Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged on Monday to work with the US, China and Russia to contain North Korea’s nuclear threat with ‘strong, resolute diplomacy’, as he ‘humbly’ accepted his landslide victory in a snap election.
Fresh from clinching a two-thirds ‘super-majority’ that enables the nationalist premier to realize his dream of revising Japan’s pacifist constitution, Abe vowed to forge a ‘national consensus’ on the divisive issue.
Addressing reporters on his election win, Abe said he would ‘confirm close co-operation’ on North Korea with Donald Trump when the US president visits Japan next month and then discuss the issue with the Chinese and Russian leaders.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged on Monday to work with the US, China and Russia to contain North Korea’s nuclear threat as he accepted his landslide victory in a snap election
Addressing reporters on his election win, Abe said he would ‘confirm close co-operation’ on North Korea with Donald Trump when the US president visits Japan next month and then discuss the issue with the Chinese and Russian leaders
‘I have renewed my determination to secure people’s lives and peaceful living, no matter what,’ said the 63-year-old leader of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
Abe and Trump spoke on by phone after the Japaneses premier’s win on Sunday and agreed to work together to raise pressure on North Korea.
The two leaders will play golf together on November 5, when Trump makes his first visit to Japan as president, Yasutoshi Nishimura, a deputy chief cabinet secretary, told reporters.
During their 30-minute phone call, Abe told Trump that he had urged necessity of ‘placing as much pressure as possible on North Korea so it will change its policies under the unshakable Japan-US alliance’, a government official told Japan Today.
The leaders agreed to further discuss their approach to North Korea at their meeting next month.
North Korea, which has threatened to ‘sink’ Japan and fired two missiles over its northern islands, dominated the 12-day election campaign that Abe eventually won comfortably.
‘We will solve North Korea’s missile, nuclear and abduction issues with strong, resolute diplomacy,’ he said in reference to the abduction of Japanese by Pyongyang in the 1970s and 1980s.
Abe is now on course to become Japan’s longest-serving premier, winning a fresh term at the helm of the world’s third-biggest economy and key US regional ally
The opposition Party of Hope, formed only weeks before the election by the popular Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike (pictured speaking to press from Paris on Sunday), suffered a drubbing. It won just 49 seats according to the NHK projections
Abe’s conservative coalition was on track to win at least 313 seats with only a handful left to call on Monday, according to public broadcaster NHK, giving him the coveted two-thirds majority in the lower house of parliament.
Abe dissolved the lower house less than a month ago, forcing the snap election.
Analysts saw it as an attempt to solidify his political standing at a time when the opposition was in disarray and his support ratings had improved somewhat.
He is now on course to become Japan’s longest-serving premier, winning a fresh term at the helm of the world’s third-biggest economy and key US regional ally.
North Korean belligerence helped the ruling coalition because ‘people are scared’ and voted for Abe’s hardline stance, said Gerald Curtis, professor of political science at Columbia University.
‘I focused on the national defence issue, because I am concerned about North Korea. So I chose the party that will work firmly on this issue,’ one voter, 66-year-old pensioner Tsuyoshi Ushijima, told AFP.
However, while local media acknowledged what was described as a landslide victory, many attributed Abe’s win to a weak and ineffective opposition and urged caution.
Abe and US President Donald Trump spoke on by phone after the Japaneses premier’s win on Sunday and agreed to work together to raise pressure on North Korea
North Korea, which has threatened to ‘sink’ Japan and fired two missiles over its northern islands, dominated the 12-day election campaign that Abe eventually won comfortably
‘The voters didn’t think the opposition parties were capable of running a government… they chose Prime Minister Abe, who is at least better, even if they had some concerns about the ruling coalition,’ said the Nikkei daily.
The Asahi newspaper said: ‘The Abe brand is not as strong as it was before. There are some signs that voters are seeking a change in the situation whereby Abe is the only decent option.’
According to an exit poll by Kyodo News on Sunday, 51 per cent of voters said they do not trust Abe with 44 per cent saying they did.
The ruling coalition’s victory, though, reflects as much the lack of viable alternatives as support for Abe, a fact that he seemed to acknowledge in post-election comments.
Turnout was just 54 per cent, as typhoon rains lashed much of the country on the day of the election.
‘I will humbly face the victory and continue to work humbly and sincerely,’ he told NHK, noting lingering public distrust over the scandals.
The opposition Party of Hope, formed only weeks before the election by the popular Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, suffered a drubbing. It won just 49 seats according to the NHK projections.
A chastened Koike, speaking thousands of kilometres away in Paris where she was attending an event in her capacity as leader of the world’s biggest city, said it was a ‘very severe result’ for which she took full responsibility.
While local media acknowledged what was described as a landslide victory, many attributed Abe’s win to a weak and ineffective opposition and urged caution
Abe, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), receives a rosette to place on a name of a candidate who is expected to win the lower house election, at the LDP headquarters in Tokyo on Sunday
Election staff members count votes in lower house elections at a ballot counting center in Tokyo on Sunday. Shortly after polls closed on Sunday, Japanese media projected that Abe would win a clear majority
The new centre-left Constitutional Democratic Party out-performed Koike’s new group but still trailed far behind Abe with 55 seats.
‘People are reluctant about Prime Minister Abe, but then who would you turn to? There is no one,’ said Naoto Nonaka, professor at Gakushuin University in Tokyo.
Abe, who has in the past been criticised for arrogance towards voters, vowed to face the challenge posed by the victory ‘humbly.’
He struck a cautious note on possible revisions to the US-imposed constitution, saying he would ‘deepen’ debate in parliament on the divisive issue but not seek to ram anything through.
Any changes to the document must be ratified by both chambers of parliament and then in a referendum, with surveys showing voters are split on the topic.
‘Abe would want to see a constitutional revision but we know he is ideologically on the right and he’s very pragmatic at the same time. And I think that pragmatism will force him to back off from pushing that issue too hard,’ said Curtis.
Many voters stressed that the economy is their biggest concern. The prime minister’s trademark ‘Abenomics’ strategy of ultra-loose monetary policy and huge government spending has failed to rekindle the former Asian powerhouse.
But investors cheered the victory, with the benchmark Tokyo index up 1.11 per cent, extending a winning run that has seen 15 straight consecutive gains for the first time in its near 70-year history.