Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2014 January 22 - 28 [POLITICS]

PM offers runaway policies on his menu

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, using flowery rhetoric, presented his wishlist of a string of bad policies to revise the Constitution, restart offline nuclear reactors, and construct a new U.S. base in Okinawa during his speech delivered on January 24 to the ordinary session of the Diet.

Security
Abe stated he will deal with issues involving Japan’s collective security and right to collective self-defense based on the proposal made by a security panel.

Expressing his eagerness to move forward, he called on certain opposition parties to engage in negotiations on constitutional revisions.

He stated that the country’s role as a peace state will never change but said nothing about the state secrecy law though many citizens are concerned about its passage.

He stated he will push ahead using all his strength with the plan to construct a new base in Nago City in Okinawa, and will disregard the resident’s verdict of opposition to the construction plan by reelecting the anti-base mayor in the recently held Nago City mayoral election.

Diplomacy
Abe’s visit to the controversial shrine of Yasukuni late last year highlights how provocative his behavior is seen even by the United States when U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns met with Japanese ministers to demand that Japan improve its relations with China and South Korea. However, the prime minister did not touch on his stance on the shrine or set out measures to restore Japan’s ties with China and South Korea.

Economy, life
Prime Minister Abe repeatedly talked about a virtuous cycle of economy, clinging to the already-failed outdated argument that the more profit large corporations make, the more stable jobs and the higher incomes households will receive.

He claimed that he will earmark all tax revenues from the increased consumption tax rate for improving and stabilizing social security but at the same time justified further cuts in social security spending by using such rhetoric as the need for a well-balanced program between benefits and burdens and appropriate healthcare spending which increases by one trillion yen yearly.

Nuclear energy
He stated that he sees no problems in reactivating nuclear power stations if power facilities meet related-regulatory standards.