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Abe Appears to Win Landslide Victory in Parliamentary Elections Abe Appears to Win Landslide Victory in Parliamentary Elections
(about 1 hour later)
TOKYO — The governing party of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appeared headed toward a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections on Sunday that Mr. Abe described as a referendum on his economic-growth policies, but that failed to draw much enthusiasm from doubtful Japanese voters. TOKYO — The governing party of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was heading toward a landslide victory in parliamentary elections on Sunday that, despite a low turnout by voters, appear to have won Mr. Abe a chance to remain Japan’s leader for several more years.
With vote counting still underway, Mr. Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party had won 227 of the 475 seats up for grabs in the powerful Lower House, with 136 seats still undecided, according to Japan’s state-owned broadcaster NHK. Exit polls by the broadcaster showed the party on course to win as many as 306 seats, enough to keep its commanding majority in the chamber. Before the election, the Liberal Democrats held 295 seats. The question, political analysts say, is what Mr. Abe will do with his renewed mandate.
A smiling Mr. Abe appeared before television cameras at the Tokyo headquarters of his party, where he affixed red roses to the names of victorious Liberal Democratic candidates. Last month, Mr. Abe called the snap elections after growth data showed that Japan’s once-recovering economy had slipped back into recession. When the prime minister called the snap elections last month, he proclaimed them a referendum on his economic-revival policies, known as Abenomics. The policies appear to be losing steam recently after initially lifting the long-stagnant nation when Mr. Abe took office two years ago.
Mr. Abe said he had called the elections to gain a new mandate from voters to continue with his policies known as Abenomics, which so far have amounted to the central bank pumping cash into the economy. However, he has given only vague indications of what he will now do with that mandate, or what kind of growth-inducing policies he will pursue. During the elections, however, he remained vague on what he would do to breathe new life into Abenomics — policies that have so far amounted to little more than pressing the central bank to flood the economy with cash.
Despite the size of his party’s apparent victory on Sunday, political analysts said the win did not represent a strong show of support by Japanese voters. Rather, with opposition parties appearing too disorganized or unfocused to mount much of a challenge, voters appeared to feel they had no choice but to support the Liberal Democrats, analysts said. Economists have called on Mr. Abe to follow through with promised changes to open Japan’s still-protected markets to greater competition — such as by making it easier for young Japanese to create start-ups — and to more trade and foreign investment.
In fact, many Japanese appeared to decide not to vote at all. While the election authorities have yet to announce the size of Sunday’s turnout, pre-election polls predicted that a smaller percentage of eligible voters may have cast a ballot than in any election in postwar Japanese history. The promised changes, however, will require Mr. Abe to challenge many of the vested interest groups that supported him during this elections, like the powerful national farming cooperatives.
The largest opposition group, the Democratic Party of Japan, trailed far behind, with 39 seats, though NHK projections showed it likely to surpass its pre-election total of 62 seats. At the same time, political analysts have also been speculating on what the conservative Mr. Abe may attempt outside the economic realm, something about which he said even less during the elections. With his governing party now under no foreseeable legal obligation to call elections for another four years, analysts said, Mr. Abe may use that time to try to pass less-popular changes, such as expanding the role of his nation’s military or promoting more positive portrayals of Japan’s World War II-era history.
One of the few winners within the opposition was the tiny Communist Party of Japan, with 13 seats, already besting its pre-election total of eight seats. “Now that he was won such a big victory, Prime Minister Abe has given no clear message on what will he try to accomplish with it," said Naoto Nonaka, a political expert at Gakushuin University in Tokyo. “Despite the rhetoric about Abenomics, his main goal seemed to be securing his own political position.”
If so, Mr. Abe appears to have succeeded. While votes are still being counted, the prime minister’s Liberal Democratic Party has won 263 of the 475 seats up for grabs in the powerful Lower House, with 73 seats still undecided, according to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK.
Exit polls by the broadcaster showed the party on course to win as many as 306 seats, enough to keep its commanding majority in the chamber. Before the election, the Liberal Democrats held 295 seats.
After the size of the victory became apparent, a smiling Mr. Abe appeared before television cameras at the Tokyo headquarters of his party to affix red roses to the names of victorious Liberal Democratic candidates. He said the win was a call from voters to continue with his Abenomics policies to revitalize Japan, the world’s third-largest economy after the United States and China.
He also seemed to recognize that there was growing discontent with his policies, which have bolstered the stock market but have yet to increase the real incomes of working Japanese.
“Abenomics is still unfinished,” Mr. Abe said on live television. “We have ended the dark stagnation of two or three years ago, but there are still many people who haven’t felt the benefits yet. We need to make sure that the benefits reach them.”
Indeed, despite the size of the apparent victory on Sunday, analysts like Mr. Nonaka said the results did not represent an enthusiastic embrace of Mr. Abe and his party by voters. Rather, they said, the biggest reason for the victory may have been the fact that opposition parties remain in disarray after their last crushing defeat at the polls, two years ago.
In street interviews, Japanese voters said that with the opposition offering no appealing alternatives, they felt no choice but to support the Liberal Democrats. In Chofu, a suburb of Tokyo, voters said that they had not felt any benefits from Abenomics, but said that they were still better than the policies of the opposition Democratic Party, which was widely seen here as mismanaging the country during a stint in power a few years ago.
“Abenomics is not a key issue for me, but there are no other parties who deserve my vote,” said Masashi Shibata, 38, a public employee who said he had voted for the Liberal Democrats. “The Liberal Democratic Party is still better than the Democratic Party.”
“I did not have any alternatives,” said Yuko Tanino, a 45-year-old shop worker. “The Liberal Democratic Party was the only option.”
In fact, many Japanese appeared to decide not to vote at all. Early tallies showed that 52.7 percent of eligible Japanese cast votes on Sunday, the lowest turnout in postwar Japanese history.
Experts said the low turnout benefited the well-organized Liberal Democrats and their still formidable rural vote-gathering machines. Early votes tallies showed the largest opposition group, the Democratic Party, trailing far behind, with 60 seats, on course to slightly surpass its pre-election total, 62 seats.
One of the few winners in the opposition was the tiny Communist Party of Japan, which appeared to win at least 17 seats, besting its pre-election total, eight seats. The Communists seemed to draw many of the protest votes of disgruntled voters, analysts said.