Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a last-ditch effort to woo voters yesterday before an upper house election when his ruling bloc looks set to lose its majority, a result that could cost him his job.
Media projections have forecast that the ruling camp will fall short of securing a majority in yesterday's election, leading to a divided parlia-ment and political paralysis that would give Abe little room to push ahead with his conservative agenda.
Abe went on a final tour in Tokyo along with Shintaro Ishihara, the capital's popular governor and former lawmaker in Abe's Liberal Demo-cratic Party (LDP), to try to win the hearts of urban voters, many of whom are not affiliated to any party.
"We are a responsible party. Please give the LDP power," he told a crowd of 100 in a square in front of a central Tokyo railway station in a late evening speech wrapping up a two-week campaign. "Do we move ahead with reform or do we go backward? We will surely push ahead with reform."
The speech met a lukewarm response. Jun Yamamoto, 38, a computer system engineer, said after listening to Abe that he would vote for the main Opposition Democratic Party. He said he was unhappy about the pension issue and the lower house should be dissolved so voters can choose a new government.
In the election, half of the 242 seats in the upper house will be con-tested, and the LDP and its partner, New Komeito, need 64 seats to keep their majority.
But a survey by the Asahi newspaper published on Friday predicted that the ruling camp would win between 38 and 58 seats, with the LDP alone getting between 31 and 45 seats.
Abe, 52, is Japan's first prime minister to be born after World War Two and took power last September, promising to boost the country's role in global security and revise the US-drafted pacifist constitution.
He initially enjoyed public support of around 60 per cent, and in 10 months in office managed to upgrade the defence agency into a full-fledged ministry and passed legislation aimed at instilling discipline and patriotism in schools.
He also won praise for making a fence-mending trip to China and South Korea within weeks of taking office and improving ties that had been frayed under predecessor Junichiro Koizumi.
But a string of gaffes and corruption scandals that led two cabinet members to resign and one to commit suicide, coupled with mishandling of pension records that could result in retirees being short-changed, have halved his support ratings.
Abe would not automatically need to step down after an upper house loss as the ruling bloc holds a majority in the more powerful lower house, which chooses the prime minister, but he would face strong pressure within the LDP to resign should the party fail to win 40 seats, analysts have said.
A divided parliament would mean laws would be difficult to pass, and the political confusion might force Abe to call an early election for the lower house, which otherwise need not be held until 2009, and open the way for a change of government.