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Abe Now Japan's Longest Serving PM 11/20 06:25
TOKYO (AP) -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made history Wednesday by becoming
Japan's longest-serving political leader, though he hasn't achieved his biggest
goal of revising the nation's pacifist constitution.
Abe marked his 2,887th day in office, surpassing Taro Katsura from the early
20th century.
"Day by day, I have made efforts to achieve the policies that I have
promised, and because of these daily efforts I'm here to mark this day," Abe
told reporters.
Following his disappointing 2006-2007 term, Abe returned to office in 2012
and has since bolstered Japan's defense role but hasn't yet been able to change
the constitution and to allow a full-fledged military.
Abe and his right-wing supporters have long seen the U.S.-drafted
war-renouncing constitution as a legacy of Japan's World War II defeat and
humiliation during U.S. occupation.
Abe has been stepping up his effort to push through a constitutional change
before his party leadership, his third term, ends in September 2021. Abe has
denied rumors that he will seek a fourth term in the absence of a strong
successor.
The charter campaign has struggled due to a lack of support among a public
more concerned with the economy and social security. Abe must obtain approval
by two-thirds of both houses of parliament plus a majority in a national
referendum to make any revision to the constitution.
Abe on Wednesday renewed his pledge to beat deflation, tackle Japan's aging
and declining population and achieve the constitutional revision.
Abe's resignation after his scandal-laden first time was the beginning of
six years of annual leadership change, remembered as the era of "revolving
door" politics that lacked stability and long-term policies.
When he returned to office in 2012, he vowed to revitalize the nation and
get its economy out of the deflationary doldrums that had weighed on growth for
years, after the implosion of the country's financial bubble in the early 1990s.
His "Abenomics" formula of stimulating consumer demand through government
spending, massive injections of cash into the economy via central bank
purchases of government bonds and other assets and sweeping structural reforms
has kept the economy growing, but at a much slower rate than promised. Boosting
growth remains a challenge given the fast aging of Japan's workforce and its
shrinking population.
Abe has made only halting progress with reforms intended to improve
productivity and open up the labor market.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga cited Abe's strong leadership and
economy-first policies as the main reasons for his long tenure in office.
Opponents, however, said Abe's time in office has led to cronyism, autocracy
and caused more damage than benefit to democracy.
"The administration is without legacy or achievement," said Tetsuro
Fukuyama, a senior lawmaker in the main opposition Constitutional Democratic
Party of Japan. "It's not helping the people's lives, and the disparity between
the riches and the poor is widening."
Experts say Abe's long leadership is not necessarily because voters actively
support his policies, but is in part based on reluctant support for his party
in the absence of viable liberal-center contenders after the 2009-2011 rule of
the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan ended in disappointment and the party
broken into smaller groups.
"In a way, Mr. Abe has since been scoring default victories," Takashi
Mikuriya, a University of Tokyo politics professor, told the NHK.
In his second term, Abe has so far survived a spate of scandals, including
his own and others in his Cabinet. A recent one involved his annual cherry
blossom viewing party. He had to cancel one planned for next spring after he
was criticized over the use of taxpayer money for thousands of guests from his
election constituency and private support groups.
(KR)
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