Japan PM won't quit after Sunday's poll-party exec
TOKYO, July 24 (Reuters) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will not resign whatever the results of a July 29 election for parliament's upper house, a ruling party executive said after a string of polls showing the ruling camp was set to lose.
Media surveys have forecast a probable loss for Abe's coalition after his support rates slid to around 30 per cent amid voter anger over bungled pension records and a series of gaffes and scandals that led ministers to resign and one to commit suicide.
''This election is not directly linked to selecting the prime minister, so I think Mr. Abe will continue as prime minister,'' Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) policy chief Shoichi Nakagawa told a news conference today.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki echoed that sentiment, brushing off comparisons to Ryutaro Hashimoto, who stepped down as prime minister in 1998 after the LDP suffered a stunning loss in an upper house poll.
''I believe it was a decision made by the administration at the time,'' Shiozaki told a news conference.
The LDP and its coalition partner, the New Komeito, need a combined total of 64 seats to keep their majority in the upper house, where half the 242 seats are up for grabs. The New Komeito is aiming for 13 seats.
Nakagawa acknowledged the situation was ''very severe'' for the LDP, but said Abe's strategy was to stick with his reform agenda.
''The core focus of the election is to pursue reforms triggered by (former prime minister Junichiro) Koizumi and activate reform under Abe's leadership,'' Nakagawa said. ''This election will show how the public judges our reforms so far.'' Abe's coalition will not be ejected from power if it loses the election since it controls the more powerful lower house, which picks the prime minister.
If the coalition falls short of a majority by just a few seats it can probably keep its grip on the upper house by wooing independents or members of tiny parties.
But a big defeat would make it hard to enact laws, put pressure on the once-popular Abe to resign, and usher in an era of policy paralysis, analysts say.
Abe -- who took power last September pledging to boost Japan's global security profile, revise its pacifist constitution and put more patriotism in school curriculums -- is expected to try to cling to his post.
An election outcome that avoids a worst-case scenario of the LDP winning fewer than 40 seats might help Abe make his case, political analysts said, but how successfully is anyone's guess.
''Abe
would
declare
'victory',''
said
Steven
Reed,
a
political
science
professor
at
Tokyo's
Chuo
University.
''The
question
is
whether
anyone
inside
or
outside
of
the
party
would
agree.''
REUTERS
SV
RAI1157