[Abe Shinzo, Japan's nationalist prime minister, surprised many observers with a strong start abroad. Now he's in trouble at home. Caryl and Kashiwage show how distant the Abe Junzo regime's ideologically-driven obsessions with constitutional revision and patriotic education are from the pocketbook issues that concern most Japanese voters. Their findings were backed up recently with empirical proof. A Yomiuri newspaper opinion poll released on February 20th shows that Abe's pet issue, constitutional revision, is listed as a priority by only 6.2% of respondents. This marginal level of support contrasts sharply with the 61.7% ranking for reforms to social security, 52% for economic and employment initiatives, and 34% for child-care and other policies dealing with the dwindling birthrate, issues on which the Abe administration has been virtually silent. Even the “North Korea problem” - which poll respondents presumably associated with the abductee issue - only weighs in at 32.8% after years of pounding by the media under both Koizumi and Abe regimes. The poll results, in Japanese, can be viewed here.
In the same issue of Newsweek, commentator Yoichi Funabashi points to Japan's international isolation in the wake of the recent Beijing agreement projecting North Korea nuclear rollback in exchange for energy assistance and an end to international isolation. Contrasting the deal with the 1994 arrangement when Japan was among the largest financial contributors to provide light water reactors, he notes that the Abe regime's insistence on prioritizing the abduction issue above strategic concerns has relegated it to the sidelines. The result is to weaken Japan's influence in East Asia as well as its relations with the United States. (Andrew DeWit)]
