Abe opens door to radical policy with landslide Japanese victory
THE DOOR to unlimited Japanese monetary stimulus was nudged further open yesterday as Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) re-took parliament in a landslide.
The right-leaning LDP took almost 300 out of 480 seats in the lower house, according to exit polls, which means it can exert a two-thirds majority with ally New Komeito, and force legislation through the upper house, held by the Democratic Party of Japan.
Abe, a former Prime Minister, has run a campaign centred on jolting the world’s third-biggest economy out of its 20-year stagnation, through massive monetary policy to boost inflation up to target.
“What’s first and foremost is to achieve an economic recovery and pull Japan out of deflation,” he said on live television.
The LDP leader is also known for his hawkish foreign policy, and has promised to take a more forthright stance on territory disputes with neighbour and rival China.
The LDP enjoyed almost 50 years of unbroken rule up until 2009 and Abe has already served as Japanese leader between 2006 and 2007.