Japan PM Abe urges voters to help him end Parliamentary deadlock

Friday, 5 July 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters): Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, riding high in opinion polls on hopes he can revive a stagnant economy, urged voters on Thursday to back his ruling bloc in this month’s upper house election and end a six-year policy deadlock. Abe, back in power after his Liberal Democratic Party’s big win in a December election for the powerful lower house, is expected to lead his coalition to a hefty victory in the 21 July poll, resolving a “twisted parliament” where opposition parties control the upper house and are able to block bills. He officially kicked off the campaign on Thursday in Fukushima in Japan’s northeast, which was devastated by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 that triggered the Fukushima nuclear disaster. “Because of a twisted parliament, rebuilding has not progressed speedily, revitalisation of the economy has not progressed speedily,” Abe told a crowd of about 1,000 people near a train station in Fukushima city. Japan has suffered parliamentary gridlock ever since Abe led the LDP to a massive defeat in a 2007 upper house vote. He quit abruptly two months later due to the deadlock, plummeting support and ill health. The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) faced a similar headache after sweeping to power in 2009, only to lose a 2010 upper house election.

Public support for Abe and the LDP now far outstrips any rivals, buoyed by hopes that his recipe of hyper-easy monetary policy, fiscal spending and structural reform to boost growth can end Japan’s prolonged stagnation. An opinion poll by the Tokyo Shimbun published on Tuesday showed that 28% of respondents planned to vote for the LDP in districts where members are decided by proportional representation, dwarfing the 5.9% who intend to cast ballots for the DPJ. Voter support for the LDP in general contrasts with public antipathy towards nuclear power after the Fukushima crisis, the world’s worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl. A huge earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011, caused reactor meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co’s Fukushima plant, spewing radiation and forcing 160,000 people to flee, many never to return home. The LDP has pledged to seek the understanding of affected communities to restart offline reactors that are found to meet new safety standards that take effect on 8 July.