Japan in recent years is a country that has gone through relative political upheaval. Not on a violent level but rather throughout the 2000’s, the country chewed through Prime Ministers. Whilst the nation remained mostly under the governance of the Liberal Democratic Party (自民党), a centre-right party, it continuously returned to the polls before full terms could be served as leaders called snap elections in response to poor polls or in search of a political mandates.
The LDP is the party of the current Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe and he has recently returned to leadership after a December 14 snap election as he sought a mandate for his ‘Abenomics’.
Abe had been floating the idea of raising the consumption tax or sales-tax to 10% (which is actually where the Australian Goods and Services Tax sits now) after raising it from 5% to 8%. The problem was the Diet (Japanese Parliament), the people and the markets didn’t react well to the 3% increase with the Nikkei taking a dive. So Abe went to the polls.
To supporters of the LDP, the outcome is seen as approval to continue Mr. Abe’s grand economic plan, but on the other hand the country barely showed up to the polls. Only 52.6% of voters showed up to vote and even then, Abe has decided to delay the further 2% increase for 18 months.
Abenomics
Japan’s economy, enjoying a boom in the 90s, has since faced several recessions and in 2012 Abe was voted in with a campaign focused on ‘Abenomics’, a system of economic structural form and fiscal spending to improve Japan’s stagnant economy.
A lot of criticism directed at Abe’s plan has argued that it favours the rich and powerful too much and would only make Japan’s working class struggle more.
Reimagining the constitution
Something else that Abe has brought into a lot of focus is Japan’s constitution and how it plays in terms of Japan’s military. A product of the aftermath of World War II, Japan’s military is strictly a self-defence force, only if Japanese national interests are attacked can the military mobilise.
Abe seeks to change this in a time where the United Statesis ‘pivoting’ to Asia to deal with a growing China, emoboldened by its strong economy and claims to various territories in the East China Sea and South-East Asia.
Particularly, Japan and China are at loggerheads in regards to a small chain of uninhabited islands known in Japan as the Senkaku Islands. A potential flashpoint, Abe and his party hope to reword the constitution to allow a pre-emptive mobilisation in the case of a war with China.
Various young conservative students recently spoke to The Japan Times calling for their fellow Japanese to embrace constitutional revision. The article also pointed to the fact most Japanese, at least those vox popped on the streets in Tokyo, had little idea why the constitution was the way it was. Some even didn’t know that Japan and the United States had previously been at war.
An aging population and a lower birth rate
Exacerbating Japan’s economic problems is a growing number of seniors who struggle to find nursing accommodation in the nation’s larger cities. A program is beginning to be trialled where elderly citizens will be encouraged to leave the cities to rural areas where they will receive nursing home services at a concession.
At the same time, the Hiroshima Government has begun applying a rating system to housing based of its suitability to raise children. The hope here is to increase the declining birth rate by introducing similar systems across the nation.
There’s no way Japan is beset only by problems but its a very interesting time politically and socially in the country that has become one of Australia’s top allies.
From this blog I hope to be sharing my experiences of Japan with you as keeping you updated on local news.
