Abe's agenda on line as Japan votes

FE Team | Published: July 30, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

TOKYO, July 29 (AFP): Japan voted Sunday in an election predicted to deliver a stinging rebuke to outspoken conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and possibly pressure him to quit.
Abe, who has championed building a more assertive nation proud of its past, has come under fire over a raft of scandals including the government's mismanagement of the pension system.
Opinion polls predict that Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan almost continuously since 1955, could suffer one of its worst drubbings ever, potentially bringing a new era of political chaos.
"I said no to the Liberal Democratic Party. I said no to Abe," Keiko Yutani, a 60-year-old language teacher, said as she cast her ballot near Tokyo's giant Tsukiji fish market.
"I'm extremely angry at Abe's cabinet," Yutani said. "I can't leave my pension funds to them."
Nearly 105 million people are eligible to vote in the election for half the seats in the 242-member upper house of parliament, which polls predict could switch to opposition control.
More than 10 million people, a new record, sent in absentee ballots. Voting stations close at 8:00 pm (1100 GMT), with exit poll results expected soon afterwards.
It is the first nationwide election for Abe, who at 52 is Japan's youngest premier in modern times.
Abe, also Japan's first leader born after World War II, has quickly got to work on ending legacies of the defeat, such as rewriting the US-imposed pacifist constitution.
But his popularity has nosedived in the 10 months since he took over from popular leader Junichiro Koizumi.
Two ministers have quit and another committed suicide after allegations of financial wrongdoing, fuelling perceptions the young premier lacks authority.
Abe was also forced to revamp his campaign to pledge to fix the pension system after a government agency's admission it bungled millions of payment records. The issue is particularly sensitive in Japan, one of the most rapidly ageing countries.
A defeat would not automatically oust Abe as his Liberal Democrat-led coalition enjoys a large majority in the more powerful lower house inherited from Koizumi.