Japan’s DPJ may win 2/3 majority
- Source: Global Times
- [01:01 August 28 2009]
- Comments
By Sun Wei
Japanese Prime Minister and the leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party Taro Aso (L), and Yukio Hatoyama, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, are seen prior to a debate with other party leaders at the National Press Club, in Tokyo, Japan, Aug. 17, 2009.(Xinhua/Ren Zhenglai)
Opinion polls showed yesterday the center-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is set to end the Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) five decades of near-unbroken rule in Sunday's election.
The DPJ is expected to win as many as 320 seats in the 480-seat lower chamber, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper predicted after quizzing more than 130,000 voters.
“The DPJ victory is now seen as the trend,” Lü Yaodong, vice director of the Institute of Japanese Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.
“The LDP's ingrained habits will die hard,” Lü said, adding that the long-term rule has given the LDP malpractices, including a lack of power for political reform and economic development, and the failure to address domestic concerns.
The recession's latest victim in Japan may not be corporate earnings but the political careers of the ruling party in the country's parliament, CNN commented.
“The LDP's weak performance in saving the financial crisis is defeated by people's livelihood concerns,” Lü added.
DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama, who has been mobbed at street rallies by supporters, is touting an Obama-style message of change, pledging to raise the minimum wage and discourage hiring through agencies or on temporary contracts, according to CNN.
The election is drawing much attention, with 90 percent of Japanese polled expressing their willingness to vote, a seven percent increase on the poll ahead of the election four years ago, according to Japanese NHK television.
The Chosun Ilbo newspaper yesterday said that there are three days left for a “new Japan,” with a joint photo of the DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama and his wife.
According to an online poll by Chinanews.com.cn, 56.4 percent of respondents wanted a DPJ victory, while 12.7 percent would vote for the LDP. While 52.7 percent think the China-Japan relationship will get warmer, 30.9 percent don't think any change will take place.
“On the China-Japan relationship, the DPJ will put Asian diplomacy on a par with the US-Japan alliance upheld by the LDP,” Lü said, adding that Hatoyama has said he would not visit the Yasukuni Shrine.
Relations reached their chilliest in decades under Junichiro Koizumi, who, while prime minister from 2001 to 2006, repeatedly visited the Yasukuni Shrine for war dead in Tokyo.
China and several other Asian governments see the shrine, which includes convicted war criminals among the honored dead, as a provocative symbol of Japan's often brutal occupation of the region before and during World War II.
Although Koizumi's successors have avoided visiting Yasukuni, and relations with Beijing have warmed, Japan's ties with China have veered between icy hostility and ambivalent reconciliation under the LDP.
“Problems and conflicts in China-Japan relations won't disappear if the DPJ comes to power, but overall its policies are quite positive for relations,” Reuters quoted Liu Jiangyong, an expert on Japan at Tsinghua University, as saying.
Liu has met several DPJ leaders to discuss relations with China.
Agencies contributed to this story
