美国国家公共电台 NPR Japan's Prime Minister Isn't Popular, But His Coalition Won A Supermajority

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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's party now has a two-thirds super majority in the parliament. That's after voters cast ballots² in a snap election over the weekend. Abe sought a mandate³ for issues ranging from the economy to the military, and his party appears to have received a mandate even though Japanese voters seem unexcited about the man at the top. NPR's Elise Hu reports.

ELISE HU, BYLINE⁴: Rain drenched⁵ much of Japan this election day as the outer bands of a typhoon moved in, but it didn't deter⁶ voters like Omi Kumiko. She showed up at a polling place in Tokyo's Shinjuku neighborhood to cast a ballot¹ against Shinzo Abe's ruling party the Liberal Democrats⁷, or LDP.

OMI KUMIKO: (Speaking Japanese).

HU: "I've been opposed to the LDP for a long time," Kumiko says, "and I know that turnout tends to go down when there's rain so I made sure to come out and vote."

HU: She is part of the minority of voters who picked anybody but those in Abe's party. His ruling LDP represents Japan's establishment conservative wing, and it's dominated Japanese politics all but a few times since 1955.

JEFFREY KINGSTON: The LDP might not win a lot of enthusiastic endorsement⁸ from voters, but they are considered better than the alternative.

HU: That's Jeffrey Kingston, who heads Asia studies at Japan's Temple University. In this election, the existing alternative, the opposition⁹ Democratic Party, split up and the upstart parties that took its place to challenge Abe are only weeks old.

KINGSTON: He doesn't really have plausible¹⁰ strong rivals, and he's going to make the case to everybody, look, flaws and all, in the middle of a national security crisis, do you really want to trust these untested leaders of newbie parties? And he's winning that argument.

HU: Voter Akira Wada told us it was enough to convince him to choose the LDP.

AKIRA WADA: (Through interpreter) Rather than political policy, it's about electing someone you can trust. I believe they're trustworthy.

HU: The trust issue comes into focus especially during tense times. Twice this year, North Korea's missiles have flown over Japan, triggering sirens, the J-alert emergency text message system and giving residents a scare. Jeff Kingston.

KINGSTON: This creates a rally-around-the-flag tendency, and so this has clearly benefitted Abe and the LDP.

HU: Still, as he pushes ahead with economic stimulus¹¹ and possible changes to Japan's post-war pacifist constitution, Abe is not personally popular. A majority of respondents in public opinion polls said they don't want Abe to continue as prime minister, but he will because of no plausible alternatives and voter apathy¹².

DAICHI KIMURA: (Through interpreter) It doesn't matter who gets elected. Nothing will change. So why even vote?

HU: Tokyo resident Daichi Kimura speaks for the nearly half of Japanese eligible¹³ voters here who didn't cast a ballot at all this election.

KIMURA: (Through interpreter) And even if the people at the top change, nothing is going to change in Japan.

HU: To make those frustrations¹⁴ known, a group called the Support No Party Party got on the ballot this time around. Enough voters picked it that the No Party Party captured more than a hundred-thousand votes. Its signature issue is that it's sick of politicians. Elise Hu, NPR News, Tokyo.