Word: ldp
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...Neither Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) nor the DPJ can claim sterling feminist credentials - women are largely absent from leadership positions in either party - but this battle is less about baby-making machines than a suddenly struggling Prime Minister. Abe's approval rating feel to a new low of 40.3% in a survey taken over the weekend, down from a height of nearly 70% when he took office. More than 50% of respondents in the poll said they wanted to see Yanigisawa resign for his remark - and with elections coming up in July that could decide the control...
...loss is disquieting for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which is worried about keeping its seats in July's upper house elections. The opposition Democratic Party of Japan is in even worse shape: with sparse grassroots support, it wasn't even able to field a candidate in the Miyazaki election. This disgruntlement "is very serious for the parties," says Takao Toshikawa, a Tokyo-based political analyst. Abe, who needs a strong LDP showing in July to stay in office, refused to see Higashikokubaru's win as a loss for his party, instead hailing it as "the voice...
...Even the gestures seem to be giving the wrong message, as when Abe last week allowed his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to reinstate 11 of 12 members banished last year after voting against former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's postal-reform program. Though they pledged to toe the party line, their readmission sent a signal that the LDP's commitment to reform may be halfhearted. "It will hurt us badly," says Taro Kono, assistant chairman of the LDP's policy-research council. "Abe is seen as a weak leader." At least Bono likes...
...five and began forming a Japanese equivalent of the U.S. National Security Council, reporting directly to the Prime Minister. The creation of Team Abe is an attempt to shift political power away from Kasumigaseki, where Japan's formidable bureaucrats toil. "There's always been a struggle between the LDP and the ministries," says Tomoaki Iwai, a professor of political science at Nihon University. "Abe came through with a White House-style system of strong leadership that Koizumi couldn't quite achieve...
...create trouble down the road, giving another boost to the Japanese leader's image as a "fighting politician," as his advisers put it. But Abe, like Koizumi, will ultimately be defined by how well he can manage Japan's recovering economy, solve the government's fiscal woes and ensure LDP dominance at the polls. Dealing with a nuclear crisis may be the easy part...