Abe cabinet's support rate dips to 48% from Feb: poll

As long as people have money to spend, and feel secure, and don't see any imminent danger, these numbers will not fluctuate much.

This article however could have had a different title, and it would have given a very different first impression;

Abe's disapproval rate increased over 2% in February's poll!

Statistics and poll data can be used to create whatever illusion one wants!

Slowly and steady, by the end of the year, Japanese might actually take the matter seriously and throw (read: vote) out that militaristic piece of human. They really have more important things to do than riding on an infantile glory of the past. There is a future they have not secured yet.

 nearly 70 percent of respondents seeing no need for passage of a labor reform draft bill

Seriously? Japan is in dire need of labor reform.

I don't believe Japan needs Labor reform. They need to ensure employers follow the Labor Standard laws. Employees have to stand up for their themselves and say enough is enough.

Well if the Labour reform says "the scum now unconditionally goes to jail in case of violating the labour laws and worker rights", it will make a change. A big one.

But ABEnomics is working so well. :-/

wow - there are some milquetoast posts in here... more power to Abe.

since1981 - I don't believe Japan needs Labor reform. They need to ensure employers follow the Labor Standard laws. Employees have to stand up for their themselves and say enough is enough

Yes exactly, which will only come from labor reform. The current labor laws are vague and open to interpretation and abuse by employers. Over 60% of the workforce Arron short-term contracts with yearly reviews creating excessive stress on workers to keep their jobs. These people do not take annual leave and are first to the office and last to leave to keep their boss’ apples polished for contract renewal. These limited contracts last for 3-5 years, at the end of which, employees are ‘supposed to’ become full time regular employees. However, over 50% of these employees are terminated and the cycle starts again.

Japan has a long history of abusing resources. Japan’s greatest resource is its workforce. It should be no surprise this resource is also abused.

Well we have recently been made aware how false data is used as an excuse for in acting laws that statisticly are not needed so I will take this approval rating as the same faulted data the government runs on.

Whoever becomes a leader of a country, we have to build and protect our life by ourselves. These people are

Cricky! Dam right!

I take these numbers with a pound of salt - they stink of propaganda as usual.

If the numbers are accurate and truly reflective of J-society, then the Japanese deserve everything they get, including the sad conditions that almost everyone is forced to work under, a looming war that could have been avoided, inflation, waning rights to privacy and rights in general.

Let's be honest, (domestically) the situation now looks very much like the days leading up to the war. Spade a spade.

Yeah am also not seeing the major need for labor reform in overtime work. Most contractors and temp staff stay longer doing nothing to get paid more anyway

If the numbers are accurate and truly reflective of J-society, then the Japanese deserve everything they get

It’s not a JT story until someone blames the victims.

Interesting. Who did they ask? These polls are useless as they only ask about a thousand people. You have more chance of getting a realistic answer by throwing a coin in the air.

It’s not a JT story until someone blames the victims.

The people have spoken, this is what they voted for. Hard to call them victims when it's self-inflicted and perpetuated.

The people have spoken, this is what they voted for. Hard to call them victims when it's self-inflicted and perpetuated.

Oh yeah, 100% victim's fault. Sorry, I guess you didn't realize I was supporting you in pointing out it's their fault for being victims.

Oh yeah, 100% victim's fault. Sorry, I guess you didn't realize I was supporting you in pointing out it's their fault for being victims. Evil, evil people.

For the few that have the sense to vote against LDP, and to push back on the system that is robbing them - sure I feel a lot of sympathy for them as victims. But I'm talking about the majority of J-citizens who continually uphold the status-quo at every chance (i.e. elections). The majority of people here are applying no back-pressure. It's just a fact.

and the streamlining of the peoples attention away from LDP scandals ( Morimoto, Labor Reform, ...)

will start in 3...2...1

... with the some more of the good-old Northkorean Rocket / lets punch the fat boy - News. Worked pretty well last time, should be good for another scandal or two.

Abe, however, insisted another component of the envisioned bill, exempting skilled professional workers with high wages from work-hour regulations, should be kept.

The so-called white collar overtime exemption system has been sought by business lobbies, while opposition parties and labor unions criticize the system, saying it will lead to "zero overtime pay."

And that folks is just a tiny glimpse of why this form of democracy is completely flawed! When a business lobby with cash can outweigh the majority of the populations wishes then it is not really a democracy. If the majority of people simply refused to pay taxes until their vote actually counted then governments, who apparently only understand the notion “when money talks” might actually sit up and listen. If business lobbies want to run the country how they see fit, they should be paying everyone’s taxes and leave us all tax free! However the government wants to have its cake and apparently eat it too!

Money doesn't lie. GDP is down, price is up, people is poor, war is coming.

Chinese finally decided to abandon two term limit for their president. If Abe's can be a PM three times with much worse Job performance, why should they limit their own high performance president to two terms ?

The people have spoken, this is what they voted for. Hard to call them victims when it's self-inflicted and perpetuated.

Funny thing is that only a tiny, less than 1% fraction of the population actually voted for Abe.

This country needs a direct election for PM, but Abe and the LDP would never go for it, as it exposes them to too many potential problems trying to convince the entire nation that they are working for all the people.

Abe only need keep his faction in Yamauchi and the LDP folks happy. The rest he can and often does ignore.

Agree with other posters, this data is clearly falsified to suit the government's narrative, the same as the economic data showing the economy growing. The only true data here is the data that shows negative trends as that cannot be hidden.

In no civilized democracy on Earth does the government falsify as much data and make incompetent decisions like they do in Japan. This would never happen in the West

2012, when Abe took PM job, Japan's GDP is $6,023 trillion. 2016, Japan's GDP is $4,939. More than $1 trillion loss. In many countries, it would be a capital punishment.

Abe cabinet's support rate dips to 48% from Feb: poll

STILL too high.

For the few that have the sense to vote against LDP, and to push back on the system that is robbing them - sure I feel a lot of sympathy for them as victims. But I'm talking about the majority of J-citizens who continually uphold the status-quo at every chance (i.e. elections). The majority of people here are applying no back-pressure. It's just a fact.

Agree. And for those who are too apathetic to go out and vote.

And that folks is just a tiny glimpse of why this form of democracy is completely flawed! When a business lobby with cash can outweigh the majority of the populations wishes then it is not really a democracy. If the majority of people simply refused to pay taxes until their vote actually counted then governments, who apparently only understand the notion “when money talks” might actually sit up and listen. If business lobbies want to run the country how they see fit, they should be paying everyone’s taxes and leave us all tax free! However the government wants to have its cake and apparently eat it too!

Another fantastic post!

Every time a survey of 1000 people in a country of 120million is negative, Abe will be on tommorrow morning tv saying something about NK will attack us.

"In 2012, when Abe took PM job, Japan's GDP is $6,023 trillion. 2016, Japan's GDP is $4,939"

BS! and you know it. In 2012, Japan's GDP was 4.8 Trillion USD. In 2017, Japan's GDP was 5.6 trillion USD. If you don't believe me go look it up yourself.

"This country needs a direct election for PM, but Abe and the LDP would never go for it"

Ok Japan Today readers it is time for civics lesson.

Japan is a Parliamentary Democracy. A government is from by the party which has the largest number of seats in the Parliament and the PM is a member of Parliament as all the members of the government Hence the name Parliamentary Democracy. Parliamentarism is the dominant form of government in Europe, with 32 of its 50 sovereign states being parliamentarian.

In the UK, and all countries that use the parliamentary system-including Japan- ,the PM isn't directly elected by the people. So Japan is a normal Parliamentary Democracy.

Now let us look at the other form of democracy called the presidential system.

A presidential system is a democratic and republican system of government where a head of government leads an executive branch that is separate from the legislative branch.

By the way, if you didn't know. In the US, the President isn't elected by the people. The President is elected by the Electoral college.

The United States Electoral College is the mechanism established by the United States Constitution for the election of the president and vice president of the United States by small groups of appointed representatives, electors, from each state and the District of Columbia

So you get an out come such as this:

 Clinton  65,844,610 votes

Trump  62,979,636 votes

President Trump!

Because:

Trump 306 electoral votes

Clinton 232 electoral votes.

Ok which system Japan or US is more/ less democratic and why? That is your HW for tonight class. Have a nice day.

Japan is in dire need of labor reform.

True, just not the specific legislation that Abe was pushing.

I think they need to do a complete and total revamp of the entire labour market law. Start from scratch.

Not tinker around with the system by expanding this or that part of the existing law system.

@econstats

You are outlining what the system is. I think the poster was writing about what it could or even should be.

Having a parliamentary democracy doesn’t necessarily exclude the possibility of the public voting on who should lead the party in power.

Ok which system Japan or US is more/ less democratic and why? 

There are 190 plus countries in the world, and you pick the number one system that is screwed royally to compare Japan to? Not a smart choice.

Cronisym runs rampant in this country and "government" is run by elected officials who live off the taxes of the people! Politics is the family business for many of them, people call them "Sensei" and hold them up on a pedestal.

Direct election of a PM would knock them down a notch or two, as they would need the support of ALL voters, and not the one's they have been backscratching for generations!

Your "lesson" is meaningless, as all I suggested is that the office of PM should be decided by the people and not the party here, as there is no viable opposition. Using Europe as an example is off as well because there is a strong opposition, which is cultural too. Opposition here goes against the culture of everyone being the same and working together. Opposition sticks out and gets hammered down.

Understand the cultural aspects and then consider, the HERE and not compare to where ever else!

You are outlining what the system is. I think the poster was writing about what it could or even should be.

Having a parliamentary democracy doesn’t necessarily exclude the possibility of the public voting on who should lead the party in power.

I’m honestly interested in how that could get downvoted. It’s just an observation. I wish my home country, the UK, would look at this.

@Yubaru

In a properly ordered democracy, the Prime Minister should be of no more consequence than the Chancellor or the Foreign Secretary. The idea that s/he should be directly elected, like a President, for God’s sake, is ridiculous.

Would you expect to vote for your greengrocer, or your librarian?

A mental test might be appropriate Xi, Puton, Trump, Shinzo seems the last people to follow but are the first to lead, Australia had Mr Family values bonking a staff member, the child of which is of doubtful. My point being a normal caring person just is not interested in politics, clubs or being a public figure, "everyone likes me", why do I even care.

In a properly ordered democracy

And that's the point where your comment becomes irrelevant to Japan...

Agree with other posters that Japan is not a real democracy because of its parliamentary system that hardly any civilized nation has. It should be made to have the same democracy like in America so that the right leaders can be elected

LDP was backed by 39.5 percent of respondents, down 1.7 points, while the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan was supported by 11.1 percent, up 0.2 point.

That's a massive gap. Virtually 40% v 11. Doesn't seem there is much to get excited about. Like in Australia the gap between LNP and Labor would never be more than 10%. Ever.

In a properly ordered democracy, the Prime Minister should be of no more consequence than the Chancellor or the Foreign Secretary. The idea that s/he should be directly elected, like a President, for God’s sake, is ridiculous.

Quite so, but the first five words in your comment here do not refer to Japan. Yet for discussions sake, to have a properly ordered democracy, one needs a viable opposition party, but due to overwhelming cultural influences no such party exists in Japan. All the people who form any opposition, for the most part, come from the LDP.

I made the negative comment about the US because the idea of the electoral college is long outdated, and the popular vote SHOULD be the determining factor in the election. ONLY the office of the president falls under the electoral college and all other elections are by simple majority.

I would suggest that here in Japan, that system, whether it be a PM or president, be held with a direct election by majority vote. IT would force the candidates to form coalitions and partnerships from outside their own electoral base, and open the country to possibly a more viable opposition party as well.

Also in a proper democracy the Cabinet members, should be vetted and approved by the Diet, and NOT be used as positions to be given to crony's, as it is done here.

Prime cabinet posts are dolled out here for being loyal to the current faction in power. And as long as Abe holds power, these underlings will continue to fawn over him,

It should be made to have the same democracy like in America so that the right leaders can be elected

Sorry I have to chuckle here, "right leaders" "America"? If the USA had gotten rid of the electoral college then the "right" leader would have been voted into office.

As much as I did not like Hillary, I disliked Trump even more. But at least with Hillary we would have gotten a US President that understood protocol and not a guy who like to talk half-cocked. Better the devil you know...

@Yubaru

Fair enough. I can’t argue with any of that.

@lucabrasi......, much respect.

econstats, either the world bank lied or the Abe govt lied, assuming your data is from Japanese govt. By the world standards, Japan is 17% smaller under Abe. Does anyone need a war to defeat Japan ? Once a war happens, the disapperance of Japan would be further accelerated.

I often wonder why Politics is shown here, when we as Foreigners have absolutely no say in Japan's future regardless to what we put into it.

It makes me sad.

mmwkdwMar. 7 02:36 am JST

I often wonder why Politics is shown here, when we as Foreigners have absolutely no say in Japan's future regardless to what we put into it.

I'm surprised no one has responded to that with the usual "stop moaning about it and become a Japanese citizen" cant. As if that would do any good - a lot of Japanese are effectively almost as disenfranchised as we are, what with the first past the post system and the unconstitutional vote value disparity.