Word: abely
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...want to see why Shinzo Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) could be headed for a crushing defeat in the Diet Upper House election on July 29-and the Prime Minister himself could be forced to resign just 10 months into his tenure-pop into the social-welfare office in Tokyo's central Minato ward. Most days you'll find a gray brigade of angry Japanese voters who want to know where their pensions have gone-and they want to know now. In May the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) revealed that records of up to 50 million...
...face a tough fight-the Upper House members whose seats are in contention were elected in 2001, when an unusually large number of LDP candidates rode the coattails of popular Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi into office. But no one could have predicted the litany of disasters that have beset Abe over the past two months, including the suicide of one minister under a cloud of corruption (Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka), the resignation of another (Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma) for a foolish remark on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, and worst of all, the pension crisis. "The LDP has begun...
...Kyuma's humiliating resignation is yet another body blow to the Prime Minister's swooning administration. A weekend poll reported that Abe's popularity had dropped below 30% for the first time, with a disapproval rating of nearly 50%. Kyuma is the third cabinet-level minister to exit during Abe's nine-month tenure; barely a month ago Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka committed suicide under the shadow of corruption allegations. Meanwhile Japanese are enraged over recent revelations that millions of public pension accounts could no longer be matched to their owners because of decade-old bureaucratic errors, meaning some could...
...Analysts say that the Prime Minister's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is likely headed for a fall at the Diet Upper House elections July 29 - and that failure at the polls could force Abe to resign. "Just as the LDP is looking for a comeback, its own member stirs things up for the worse," says Ikuo Hata, a Japanese historian at Nihon University. "Abe comes out of this looking like a lightweight as a leader and a Prime Minister...
...Beyond the political shrapnel, however, Kyuma's gaffe represents a deeper setback to Abe. When he entered office last September as the youngest Prime Minister of the postwar period, Abe promised to make pacifist Japan as a normal nation, one that could defend itself and its allies on the world stage. He bumped up Kyuma's defense office to a Cabinet-level ministry, and set the revision of Japan's pacifist constitution as his signature issue. But Abe's vision of a more muscular Japan has excited few voters, who are more concerned with their pocketbooks, and constitutional revision...