With dropping support rate and public distrust incurred by the
pension record-keeping errors, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
sits a grave test on the July 29 upper house election, the first
major election since he took post last September.
A series of troubles have arisen in the first year of Abe's
administration. In December, Genichiro Sata resigned his post of
administrative reform minister over a scandal that his defunct
political support group falsified political fund reports.
A month later, health minister Hakuo Yanagisawa called women
"birth-giving machines" in a speech, drawing wide criticism. In
May, the Abe Cabinet was dealt another blow, with the farm minister
Toshikatsu Matsuoka committed suicide over a political funds
scandal.
More recently, Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma made a speech that
appeared to legitimize the 1945 dropping of an atomic bomb on
Nagasaki, angering the victims and giving the oppositions another
topic in debates.
Moreover, the publicity of pension record-keeping errors in late
May added challenges for Abe. Some 50 million unidentified pension
accounts due to record-keeping errors would lead many pensioners to
get less benefits than they have paid for in premiums. The blunder
further deepened public distrust towards Abe's government.
According to an Asahi Shimbun newspaper poll released
Monday, the support rate for Abe's administration fell to the
lowest of 28 percent from around 70 percent when he assumed the
post, while disapproval rating stood at 48 percent.
The five-month Diet session, begun Jan. 25, has been extended
for 12 days through Thursday. With the bills addressing the pension
blunder passed the parliament, the session is practically over, as
both the ruling and opposition blocs would focus on election
campaigning this week.
Abe prolonged the current parliament session in an effort to
score political points before the upper house poll. The legislation
approved Saturday is to scrap a time limit for pensioners to make
pension claims so those whose payment records are missing can
recover what they are entitled to.
The Social Insurance Agency, under fire for a series of scandals
including lavish spending of pension funds even before the
record-keeping blunder, will be dissolved under a separate law and
its pension division will be taken over by a new public
corporation.
In a further effort to amend the pension issue, Abe and some
Cabinet members will return part of their summer bonuses to take
responsibility. Social Insurance Agency chief Kiyoshi Murase said
he was returning his entire 2.7 million yen (US$22,000) bonus.
The oppositions and local media, however, did not deem these
measures enough. They urged the Abe Cabinet disclose the details of
the problem and tackle it with all efforts in stead of staging some
shows before the major election.
Abe claimed that his administration would settle the pension
problem within a year. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
has been working on the modification of the Constitution and has
put it on top of its political agenda. The largest opposition
Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), in contrast, has endeavored to
take the pension errors as an issue to challenge the ruling
bloc.
The House of Counselors election is held every three years in
Japan, with half the chamber's 242 seats at stake. The governing
LDP and coalition New Komeito now hold a total of 132 seats in the
upper house. Whether the ruling bloc can continue holding over half
of the seats is still under question.
The media and analysts are also guessing whether Abe would
resign if the election turns out to be a complete failure for the
ruling coalition. According to reports, former premiers Yoshiro
Mori and Junichiro Koizumi encouraged Abe recently, and called him
to continue his reform even though the election may be a failure
for the LDP, since the ruling party still occupies a majority
number of seats in the lower house.
Abe himself avoided the topic whether he would resign or not
after the election in a recent interview with the local media.
However, he said he would take responsibility, as he is the
president of the ruling party. Whether the first post-war born
Japanese premier would pass his first major political test, is yet
to be known.
(Xinhua News Agency July 2, 2007)
