Protestors demand Abe resign over scandal

Why should Abe-San step down?

Corruption?

The Man Who Wouldn't Leave....

Let's see how far his poll numbers drop! Going for the record!

Ganbare Japan!Today  07:14 am JST

Handful of renta-crowd wont make PM Abe and Vice PM Aso resign, ridiculous.

"Renta-crowd," eh? Got proof to back up that allegation?

Economy is leading the world...

Japan's is the biggest deficit of all the industrialised nations, isn't it? That's leading the world, all right.

...almost zero unemployment...

Lots of crappy minimum wage, part-time jobs and unpaid overtime to go around. Fabulous.

...record profits...

Which employers are not sharing or putting back into their businesses.

...record tourism...

Do you think they come for a chance to see Shinzo Abe?

...lowest infant death in world, highest lifespan....

Nice, but nothing at all to do with Abe's policies, really.

Tokyo 2020 olympic just around the corner,that PM Abe must manage.

What a great success his management has been so far. Logo plagiarism, IAAF bribery accusations... and how much is it all over budget by?

Why should Abe-San step down?

Ummm... because he promised to do so himself if it turns out he really was involved in the Moritomo Gakuen scandal? People should keep their word, don't you think?

Moderator: Please do not reply to other posters sentence by sentence. A general reply will suffice.

Abe's gotta go!

There goes the myth of the apathetic, apolitical, uncaring, and afraid to stand out stereotype of the Japanese people, straight out the window!

Schopenhauer,

Shouting a lot and not listening to people isn't being a strong leader.

As the article says, "Abe politics is full of lies. We are sick and tired of it."

People abuse the up/down votes anyway.

Ganbare Japan has written his opinion. There is nothing wrong with that.

Nobody is impeccable including you and me and politicians.

So if I as a business owner, run my business VERY well, and treat my employees VERY well, but I'm skimming on some taxes, it's ok because I'm not impeccable, and everything else I'm doing is ok? Because that's the message I get as a business owner, if the prime minister is allowed to be corrupt. Or is it only the elite that are allowed to be corrupt, and the rest of us are held to a higher standard? And if that's the case, then what relevance does your above comment have about everyone being impeccable, if this acceptance of fault only extends to the elite?

Having official documents amended or rewritten in order to lie to the population of Japan is fraud.

What else has the Prime Minister deceived us about?

And this is the other problem with corruption - if a leader has been found to be cheating, then the people have to wonder where they were cheating that they haven't yet been found. This results in a lack of confidence in leadership, which in turn becomes apathy within the electorate, another form of rot.

Oh come on now. You have a stable government, You have a top Prime Minister, you have a Go Forward

Policy's. Why would you want to change this very productive Government.

Because the damage to a society by allowing corrupt politicians to continue as politicians, far outweighs the benefit any single politician could ever provide to said society.

Change for the sake of change is COUNTER PRODUCTIVE.

Cutting out corruption is most definitely NOT change for the sake of change.

Those who think Abe must go, let me know who will be your ideal prime minister of Japan or which opposition party you think will make Japan better?

I don't have an opinion on this, but what I'm curious is if you are trying to use the choice (or lack thereof) of an alternate as a justification as to keeping a corrupt leader in power.

Strangerland --

Once you start telling politicians 'well what you did is not good, but you're doing a pretty good job, so we'll let you off', it leads to all politicians thinking 'well, I can just take a bit of money here, pass on some favors there etc, because they need me.' And then the rot gets deeper and deeper.

Nailed it. There was a Premier in the state in Australia I am from - New South Wales - a few years back who resigned over receiving one bottle of wine from a company executive, and failing to declare it. It was unfortunate, as he was arguably doing a decent job and was later cleared of corruption, but he resigned nevertheless knowing he should be setting an example as Premier. Leaders absolutely have to set standards and be seen to be scrupulously following them. This murky land deal is far more serious than an undeclared bottle of wine, and Abe has no option but to resign.

@ Toshiko

Even Abe resign, if LDP officials elect him as the chairman of LDP, Abe becomes P.M.

If Abe resigns as PM, he will not put himself forward as Chairman of the LDP. There will be no "third coming" of Abe, sorry to disappoint you.

A obviously filthy scandal that was between Nippon Kaigi members to create a revionest school as a blueprint for a revision of all schools. It's not a small scandal. It's Good people saying no to evil.

If Japan become better off and people's life easier by sacking Abe, I agree with them. But, if Abe damaging Japan 30% while contributing to Japan 70% - political stability, running economy right, handling foreign policy skillfully, defense policy , etc., it is not a good idea removing Abe for his small scandals.

This is a flawed line of thinking, that leads to rot and corruption in a government. Once you start telling politicians 'well what you did is not good, but you're doing a pretty good job, so we'll let you off', it leads to all politicians thinking 'well, I can just take a bit of money here, pass on some favors there etc, because they need me.' And then the rot gets deeper and deeper.

You need to cut off rot at the source, right when it begins. If Abe gets sunk because he was corrupt, well then that's too bad if everything else he was doing was good. But getting rid of corruption tells future leaders that they cannot be corrupt, or they will destroy their legacy - people will only remember the corruption. This is how you get a non-corrupt government (and by extension, society). What you are suggesting is about the worst possible line of action that a country can afford to take.

Having official documents amended or rewritten in order to lie to the population of Japan is fraud.

What else has the Prime Minister deceived us about?

Abe should resign.....

Well if the alternative winds up being worse, then it makes sense. Better the devil you know.

That is very flawed thinking in this case. It's extremely short-term. It's only looking at the current leader, rather than the long-term life of a nation. See my comment above:

This is a flawed line of thinking, that leads to rot and corruption in a government. Once you start telling politicians 'well what you did is not good, but you're doing a pretty good job, so we'll let you off', it leads to all politicians thinking 'well, I can just take a bit of money here, pass on some favors there etc, because they need me.' And then the rot gets deeper and deeper.

Politicians MUST be held to the highest standard. No level of corruption can be allowed in your political leaders, or you end up with a corrupt state. No politician is greater than the health of the state. Once you start thinking that any politician is more important than the health of the state, you have taken your first step on the road to dictatorship, which is the absolute expression of corruption in politics.

Abe's head must roll, this is a law world he promoted.

Smith exactly, I will try to get your understanding at a later date........

I guess we can all be glad they can't vote

Haha, well played

SchopenhauerToday  08:00 am JST

But, if Abe damaging Japan 30% while contributing to Japan 70% - political stability...

What's the use of political stability if things aren't much better than when prime ministers were changing every year?

...running economy right...

I don't see a whole lot of evidence of that. It just looks like old-style LDP pork barrel politics as usual to me.

...handling foreign policy skillfully...

We've all seen recently how his "skillful" handling of foreign policy has paid off, haven't we.

,,,defense policy , etc.,

I don't know about anyone else but I haven't felt a whole lot better defended since he took over.

it is not a good idea removing Abe for his small scandals.

No. Politicians are supposed to exemplify the highest standards of public service and the Prime Minister of all people should be beyond reproach. If he can't regain the trust and confidence of those that he is supposed to lead, he should go. Otherwise they will inevitably rise up to get rid of him. The speculation has already started about who the next LDP leader could be; even a month ago that would have been unthinkable.

SchopenhauerToday  08:24 am JST

Look around the world. Abe is better than leaders of many other countries.

Hrm. "Vote for me because I'm not as bad as Kim Jong Un." It's funny how no one ever tries that approach in their election campaigns, isn't it.

Abe is a strong leader...

Not he's not. He's just lucky that no one more intelligent, charismatic and dynamic wants the job.

Japan...little China, do not comment on the faults of the regime.

He's gone. and none of the right wing chants are going to keep him here

Okay Gambare! Japan, I'm call you out on this. You wrote: "Handful of renta-crowd wont make PM Abe and Vice PM Aso resign, ridiculous."

Where is your evidence that the protesters are in effect paid actors? Let's the proof. Tell us who hired them and is paying them. Who are these supposed actor? Give us all the details. Name names. How much these 700 actors were paid.

You won't because you can't.

The demonstrations mirror the polls. Abe is disliked by the majority of people now. That is a statistical fact. The scandal surrounding him is verifiable too.

Protestors are excercising their democratic right to show their disdain for political corruption. It's a sign of a healthy democracy that they can do so.

Spot on. Never trust people who dismiss peaceful protests against their ideas and lapse into conspiracy theories.

These people don’t really understand democracy and their right to vote is waste.

Handful of renta-crowd wont make PM Abe and Vice PM Aso resign, ridiculous.

Economy is leading the world,almost zero unemployment,record profits,record tourism, lowest infant death in world, highest lifespan. Tokyo 2020 olympic just around the corner,that PM Abe must manage. Why should Abe-San step down?

I see another series of revolving door PMs in Japan's future. This will hurt political stability in Japan for a while.

One thing is clear, he wasn't clean enough to represent as top-leader of so much scandals he was involved in his long term administration. How many times he had to reshuffle the ministers? Why that reelection had to be proceeded? Now he knows that Japanese people aren't much in his favor, I guess more scandals behind the scenes... The vet school is one of them.

I don't have an opinion on this, but what I'm curious is if you are trying to use the choice (or lack thereof) of an alternate as a justification as to keeping a corrupt leader in power.

Well if the alternative winds up being worse, then it makes sense. Better the devil you know.

"Hundreds of protesters, including opposition lawmakers, demonstrated in Tokyo on Friday to demand Prime Minister Shinzo Abe"

Point 1. The population of the Tokyo metropolitan is over 30 million people. "Hundreds of protesters" is not a heck of a lot of people.

Point 2. There have been no protests in any other Japanese cities. In fact, there have been no protest outside Nagatcho. The vast majority of the Japanese people are still with PM Abe.

I don't blame Abe supporters for sticking up for their man but I must disagree with nonsense about paid protestors.

Protestors are excercising their democratic right to show their disdain for political corruption. It's a sign of a healthy democracy that they can do so.

How low can you go. The anti-Abe crowd crying about getting down votes now? I guess we can all be glad they can't vote

who cares whether you get voted up or down? People come here to express their opinions. I personally couldn't give 2 hoots about being voted up or down. I'll say what I want to say. Always have-always will. I want people to down vote me if they don't like what I have to say. And I relish a good debate.

Even Abe resign, if LDP officials elect him as the chairman of LDP, Abe becomes P.M.

Looks like "Mario" has turned into "Wario"!

If Japan become better off and people's life easier by sacking Abe, I agree with them. But, if Abe damaging Japan 30% while contributing to Japan 70% - political stability, running economy right, handling foreign policy skillfully, defense policy , etc., it is not a good idea removing Abe for his small scandals.

Those who think Abe must go, let me know who will be your ideal prime minister of Japan or which opposition party you think will make Japan better?

SchopenhauerToday 09:30 am JST

Those who think Abe must go, let me know who will be your ideal prime minister of Japan or which opposition party you think will make Japan better?

Irrelevant. If he is guilty of any wrongdoing he should resign as he said he would, regardless of who might succeed him. But right now I think just about anyone would be better than some sleazy, aging oligarch implicated in dubious sweetheart deals due to his own corruption or incompetence.

Abe: (from a speech safely inside somewhere) "Awww! Look at all of you! I realize and have taken responsibility for the actions that I did not do. I hear your voices and recognize there is a problem, and I vow to regain your trust by not listening to you and staying in office. I will there convince you that the things you don't want are good, and that despite the majority being against it, will do what I please because I won the last election and it is therefore mandated. But don't worry, I'll convince you later after things have been implemented. Please cooperate."

Please learn Japan's weird political custom to complain if you are interested in helping Japanese people.

Oh come on now. You have a stable government, You have a top Prime Minister, you have a Go Forward

Policy's. Why would you want to change this very productive Government. Think at what party can produce what the Abe Government has achieved.

Change for the sake of change is COUNTER PRODUCTIVE.

Those who think Abe must go, let me know who will be your ideal prime minister of Japan or which opposition party you think will make Japan better?

Yukio Edano

Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan

The party opposes the proposed revision of Article 9 of Japan's postwar constitution.[11][12] The party supports the phasing out of nuclear energy in Japan,[13] and government investment in renewable energy,[14] and supports the freeze in the rise of consumption tax.[15][16] The party supports the reduction in the disparity between the rich and the poor as well as the advancement of LGBT rights. The party does not support the legalization and maintenance of casinos.[17] The party also supports "building a society that supports each other and makes full use of individuality and creativity."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_Democratic_Party_of_Japan

Sounds damn good to ME

If this happened in the United States of Northeast Asia, Abe would be in a jail two weeks ago.

Just say the truth, law is not law, justice is not justice, LDP is not LDP, PM is not PM, they are all liars.

Should LDP say sorry to the family of the decease one who died because of Abe and Akie ? Should Aso say sorry ? Should Abe say sorry ?

Spot on. Never trust people who dismiss peaceful protests against their ideas and lapse into conspiracy theories.

These people don’t really understand democracy and their right to vote is waste.

Haha! even better played! LOL

Look around the world. Abe is better than leaders of many other countries. Nobody is impeccable including you and me and politicians. Abe is a strong leader which is unusual and difficult to find in Japan. Japan needs a strong leader to survive in changing world.