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Is Japan in good hands with Shinzo Abe as prime minister?

18 Comments
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18 Comments
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Who was the alternative again?

1 ( +8 / -7 )

Who was the alternative again?

Some dude who couldn't even hold on to his own seat let alone get enough co-dudes elected to make him PM.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

Better than the dark days of Minshuto.

-7 ( +6 / -13 )

The Prime Minister is only the face of power in Tokyo. The real power is in the hands of the unelected bureaucrats who are in their positions for life because they were inherited from pappy and grand pappy. They form the policies and make sure the Diet pushes through their every wish.

The consumption tax hike is now a forgone conclusion. Abe dancing as the puppet masters pull strings toward a more xenophobic and nationalist nation is forgone as well. Missing is any REAL solution to the three big problems looming over Japan.

An ageing population taking more in benefit than there are people paying in to replenish. Refusal to adopt any real immigration policy. Rising poverty.
17 ( +19 / -2 )

Well, one just need to answer the question "Was Japan in good hands with Shinzo Abe as prime minister?"

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Lol, what a pointless poll.. the public has spoken (at least the one with an opinion worth something)

-10 ( +2 / -12 )

For the Japanese ppl its a pick your poison type situation.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Wow! Rather overwhelmingly negative votes for Abe! Me too! However, who is there to oppose him? The DPJ has yet to show any kind of solid competitor for the PM position. I don't like Abe because of his right-wing tendencies and because he is one of the 'old boy's club'. He is sneaky and slimy in his ways. Any PM that changes legislation so he can changed ex country's constitution and the. Invokes a secrecy policy cannot be trusted. Make no mistakes, he and his cronies do have a hidden agenda and I'm sure it will result in military action within the pacific rim (again) and it will be instigated by Japan, while blaming China for it.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Regardless of the turnout, the fact that the LDP won by a landslide shows his popularity with the real population, as opposed to the ones who live in the negative minority bubble, and thankfully can't vote, although their small numbers wouldn't do much anyway.

A poll I'd like to see how is how well all foreigners integrate into Japan. What I mean by "all" is exactly that - not just disgruntled teachers and the occasional businessman or technician from the "West". The Chinese, the Indians, the Filipinos (nas), etc, who live here "permanently", let's say a minimum of 10 years.

Oddly enough, my non-Western foreign friends love Japan and are very active in their local communities. And popular.

Suspect it's largely because they didn't go through the "indoctrination" process of everything Japanese is is in bad taste, stupid or out of date.

-4 ( +7 / -11 )

I was told there were no alternatives. There never will be if they're not given the chance to prove their worth.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

My evaluation of Abenomics:

1 - Reflation+increased tax revenue IMO is better than austerity for Japan and its debt issue; since its debt is primarily owned by its citizens, it still has a bunch of levers it can pull before things turn really sour like with Greece. Although there was a significant gap between supply and demand for yen in circulation, it would've still been better if QE happened through debtless government issued currency (like all coins currently in circulation) and not through debt loaded BOJ notes. 7/10

2 - I wish he would've totally broke his promise with the DPJ concerning the consumption tax hike law, and just postponed it indefinately until Japan was in actual inflation. Tax revenues continued to rise right up until April when the tax was implemented, which IMO totally defeats the purpose of implementing the tax in the first place. 2/10

3 - Where is the real growth strategy? 1/10

4 - Urging corporations to increase wages - better than nothing but could use real incentives. 4/10

Doesn't look too good but who's supposed to be the alternative? Everyone else just says no to everything Abenomics and yaps about redistributing to the middle class from the rich without explaining how. DPJ promised the same things before they got power and pretty much crapped on everyone's faces by doing none of it.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

After being rudderless for a few years, Japan has visible leadership. Better than competing voices which were never really heard before Abe came back.

That is about the limit of the good things.

Hawkishness, no alternative to an eventually destructive strategy of printing and pumping money into the economy, the half-hearted effort with the consumption tax (more on that in a moment), and no initiative regarding energy or sustainable economics which people here really will need in the future especially when much of the population will be unable to work.

Leaving the consumption tax at 8% is now just like it was when it was 3%. Then, in the mid 1990s, so many of the quoted prices were the basic prices with 3% added at the cash register. Does anyone recall, like last year, we quoted prices were what we paid, actually with a law telling retailers to sell things for the price including tax? I remember, every time I pay for something, at the supermarket or at an electrical store. Nowadays there is the basic price and then the slug of 8% at the cash register (and the excuse of the price including tax being recorded in tiny writing on the price tags is not a workable excuse). I may be able to afford it, but I know a lot of people who continually refrain from unnecessary shopping now as they cannot budget properly or they too are sick of being slugged. Let people know what they are actually going to pay and then people will be less cautious about shopping and pumping a bit more consumer-sourced money through the economy. Do that Mr Abe and it will not cost you any popularity ...

whatever popularity you really have when only 35% of the electorate actually cared enough to tell if they liked you and your Jimintou agendas.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

"Who was the alternative again?"

That wasn't the question.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Abe is the best PM we have had in the last two years LOL

4 ( +5 / -1 )

No, but there was no good alternative in this election.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

In a country that has 124 million citizens albeit maybe 10 families in contention, there should be a few more contenders. Or is it so difficult to find an option.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

No...even when the revolving door of Prime Ministers got stuck (maybe right after Abe's first stint) and the whole country was being run on 'auto pilot' it was being run more responsibly than it is being run now.

When you get to the bottom of the barrel there often are no 'viable alternatives' to the dregs you find there. Abe is a recyled Prime Minister, who was dragged back from the wilderness by his cronies to put a face on the LDP... And it is a recyled face in a system that shuffles posts among the usual suspects ad. infinitum. New blood is not something that is tolerated.

When Abe re-appeared it was with the headlines that he had found new drugs to help his bowel problems. Laughable-and something that no western spin-doctors could get away with.

Now he is being feted as some sort of hero with a barely 50 percent of voter turnout...for an economic strategy that is by no means certain...and an education policy that promises to force love of country on its children.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Better than the dark days of Minshuto.

Do you have any idea what the letters LDP stand for in Japanese?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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