Japan goes to the polls on Sunday to vote in a general election that the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is expected to win following a campaign marked by nationalistic rhetoric.
The LDP has one of the longest records of electoral success in the democratic world, ruling from 1955 until its landslide defeat in 2009 by the centrist Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) amid widespread hopes for a new direction that would lift Japan out of a 20-year-long economic slump.
Polls predict the LDP will oust Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s centrist DPJ and take a two-thirds majority in the lower house, although around 40% of Japanese voters remain undecided.
LDP leader Shinzo Abe’s campaign has been boosted by support from a junior coalition partner, the far-right Japan Restoration Party (JRP) led by Shintaro Ishihara, an octogenarian former Tokyo governor who helped set the aggressive tone of the election campaign.
A resounding victory would allow Abe to fulfill a campaign pledge to bolster Japan’s military and coastal defences, particularly on a disputed island chain that is also claimed by China and Taiwan, and rewrite the country’s pacifist postwar constitution.
Abe pledged in campaign speeches to "repair the Japan-US alliance and firmly defend our territorial soil and waters".
Tokyo scrambled fighter jets on Thursday after a Chinese plane entered airspace over the disputed islands, called the Senkaku Islands by Japan and the Diaoyu Islands by China.
“It is absolutely normal that the Japanese people are protecting territory which belongs to them," said hawkish JRP leader Ishihara after Thursday’s incident. "I don't want Japan to become the next Tibet. But that is what will happen if we give in to China over the islands.”
Faltering economy
Beyond the territorial dispute, Japan is stuck in the economic doldrums and is labouring under huge public debt.
Prime Minister Noda on Saturday argued that his party had started the ball rolling for a recovery and urged voters to give him a fresh mandate to finish the job.
"The election is about whether we can move forward or turn back the clock," he said.
“It was the DPJ who put in the effort to recover from Japan's 20-year slump," Noda said. "Are we giving this up now, and are we going back ... ? We must not do that.''
Abe, speaking in Saitama prefecture north of the capital, pledged to restore Japan's economy through increased public spending. "With stronger monetary policies, fiscal policies and growth policies, we will end deflation, correct a high yen and grow the economy," he said.
Abe highlighted Noda's failures and said a fresh approach was needed. "The Noda government makes all sorts of complaints [about our policies], but have they stopped deflation? Have they corrected a high yen?"
Abe’s LDP is also more supportive of nuclear energy, although the majority of Japanese voters have said they would like to see it phased out after the 2011 tsunami disaster at Fukushima.
Japan's right wing in lead ahead of general election
Japan goes to the polls on Sunday to vote in a general election that the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party is expected to win following a campaign marked by nationalistic rhetoric.
Source: France 24
