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LDP chances dim in upper house poll |
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16:31, July 05, 2007 |
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling camp looks increasingly likely to lose a July 29 upper house election, an outcome that would threaten policy paralysis and put pressure on the Japanese leader to resign.
Public anger at government bungling of pension records had already slashed Abe's support rates, and weekend remarks by Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma that appeared to condone the 1945 atomic bombings of two Japanese cities compounded the woes.
Hidenao Nakagawa, No 2 in Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), pledged yesterday to allay voters' worries about their pensions and soothe outrage over Kyuma's remarks.
"As a responsible party, the LDP will not run away from its troubles or make excuses," Nakagawa, the party's secretary-general and de facto campaign manager, said in an interview.
"If we can appeal to the public for their trust and understanding, we can surely win them over," Nakagawa said. But he declined to forecast just how many seats he expected the LDP and its junior coalition partner to win.
Despite Kyuma's hasty resignation on Tuesday, Abe faced stiff criticism from opposition parties and media for appointing the gaffe-prone politician in the first place and then refusing to fire him after his latest slip.
The 52-year-old Abe, a soft-spoken security hawk who wants to boost Japan's global diplomatic clout, took over as LDP chief last September in hopes his popularity would help the party in the upper house poll.
Abe has won praise for mending ties with China, but the pension furore and doubts about his leadership abilities have pushed his support below the critical 30 percent level.
Kyuma's resignation was the second by a Cabinet minister since Abe took office in September, and came less than two months after his scandal-tainted farm minister committed suicide.
"The situation is getting worse and worse for the LDP," said Toru Umemoto, a chief forex strategist who analyses politics for Barclays Capital.
Source: China Daily/agencies
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