politics

Ruling bloc heading for big election win despite voter distaste for Abe: poll

45 Comments
By Linda Sieg

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@Yubaru

Agree that it’s frustrating and that a real political change is needed.

But a “directly elected prime-minister” would be a president.

I’m not sure that would help. We need a party with a new vision, not just an individual with their own agenda.

Look at Venezuela, the US and the Philippines....

1 ( +1 / -0 )

There's no competing party. Why others are So weak?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

People are voting for LDP members. Then elected members select the PM. Abe is popular with female lawmakers.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Works fine in the UK, Canada, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, Spain etc. etc.Most folk seem quite content with it. And if it ain’t broke....

But what do all those countries have that Japan doesn't? THAT is the problem. Hence my comment. It's broke because there is only ONE party that has, for nearly 8 DECADES power, and controls the system.

If Japan had a truly two or three party system I would NOT have made the comment I did.

The current system works OK, I think. If only 37% of the people want Abe as PM he ought to lose his seat in his constituency. 

It doesnt matter if only 37% want Abe, it's his own district that elects him and as head of the LDP he is automatically reelected at the president of the LDP and thus PM

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I wonder where they conducted the poll sample. Besides forigners and people in Tokyo, most people I've talked to like Abe

I read posts here which tell of unanimous dislike of Abe. Others, like yours, give us the opposite.

Maybe it's the company I keep, or the company I work for, but I usually get a look as if I've just asked what people think of second division Macedonian football if I ask about Abe.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting change...hmmm, yeah, good luck with that

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Japan has the biggest population of sheepeople anywhere in the World. Abe and his clowns have achieved nothing for Japan and yet they will be voted back in? Abe will bring US nuclear weapons to Japanese soil under the NK threat.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

TIJ. They loathe the guy, but vote him in. He changes laws, which the people don't want, they shrug and say "shouganai". This is Japan.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

What this country needs is a direct election for PM

The current system works OK, I think. If only 37% of the people want Abe as PM he ought to lose his seat in his constituency. But of course he won't lose because (a) he is the son of the last guy to be their MP and (b) the people there will be hoping that some of his crooked dealings benefit them.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

@Yubaru

That’s the parliamentary democracy system.

Works fine in the UK, Canada, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, Spain etc. etc.

Most folk seem quite content with it. And if it ain’t broke....

1 ( +3 / -2 )

He looks like the emperor in that photo, only his head is bigger.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

What this country needs is a direct election for PM. Enough of this party politics deciding who runs the party, thus the national government.

The people as a whole have ZERO say in electing their PM and THAT is a huge problem today! It is inconceivable that an electorate that distrusts or dislikes their current PM will be given the chance to continue ruling. But then this IS Japan.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Could it be that most people don’t feel represented by the current parties, and feel like every single one of them is a bunch of corrupt politicians who just care about themselves and don't give a damn about anything else?

Just saying, because basically all politicians in Japan are old dinosaurs who do not represent at all the average Japanese. Not to mention that the opposition seems at time worse, especially when you have the supposedly left leaning Minshinto unifying with the right wing Kibou to To, as they said, "Just to win".

Also, things that really matter to people, like the unsustainable pension system, the massive debt and the fact that the economy is still in the sink even after letting the bank of japan run wild and devaluate the Yen, and rarely talked about, and these damn elections focus on problems some "key demographics" care about, like Nuclear Power and Free education.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

PM Abe is the most popular Japanese leader and is liked internationally . His coalition will surely secure a big victory in the coming election for the lower house . There is no distaste for him among the Japanese people , only media is highlighting it to give a negative twist and lower his image the masses due to selfish reasons.

-10 ( +1 / -11 )

Appropriately, that pic makes it seem that he is sticking his head out of a hearse...foreshadowing of what is to come for many of his subjects.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

dcog9065Today  11:17 am JST

The last time the opposition was in power we had the DPJ, who were unforgivably incompetent.

The DPJ was in power because the LDP had been unforgivably incompetent. Nothing has changed.

9 ( +11 / -2 )

The DPJ were undermined by the beauracracts and media, both controlled by grumpy old men adverse to a monicom of change. Pm Kan has been held up as a good leader globally but derided in Japan. Opposition to the LDP results in a good quashing.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

47% of voters would prefer not to see Abe stay in his post.

I wonder where they conducted the poll sample. Besides forigners and people in Tokyo, most people I've talked to like Abe

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

The last time the opposition was in power we had the DPJ, who were unforgivably incompetent. It will take something truly extraordinary to attempt going down such a risky path again.

If you give a chance to incompetent parties and candidates you get Brexit and Trump and irreversible polarization and broken democracy like in the US, so what we have here is thousands of times better

-8 ( +0 / -8 )

Japanese people elect their leaders not based on their performances, but their promises.

Akie - Then I have no sympathy for the 'victims'.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Might as well smoke a Cuban and declare himself PM for life. And wear a big hat, that's important

4 ( +4 / -0 )

@cucashopboy My sympathy to all the victims. What can they do? Those politicians are either selected by party, or volunteers to be party leaders. Japanese people elect their leaders not based on their performances, but their promises. The Japanese system is a joke. It only offers a very limited candidates for people to choose. No one cares the qualities they offer to the people. Japanese people have the right to vote, but they don't have the right to choose. That is the value and beauty of Japan.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

No hope for Japan. There is no win for any party. Japanese people are victims. 

Akie - I strongly believe in the saying that a country gets the politicians it deserves.

Japanese people have a clear opportunity to get rid of a medicore, authoritarian and corrupt leader. It they don't take the opportunity, then they cannot be victims.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

After start of election campaign,

Japanese TV media have stopped to criticize Politics or Government under the name of "political neutrality".

7 ( +8 / -1 )

So, according to this article, if Koike had decided to run she would have taken a lot of votes away from Abe and the Party of Hope would have become the official opposition? If that is the case then the people voting for her aren't voting for a politician but a savior! As I said in another post, this is more a cult of personality, much like that of Toru Hashimoto in Osaka. Regardless, it is sad news when only 37% of the people support the leader but his party will win a resounding victory and then be able to claim that he has a mandate to change everything that most people hold dear.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

This is very disheartening but totally expected from an apathetic Japan. Shouganai is engrained in this culture. Anyway, this is the end, he we totally destroy this country.

9 ( +10 / -1 )

if you listen to abe's stump speech, he mentions north korea about 20 times in a ten minute speech. that's all he's harping on, and a defensive country listens. koike needs to stop mentioning zero hay fever and have a more reassuring speech about being prepared for a military strike. hate to say it but abe is playing all the right cards right now and has that nutter little rocket man to thank.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

You reap what you sow.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

With Abe in for another 4 years is simply destructive for Japan!:( He fools this country from top to toe! And makes Japan more nationalistic and foreign-hostile:(!

Exactly. It's scary indeed. I think Japan will finally get their war if he continues at this for another 4 years.

9 ( +10 / -1 )

How the heck are they supposed to get tested if you dont give them a chance? 

Last time they did that, Yukio Hatoyama became PM.

I would like to see Ishin in power myself, but I do have sympathy for the devil you know logic.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

I guess the LDP has dumbed down the people, and watered down the media enough, to guarantee their safe passage into the next term, and the next.. and the next...

Losing all faith in this place.

9 ( +10 / -1 )

I don't want Japan to turn into a marionette-doll governed solely by Abe!:( Democratic political diversity has a high chance of perishing, and Japan is practically a one-party state!

This country need to give someone other than hawkish Abe the opportunity to at least try to improve Japan's situation. With Abe in for another 4 years is simply destructive for Japan!:( He fools this country from top to toe! And makes Japan more nationalistic and foreign-hostile:(!

8 ( +10 / -2 )

Looks like more proven incompetence then. At least you know where you are.

This democracy lark hasn't really fired the imagination in Japan, has it?

9 ( +10 / -1 )

So the consensus seems to be vote for the guy who hasn’t really done anything significant so you can complain about his continuing failures.

makes perfect sense.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Nothing shows strong leadership more than peeking out of lace curtains in the back seat of a car being chauffeur driven back to his mums house. Yet for all his mum admonishing he still will never be half the man her dad was.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

Abe will be pm for about four More years.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

This article gave me morning sickness.

16 ( +19 / -3 )

No hope for Japan. There is no win for any party. Japanese people are victims. They are stuck with a husband whom they don't like at all.

11 ( +15 / -4 )

How does half the country not want him to keep a job yet he wins by a landslide?

Gerrymandered constituencies, massive voter disparity in rural areas, enormous 'subsidies' to voters in rural areas, near total support for the LDP in the corporate media, total support of the LDP by corporate Japan, support for the LDP from the US State Department, fractured opposition - the list goes on and on. 70 years as a virtual one-party state has given the LDP more than enough experience of how to manage 'democracy' in this country.

11 ( +16 / -5 )

Lol but but democracy!!

6 ( +10 / -4 )

The polling method needs to be realistic. Try more polls from southwestern areas where people are not poor. Then omit foreigners.

-10 ( +2 / -12 )

Pathetic! But after 70 years of LDP rule and an apathetic voting populace, what will change. Maybe those lace curtains will change first even then I doubt it.

9 ( +12 / -3 )

How does half the country not want him to keep a job yet he wins by a landslide? Something is wrong!

13 ( +15 / -2 )

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