Even in Victory Abe Needs to Seek Consensus for Political Agenda

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s landslide election victory at the weekend was anything but a ringing endorsement from voters. The vast majority never voted for his coalition.

Abe’s mandate is much smaller than his ruling bloc’s win in the upper house poll suggests: only about one in four voters gave their support. Three-quarters of the electorate either did not vote at all or backed opposition parties.

The opposition, though, was badly fractured, with the Communist Party emerging as one unlikely beneficiary of those who felt unable to back Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition or the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan.

That means Abe — who returned to power in December promising to revive the stagnant economy, bolster Japan’s defense posture and revise its pacifist constitution — may find the only potential brake on his agenda comes from his dovish coalition partner and rivals inside his own LDP.

“The opposition is currently totally ineffective,” said Chuo University political science professor Steven Reed.

via CNBC

This article is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Corporation or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. Leveraged trading is high risk and not suitable for all. You could lose all of your deposited funds.

Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza