The government has revealed the gist of legal revisions for the creation of new residency statuses in a bid to accept more foreign workers.
The new measure is a policy turnaround for Japan, from its traditional official position of refusing to accept menial labor from abroad while using foreign technical intern trainees and students effectively as workers. This arrangement, however, has fallen short of alleviating serious labor shortages, prompting the government to respond to requests from the business community and consider opening the door for overseas workers to find legal employment in 14 industries including agriculture, nursing care and fishing. Convenience stores also want to hire more foreigners through the new residency scheme.
According to the outline presented by the Ministry of Justice, foreigners will be given a residency status allowing them to live in Japan for up to five years if they pass a Japanese language proficiency test. Those confirmed to have special expertise will be allowed to stay longer, with their family members.
Japanese employers, meanwhile, will be required to fulfill certain employment standards such as paying salaries similar to or more than those for Japanese workers. In addition, support programs for such workers' daily lives will be strengthened. If all these measures are actually taken, foreign workers will benefit substantially.
The number of foreigners employed in Japan reached 1.27 million last year, more than double the figure 10 years ago. Of that total, residents with special expertise-based residency statuses such as university professors and doctors numbered around 230,000, while technical intern trainees and students actually in Japan to work constituted about 540,000.
The technical trainee program was originally designed to have foreigners train in Japan and return home with experience and expertise they acquired here. But in reality, the program is used to make up for labor shortfalls. This contradiction will be maintained even after the introduction of the new residency statuses.
Trainees with three years or more of experience can switch their status to a new one allowing a five-year stay without taking a test. This will allow them to work for up to 10 years in Japan as trainees themselves can stay for a maximum five years. This appears to be the main goal of the new policy.
Many technical intern trainees are exploited by brokers back home who charge exorbitant fees to match them with Japanese firms, or by host companies that force them to work long hours for low pay. They may end up working side by side with workers with new residency status with better employment conditions. Such a situation may cause a major disparity among foreign workers.
The government should tackle this complicated residency status problem head on.

Natsuo Yamaguchi entered his 10th year as the head of Komeito, winning his sixth consecutive term during the general meeting of the party. Komeito is the junior coalition partner of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
Fellow Komeito members praise the management style of Yamaguchi, 66, as stable, but Komeito has done little to appeal its own agenda under a political climate dominated by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The LDP controls a majority of seats in both houses of the Diet. The number of seats Komeito has in the House of Representatives is only 10 percent of that held by the LDP, and 20 percent of the LDP's strength in the House of Councillors. Komeito still maintains a coalition with the LDP because of the parties' mutual dependence in elections growing deeper.
Komeito has cooperated in the passage of bills with a strong "Abe color" in the Diet. They include the Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets, national security acts and related revisions allowing the use of the right to collective defense, the revised act to punish organized crimes that incorporated conspiracy as a punishable offence and the act on integrated resorts that has paved the way for the introduction of casinos.
There was strong public opposition against each of those legislations. Because of this, Komeito helped revise the drafts for the bills, and while the implication of such efforts may be understood, Komeito itself has yet to send a clear message about the party's goals for Japan.
The meaning of the LDP-Komeito coalition has shifted from supporting the LDP in the Diet to supporting it in elections. Now, Komeito acts as though it is a complementary element to Abe's politics.
For the first time, Komeito failed to win 7 million votes in the national proportional representation blocs in the lower house election last year. Critics inside the party accuse the current leadership of distancing Komeito from its founding principles of pursuing humanism, peace and public welfare, and instead focusing on defending its organization in the face of continuing decline in public support. In the Sept. 30 Okinawa gubernatorial election, one of the most important local elections for the ruling coalition, Komeito failed to get the candidate to whom it gave its all-out support with the LDP elected.
Komeito should play the role of striking a balance with the LDP, which tends to rush in one direction. The party should have admonished Prime Minister Abe for his handling of favoritism allegations involving school operators Moritomo Gakuen and Kake Educational Institution. Komeito also failed to follow through with criticizing Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Taro Aso over a series of scandals involving the Finance Ministry under his supervision.
Did the party decide to go soft on Aso due to the necessity of cooperating with the LDP in the upper house election next year? If that is the case, the party must reconsider its stance.
Prime Minister Abe has indicated that he will accelerate his efforts to revise the Constitution. Yamaguchi is cautious about taking such a step, but the LDP may try to ram the revisions through the Diet, judging from its past behavior involving coalition affairs. If that happens, can Komeito live up to its fundamental ideals and utilize its experience and deep knowledge about managing the ruling coalition?
The sixth term of the Yamaguchi-led Komeito leadership has also taken generational changes into account, replacing Yoshihisa Inoue, 71, with Tetsuo Saito, 66, as the secretary general of the party. As Komeito commemorates its 55th anniversary next year, more questions are likely to be raised about the originality of the party's policies.

Oct. 8 marks the 20th anniversary of the announcement of the 1998 joint declaration between Japan and the Republic of Korea calling for comprehensive bilateral cooperation. In the declaration, Tokyo and Seoul aimed for a new, forward-looking relationship, and the document has a substantial meaning even today.
The declaration included then Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's expression of "his deep remorse and heartfelt apology" over Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea accepted this recognition of history, and appreciated the role that Japan had played in postwar international peace and prosperity.
Through the declaration, the two leaders called upon their peoples to deepen ties based on mutual respect and effort to seek middle ground. The document is regarded as an expression of will by the highest levels of government to improve the Japan-South Korea relationship.
The document was a product of historical circumstances. After the end of the Cold War, Japan's Liberal Democratic Party lost its decades-long grip on power, and liberal political ideas gained support in Japan. South Korea faced a currency crisis in 1997, and needed emergency economic support from Tokyo. In addition, a North Korean ballistic missile flew over the Japanese archipelago in late August of 1998, prompting Tokyo and Seoul to close ranks.
Bilateral tension, however, flared up again in the 21st century over historical or territorial issues as nationalistic sentiments grew. The substantial retreat from the goals of political cooperation set out in the 1998 declaration is most unfortunate. Furthermore, this vicious cycle will not end as long as both countries continue to fan domestic emotions on sensitive topics such as the comfort women issue.
Recently, South Korea requested that Japanese Self-Defense Forces vessels attending an international fleet review to be organized by Seoul refrain from hoisting the rising sun flag, perceived in South Koreas a symbol of Japan's prewar militarism. Japan decided to skip the event.
South Korea accepted Japanese vessels flying the rising sun flag in past reviews in 1998 and 2008. Japan cannot accept the new condition on flying the flag if it is based on a change in South Korean people's emotions. Mutual respect should be the starting point of bilateral relationship.
Meanwhile, we heartily welcome the dramatic progress in private sector exchanges. The development began with the opening up of South Korea to Japanese culture by President Kim. More and more young people have come to enjoy the cultures of the other country, resulting in mutually improved impressions.
Panels of experts set up by respective ministries of foreign affairs proposed accelerating private exchange. We hope the proposals will be implemented quickly and steadily.
Understanding and accepting differences needs patience and time. But it is important to tackle the challenge tenaciously. Let us once again remember the spirit of the joint declaration.

Education Minister Masahiko Shibayama, appointed to the Cabinet for the first time in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Oct. 2 reshuffle, started his stint in the minister's seat with a statement on the prewar Imperial Rescript on Education belonging entirely to that past era: "It has universality in a sense that it can be rearranged for use for moral education classes."
The statement should be regarded as the true intention of the Abe administration. The words came from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, who is at the helm of education policy. He did not deny he would use the rescript, issued under the name of Emperor Meiji in 1890 and abolished in 1948, and this serious overstep cannot be ignored.
Shibayama, formerly a special adviser to Abe as the president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, tweeted in August this year that he feels "the way the postwar education programs and the Constitution have been administered lacks balance."
He was then asked at a press conference right after his assumption of his ministerial position about his thoughts on the Imperial rescript. He answered that there are moves to teach some of the rescript's basic content, such as being "affectionate to your brothers and sisters," by rewording it in contemporary language, and that it is "worth consideration."
The Imperial Rescript on Education has attracted attention in recent years as it was chanted by small children at a kindergarten managed by the Moritomo Gakuen school operator, which has been at the center of a favoritism scandal linked to the prime minister and his wife. The content addressed to the emperor's "subjects" was subsequently debated widely in the Diet. Then in March last year, the Abe Cabinet decided not to repudiate use of the rescript in classes as long as this did not violate the Constitution or the Basic Act on Education. Shibayama's latest comment is apparently the next in this series of events.
However, the Imperial Rescript on Education was the basis for the nationalism prevalent in prewar Japan, and helped promote militarism. The core of the document is this exhortation: "Guard and maintain the prosperity of Our Imperial Throne coeval with heaven and earth" -- an instruction to be prepared to give one's life in case of a national emergency.
People who support the rescript say it contains universal values such as filial piety. But focusing on some parts to justify the whole is a logical handstand. There is no need to resort to the Imperial Rescript on Education to ask people to be nice to their parents. The fixation on this document appears to reveal the Abe administration's yearning to return Japan to prewar days.
The Cabinet's March 2017 decision that the rescript can be used "in ways not against the Constitution" is vague. Education minister Shibayama mentioned that another portion of the document that "can be used" is "its placement of importance on international cooperation." The rescript, however, did not promote international cooperation in the contemporary sense.
Starting this spring at elementary schools and next spring at junior high schools, moral education classes will become "special subjects," and pupils and students will be graded based on their performance. Is school education moving in the direction of forcing prewar values on children? It has been only a few days since the new Cabinet was launched, but we already have to worry about this issue.

The fourth Cabinet under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was inaugurated on Oct. 2. The lineup includes 12 new ministers -- the largest number of Cabinet newcomers in the history of the Abe administration. The personnel arrangement honors the wishes of intraparty factions that supported the prime minister in his successful bid for the presidency of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
Seven of the new ministers are veteran politicians who have won the House of Representatives elections seven times or more. This implies that the premier was trying to accept as many people as possible from a "waiting list" of would-be Cabinet members who had not been able to make it.
Newcomers face concerns regarding their administrative prowess and their ability to handle Diet question-and-answer sessions. They are prone to a higher risk of becoming targets of the opposition camp over their past words and deeds, including scandals.
One such newcomer, Satsuki Katayama, the new minister in charge of regional revitalization, attracted criticism for her social media tweet perceived as slanderous against a child from a poor family. She was also forced to apologize for being late at a Diet hearing when she was the chairwoman of the House of Councillors foreign affairs and defense committee.
The new environment Minister Yoshiaki Harada previously resigned as state minister for education over an allegation that he had falsified his academic background. He also demanded a review of the government's official stance on the "Nanjing Massacre" committed by the Imperial Japanese Army.
Yoshitaka Sakurada, who has been appointed minister in charge of promoting the Olympics and Paralympics, once said that so-called "comfort women" who were forced to provide sexual services to the Japanese military during World War II, did so "for business," but retracted the remark after facing criticism. Many of the new ministers are far right politicians supportive of Prime Minister Abe.
In the party reshuffle, Abe chose Akira Amari as the head of the Election Strategy Headquarters. Amari resigned in 2016 as minister for economic revitalization over an influence-peddling allegation involving his receipt of cash in his office. Amari is a close friend of the prime minister. The whole administration now has many people who belong to Abe's inner circle.
It is hard to understand what the premier wants to do during his next three-year term as LDP president with the personnel selection he made this time.
Still, we can see that he is bent on revising the Constitution from the fact that he chose his close aides as head of the party's decision-making General Council and chief of the headquarters for the promotion of constitutional revision.
Abe retained several key officials, including Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga and ministers of foreign affairs and trade. The core framework of his administration thus remains the same.
The premier says he will continue to pursue his major policies including his Abenomics package of economic measures, but his past pet projects such as regional revitalization and offering opportunities for everyone in Japan, don't seem to be receiving his enthusiastic backing anymore. The new Cabinet has just one woman, a substantial drop from a one-time high of five female ministers. Empowerment of women, which also was Abe's signature policy goal, does not appear to be in front and center of his policy portfolio.
The prime minister has said that he will "reform the social security system in three years in an age when people have a lifespan of 100 years." To achieve this goal, an all-out effort by the entire government is necessary to counter depopulation and a concentration of people in Tokyo, and to reform state revenue sources including raising the consumption tax.
The premier likened his new Cabinet to a tightly knit baseball team with all players and coaches doing their parts to help each other. But we wonder if the Cabinet, with the current setup, can serve for a long period.

Former House of Representatives member Denny Tamaki won the Okinawa gubernatorial election on Sept. 30, after running on a platform opposing the central government-backed relocation of a U.S. base within the southernmost prefecture. This is the second time in a row that residents of Okinawa have chosen a leader against the project, following the 2014 election of the late Gov. Takeshi Onaga. This outcome requires serious consideration.
The administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has for years defied the will of Okinawans with its moves to force the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from Ginowan, a city in the prefecture's south, to the Henoko district of the city of Nago in central Okinawa. In the latest gubernatorial race, the administration supported former Ginowan Mayor Atsushi Sakima, organizing an all-out campaign deploying its affiliated Diet lawmakers, local assembly members and even political secretaries throughout the prefecture.
Still, Tamaki emerged victorious. It is now clear that the Abe administration has no choice but to review its previous position.
The Futenma airbase, located in the middle of a residential area, must be returned to Japan as soon as possible. Tokyo and Washington agreed to do so 22 years ago, but the base still sits where it has always been. This situation betrays a perception gap between mainland Japan and Okinawa over the burden of living with American military bases.
Many Japanese people agree that the presence of U.S. forces in Japan based on the bilateral security treaty is the cornerstone of the country's national security.
The core of the problem is the extreme imbalance between the burden Okinawa has to shoulder by accepting a majority of American bases, and the benefits the whole nation enjoys from Japan-U.S. defense cooperation.
Okinawa wants the Futenma base to be moved out of the prefecture, while the central government insists that the relocation to Henoko is "the only option to remove the danger of the facility" to Ginowan. They are talking past each other.
In democracies, policy is determined in the end by the majority, but this is premised on a thorough discussion reflecting the opinions of minorities. The central government has sole authority over foreign and security policy, but we do not call it democratic when an overwhelming majority on the mainland forces minorities in Okinawa to endure hardships.
The central government now has to begin a sincere dialogue with the prefectural government on how to resolve their conflict over the base relocation.
When Onaga assumed his governorship, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga refused to see him for four long months. If they repeat such immature behavior toward the new Gov. Tamaki, the tension between the central and prefectural governments will only worsen.
A prefectural referendum on whether to proceed with the reclamation of the Henoko site to relocate the Futenma base is going to be carried out by spring next year. The Liberal Democratic Party leads the national ruling coalition, but Prime Minister Abe, even after winning his third consecutive term as president of the party, cannot change the situation for the better by forcing the burden of U.S. base hosting onto Okinawa without a dialogue.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has announced that he will reshuffle his Cabinet on Oct. 2, retaining Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Taro Aso and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.
The personnel change comes after the prime minister's victory in the Sept. 20 ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) presidential election, earning Abe his third consecutive term as chief. In the upcoming reshuffle, he announced his intention to appoint "as diverse a range of people as possible over a solid foundation."
This means the prime minister regards the two senior officials as his solid "foundation" for seeking out the completion of his policies. However, it must be pointed out that Aso has not taken political responsibility over a series of scandals that shook his Finance Ministry.
The ministry falsified documents regarding the sale of government land to school operator Moritomo Gakuen at a massive discount. The ministry then lied about the records of the negotiation to the Diet for over a year. Aso tried to close the curtain on the unprecedented scandal by simply punishing the bureaucrats involved, effectively shelving efforts to get to the bottom of the case.
A Cabinet reshuffle could act as an opportunity to settle questions about Aso's responsibility for the scandal. Retaining him is tantamount to declaring that his accountability will go completely unquestioned. Moreover, Aso has also committed gaffes that have made many wonder if he is in fact suited to be a member of the Cabinet.
When a sexual harassment case involving the then top bureaucrat at the Finance Ministry came to light, Aso defended his subordinate saying, "Under the current legal system, there is no such thing as 'criminal sexual harassment.'" He even went as far as to make the uninformed statement that Japan is "the only colored race among the G-7 (Group of Seven) countries."
Last year, Aso said, "Hitler, who killed millions, is bad even if his motivations were right." The statement gave the impression as if he showed understanding toward the Jewish persecution by Nazi Germany, and almost obliterated international confidence in the Abe administration.
Nevertheless, the prime minister says he will retain Aso. Abe said he has worked on his "Abenomics" economic policy mix "hand in hand" with the finance minister, and appears to think that this is enough of a reason to keep Aso in the Cabinet. But the core policy of Abenomics is monetary easing by the Bank of Japan, and the policy has failed to meet the goal of achieving a 2 percent inflation target to pull the country's economy out of deflation.
It is questionable that Aso is the only person right for the job. Aso has maintained his support for Abe, even when he had everything to lose from the criticism aimed at the prime minister over the Moritomo favoritism case. The action made it clear that Abe and Aso deeply trust one another on a personal level.
Still, retaining Aso without a convincing explanation is a personnel decision that fails to consider anything beyond the narrow scope of the administration and ruling party.
In the LDP presidential election, former Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba won 45 percent of the vote from party members. This outcome should be considered as criticism of Prime Minister Abe's handling of the administration, including the Moritomo scandal.
However, Aso dismissed the results, saying that Ishiba's showing in the election cannot be described as a good attempt by Ishiba. One must wonder if the prime minister is of the same opinion.

China moved toward a historic reconciliation with the Vatican as the two countries signed a provisional agreement on Sept. 22 about the appointment of bishops.
China's Catholic churches have long been divided into two groups -- one sanctioned by Beijing and the other comprising underground churches loyal to the Holy See. The focal point now is whether the oppression of the underground churches will end.
Originally, the atheistic communist regime of China and the Vatican were enemies. The Holy See did not recognize the People's Republic of China when it was established in 1949, and they severed ties entirely when the Vatican minister to China was expelled.
China created its own Catholic body, the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, and appointed bishops for domestic dioceses. The Vatican did not recognize these appointments, and the two sides were long at loggerheads.
The Chinese government says China has approximately 6 million Catholics, but it is estimated that about the same number belong to the underground churches, bringing the projected total to some 12 million.
Of some 100 bishops, some 60 percent are ordained both by China and the pope, with another 30 percent appointed by the pope alone. With the latest agreement, Pope Francis acknowledged seven bishops named only by Beijing. This means that all bishops in China obtained their positions under the authority of the pope, meaning that the Vatican now stands at the head of both officially recognized and underground congregations.
For Beijing, merging the two groups is an easy way to control China's Catholics as the government increases state control of religion under the banner of strengthening the rule of law.
Furthermore, the Vatican is the only European country with diplomatic ties to Taiwan, and it appears Beijing's moves to normalize relations with the Holy See are intended in part to boost diplomatic pressure on the island territory, which China considers a renegade province.
If China intends to guarantee "freedom of religion" only to groups it recognizes using the agreement with the Vatican as a justification, it would be putting the cart before the horse.
Recently, the Chinese authorities have carried out repeated crackdowns on the country's growing underground Protestant churches, saying they are not registered with the government. Meanwhile, Beijing's systemic persecution of the predominantly Muslim Uighur minority has been pointed out in a United Nations. Human right violations against the people of Tibet who follow the exiled Dalai Lama, now living in India, are also always seen as a problem.
It is only natural that people in a society that is becoming complex as a result of its economic growth turn to religion for peace of mind. Beijing's religious intolerance also contributes to the view that China is an abnormal country. As the agreement with the Vatican is struck, Beijing could contribute to the stability of Chinese society by reviewing its religious policy.

The U.S. administration of President Donald Trump is intensifying pressure on the Palestinians. This extremely pro-Israeli position disqualifies Washington as a mediator for peace in the Middle East.
The U.S. Department of State announced in late August that it was suspending all financial support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). It also decided to close the representative office in Washington, D.C. of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which functions as an embassy in the U.S.
Both measures are huge blows to the Palestinians. UNRWA runs many schools and provides medical and food support in the Palestine enclaves on the west bank of the Jordan River valley and in Gaza as well as in refugee camps throughout the Middle East including Jordan and Lebanon. The agency is facing a financial crisis as the United States, the biggest donor, is withdrawing.
The U.S. is justifying its actions by citing the excessive financial burden and its dissatisfaction with the way the UNRWA is run, but there apparently are other motivations.
As for the closure of the Palestine representative office, Washington cited its refusal to resume peace negotiations with Israel and accept the United States as a mediator. These two successive measures have the tone and tenor of punitive actions against the Palestinians for not adhering to the U.S.
But one must remember that the Palestinians began to refuse contact with Washington after President Trump recognized Jerusalem as "the capital of Israel," and moved the U.S. Embassy to the city. It is impossible for the Palestinians to depend on the United States as a peace mediator when the Americans are treating Israel so favorably.
The issue of Jerusalem and the right to return of Palestinian refugees are said to be the two most difficult problems to solve in the Middle East peace talks. The United States clearly intends to remove Jerusalem from the negotiating table. The country is also demanding a drastic reduction in the number of people recognized as Palestine refugees. This posture appears to be in line with the Israeli demand that the right of refugees' return be dropped off the negotiating agenda.
The Trump administration still intends to mediate the peace talks. But its reported proposal of urging the Palestinians to give up their plan for a state of their own has attracted criticism.
It is deplorable to try to use humanitarian support as a leverage to force a party to sit down for peace negotiations. Such an action will simply deepen Palestinian dissatisfaction, and will not contribute to peace.
A ministerial meeting on supporting UNRWA will shortly be held at the United Nations. Japan, as a co-chair for the session with Jordan, should strongly encourage participants to extend support to the Palestinians, and the United States to rethink its position.

The results of the Sept. 20 presidential election of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) clearly showed that there are party members who are critical of and dissatisfied with the current administration.
The leadership race gave a third consecutive term to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Now he could possibly become the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history with three additional years to lead the ruling party and the country until fall 2021. This outcome, for sure, carries substantial meaning.
Abe, however, was able to garner only 55 percent of the votes from rank-and-file party members, despite his superior position as an incumbent prime minister. He did manage to overwhelm his opponent and former LDP Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba.
Party member votes are said to reflect public opinion as a whole. The outcome of the LDP race shows that a wide gap exists between the opinion of ordinary people and that of Diet members.
Priding himself for winning almost 70 percent of the total votes, the prime minister suggested that he won because people accepted all of his policies. If he really thinks that way, it is hard not to call him overly naive.
Abe's political attitude and methods seem to have apparently drawn the ire of rank-and-file party members. Ishiba managed to win more votes than expected as his campaign slogan "honest, fair" politics nailed down Abe's fundamental flaws and weaknesses.
In the favoritism scandal involving school operator Moritomo Gakuen, the prime minister insisted that it was "clear" that neither he nor his wife Akie Abe was involved in the sale of the state-owned land plot to the operator at a staggering discount.
Akie was also appointed the "honorary principal" of the elementary school Moritomo planned to build on the plot. The Ministry of Finance then falsified records of the land sale negotiations between its officials and the school operator, removing the name of Akie and others from the documents. The ministry's report never gave a clear answer as to why this fundamental problem occurred. Abe's explanations have simply been unconvincing.
Reporters pointed out that it was inappropriate for Abe to play golf frequently with the head of the Kake Educational Institution, a longtime friend of Abe and the center of another school-related favoritism scandal. The prime minister shot back, "Is it OK to play tennis or shogi instead?" His argument was off the mark, and also childish. His explanations must have left more people dismayed than convinced. At the time, the school operator was seeking government approval for a plan to build a veterinary school in the western Japan prefecture of Ehime.
Now Prime Minister Abe has three more years to govern the nation. But he must first successfully lead the party to a big win in the House of Councillors election next summer in order to solidify the completion of his final term as party president, and public opinion is far chillier than that among LDP members. A recent Mainichi Shimbun poll showed the public approval rating for the Abe Cabinet remained less than 40 percent, and more and more people are opposed to the administration.
LDP insiders will no doubt be worried about the upcoming upper house race because of the results of the rank-and-file party member votes. The situation surrounding the prime minister is changing, and he must realize that the self-righteous approach he has taken so far has lost currency.
Ordinary party members are dissatisfied because economic recovery is not reaching their regional areas. Many people feel the "Abenomics" economic policy mix promoted by the Abe administration is only for major corporations and big cities, and local communities have been cast aside. In the LDP race, those people appeared to have supported Ishiba, who called for more party weight to be placed on the economic recovery of rural areas.
Abe asserted that this latest presidential election is his last. He apparently knows that he cannot simply repeat earlier excuses that his reforms still have a way to go. That thinking is reflected in his intention to find a way out of the massive monetary easing policies led by the Bank of Japan in order to climb out of deflation.
At the same time, the prime minister continued to praise himself by using cherry-picked employment and tax revenue figures. He can no longer turn a blind eye to inconvenient facts if he wants to bring his administration into the next phase of his policies.
An issue requiring a hands-on approach by Abe himself is Japan's increasing depopulation. He needs to come up with comprehensive, long-term countermeasures soon.
Abe faces challenges in foreign diplomacy as well. He will be required to bring concrete results concerning Japan's territorial dispute with Russia and the abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korea. Simply putting on a show of working hard on these issues is no longer good enough.
What is more, it is under these circumstances that the prime minister wants to submit a draft of constitutional revisions to the extraordinary session of the Diet this fall, saying he intends to clarify the existence of the Self-Defense Forces in the supreme law.
Abe has made it his mission to change the Constitution before he leaves office. But is it really an issue requiring immediate attention and that is also sought after by the general public? We do recognize that there is a need for debate on constitutional revision. However, writing the SDF into the Constitution will not shore up the economy or stop depopulation. We do not support his position of rushing to fulfill a personal, ideological desire.
A serious responsibility awaits the prime minister next when he must usher in a new era with the planned abdication of the Emperor. First, however, Abe must regain public trust in the political sphere. This is a challenge that each and every LDP Diet lawmaker who overwhelmingly chose Abe as their leader, even in the absence of substantial policy discussions, must now face.