as possible agree,” he told a TV broadcaster. “We should put priority on that.” 

The LDP’s junior partner, the Komeito, is cautious about changing the constitution, drawn up after Japan’s loss in World War Two. Several opposition parties favour changes, but don’t necessarily agree on details.

Amendments must be approved by two-thirds of each chamber of parliament and then by a majority in a public referendum. Abe had said he needed a new mandate to tackle a “national crisis” from North Korea’s missile and nuclear threats and a fast-aging population, and to approve his idea of diverting revenue from a planned sales tax hike to education and child care from public debt repayment.

Koike did not run for a lower house seat herself - she was in Paris for a climate change event on Sunday - and failed to say whom her party would back for prime minister. “We had sought to put policies first. But we ended up with a very tough outcome, so I deeply apologise for that,” Koike said. — Reuters

Japanese brave roaring typhoon to cast their vote

A typhoon barrelled towards Japan on Sunday, leaving two dead as millions struggled to cast their vote. Authorities advised thousands living in coastal areas to evacuate to shelters as Typhoon Lan dumped torrential rain over much of the country

Typhoon Lan, classified as an intense Category 4 storm by the Tropical Storm Risk monitoring site, was south of Japan and moving northeast at 40 kph on Sunday afternoon. It is set to make landfall on Japan’s main island of Honshu early on Monday

Millions of Japanese braved torrential rain and driving winds to vote with many heeding warnings to cast their ballots early. More than 70,000 households in various parts of Japan were advised to evacuate, with more than 5,000 ordered to do so

Voting was delayed in Kochi in western Japan when landslides blocked a road, while several polling stations closed earlier than scheduled. Ferries to a remote island were cancelled due to high waves, forcing poll officials to suspend the counting of votes

Abe’s Gamble pays off

Shinzo Abe’s snap poll gamble had seemed risky - some early forecasts saw the LDP losing a significant chunk of seats - after Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, often floated as a possible first Japanese female premier, launched her conservative Party of Hope

That party absorbed a big chunk of the failed main opposition Democratic Party, which abruptly decided to run no candidates of its own. But voter enthusiasm soon waned despite its calls for popular policies such as an exit from nuclear power and a freeze on the planned sales tax rise