Prime Minister Abe Shinzo will have a record of the longest-served government leader in the history. Days during which he takes the administration’s post exceeded those of the government led by Premier Sato Eisaku, 2,789 days, last August. On November 20 the incumbent premier will surpass the days served by the pre-war government of Katsura Taro, which counted 2,886 days. His leadership has repeatedly made illicit conducts, and, lately, his government exposes rips. Where do reasons lie for his long rule?

DON’T LEAVE CORRUPTED GOVERNMENT INTACT!

A political commentator has exactly labeled the Abe government – he called it ‘a rotten orange’. Two ministers, who are Premier’s close friends, have resigned. Minister of Education Hagiuda has made an improper remark, consequently, provoking chaos. The mess has involved business entities related to examinations for high school students to enter higher educational institutions. It has disclosed dirty connections of the ministry with the industries, which should have been led to resignation en masse of the cabinet. Furthermore, Premier Abe’s diplomacy shows the poorest record, as is seen in the current relationship of the Japanese government with the Republic of Korea (ROK), which is the worst after the WWII. A territorial issue with Russia is deadlocked.

Why can’t we overthrow it?

We have faced critical phases by which we could have toppled the Abe government; enactment of the war legislation in 2015 and the school scandals of Moritomo and Kake over sales of state-owned land.

Recently the Abe government was criticized over and over again in a lecture meeting for citizens. A participant asked the lecturer: ‘why isn’t such a bad government overthrown? The speaker was at a loss how to answer to the question.

The participant’s inquiry gets to the core of the matter. We cannot oversee it. There are, at least, two possible answers.

The first is incompetency of the opposition forces; they failed in attacking the so-called Abenomics economic policy package precisely. The government has made beautiful covers in the rear to hide the aggravated economic performance. It has deregulated financial activities and mobilized fiscal expenditure regardless of enormous debts accounting a thousand of trillion Yen. It has thrown money about among people, splitting them up. It did not take the so-called austerity finance and monetary policies, which is different from the trend in the world today.

The political parties should have harshly accused the government of a fact that only big businesses can enjoy profit while people are scarcely benefited in monetary terms. Opposition lawmakers, however, simply criticized, saying that ‘the government is irresponsible if it postpones the decision to surge the consumption tax rate’, or that ‘it has failed in reconstructing finances’. By such a weak pose the ruling bloc was not broken up in the elections.

The second is an unconventional, peculiar tactics taken by the Abe government. People do not support the government in a positive way as is seen in a high abstention rate in the elections and drops in the absolute votes in favor of the ruling coalition, or the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito.

On the other hand, however, the alliance is not intended to gain the absolute majority. It just estimated how to win 25% of support from an assumed voting rate of 50%. The coalition devoted in consolidating the right wing elements as a hard core, taking advantage of complementary political parties, including the Ishin (=Renovation) Party.

Competency of the opposition is crucial

President Trump of the United States is despised and criticized by the liberal. The more severe become the attacks, the more solid get his bases in a vulgar way, which is a rightist populist tendency. In the same way the Abe government enhances this tactic. His position toward ROK is abnormally hostile, at which even the business community frowns.

If the opposition parties were strong enough, this kind of government posture could be made into a drawback. The situation, however, is contrary. Taking advantage of amendment of the constitution as a breakthrough, the government could put the nation in a fascist rule.

Consequently, these two factors are interrelated, attributing to ability of the opposition political forces. In Europe, anti-austerity leftist forces are active to quell the rightist populism. In the United States leftist elements become stronger inside the Democratic Party. These leftists are different from the traditional liberal democrats.

In Japan social movements are defeated. Lawmaker Yamamoto Taro’s activities, however, are effective. He presents opposition leaders a chance to think over self-critically: ‘Why are you unable to turn down the illegitimate government?

November 19, 2019