Japan campaign opens with focus on economy, nukes

11 years ago | Posted in: Latest Politics News | 645 Views

Leaders of Japan’s major political parties kicked off campaigning Tuesday for this month’s parliamentary elections in nuclear crisis-hit Fukushima prefecture, where more than 100,000 people remain displaced from their homes. Nuclear energy and reviving the stagnant economy are key issues in the Dec. 16 election, which Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s unpopular Democratic Party of Japan is expected to lose after three years in power.

But with polls showing more than 40 percent of voters are undecided, many are not excited about any particular party. No one party has even 20 percent of the public’s support, according to one recent survey.

The opposition Liberal Democratic Party, which ruled Japan for most of the post-World War II era, is leading in polls but unlikely to win a majority in the 480-member lower house of parliament.

The most likely outcome of the election is a coalition government composed of parties that could have competing interests. That would mean more gridlock despite urgent needs to tackle Japan’s many complex problems, from reining in its national debt and coping with a graying population to reconstructing communities wiped out by the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people and triggered meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.

ref: http://newsonjapan.com

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