JAPAN-ELECTION/CAMPAIGN Japan's general election kicks off

Record ID: 347237

  • Title: JAPAN-ELECTION/CAMPAIGN Japan's general election kicks off
  • Date: 2nd December 2014
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (DECEMBER 2, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MAN PUTTING ELECTION POSTER ON BOARD PEOPLE WALKING IN FRONT OF POSTER BOARD ELECTION POSTER ON BOARD
  • Embargoed: 17th December 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVABMTI3QQ3G3KYQE8C5FPT99HIV
  • Story Text: Campaigning for Japan's lower house elections kicked off on Tuesday (December 2) with campaign posters going up and candidates heading for their stomping grounds throughout the nation.
    The first posts of party candidates were being put up early on Tuesday in preparation for voting on December 14th, by law official campaigning can only be done in the last two weeks from polling day.
    The Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), kicked off his campaigning with a speech to locals at Somaharagama port in Soma city, Fukushima prefecture.
    The town was wrecked by the tsunami over three years ago and the fishermen there have been plagued by problems from the leaking Fukushima nuclear reactor nearby.
    "I promise to win this election, push through the recovery efforts, return the economy to a strong state and put this region and Japan back at the glowing centre of the world," Abe said, rallying support for the candidate backed by his party there.
    Abe dissolved parliament to seek a fresh mandate for his economic policies, and postpone an unpopular sales tax rise, after data showed the economy had slipped back into recession.
    The prime minister - who returned to power in December 2012 pledging to revive growth with a radical mix of hyper-easy monetary policy, spending and reform - insisted his policies were working.
    The leader of the main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan's Banri Kaieda, kicking off his campaign also in in Fukushima prefecture, insisted his policies were not working.
    "Prime Minister Abe says the economy has gotten better, but that's true only for few people," Kaieda said.
    The opposition is in a weakened state due to a lack of seemingly coherent policies or alternatives and few expect Abe's Liberal Democratic Party and its smaller ally, Komeito, to lose their majority.
    Analysts such as J.P. Morgan's Jesper Koll say the election is going to help Abe push through more of his policies.
    "Abe and his coalition partner is going to stay in power; is going to reassert the power. There will be new cabinet and that cabinet will have very strong mandate to lead the economy," Koll said.
    In Tokyo, some people Reuters talked to expressed their disappointment at the lack of a realistic alternative.
    "I had high expectation of the new government when the regime changed from Liberal Democratic Party to the Democratic Party (DPJ), but I was disappointed that they didn't do very well; though I admit they had a difficult situation due to the March 11 earthquake. And I don't think the opposition has the power to retake the government this time," said florist Higuchi Chiaki.
    Critics say Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's policies to end deflation and generate growth have helped mainly big cities, large companies and the rich by boosting share prices and exporters' profits with a hyper-easy monetary policy that has slashed the value of the yen and sent asset prices higher.
    All too aware of the criticism, Abe has made spreading the benefits of his "Abenomics" agenda to "every nook and cranny" of Japan a key plank of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) platform in the hope of returning more party candidates to the Lower House of Parliament this is next general election.
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