Exit polls: Conservative LDP wins Japan election
Baku, December 18 (AZERTAC). Japan`s conservative Liberal Democratic Party stormed back to power in parliamentary elections Sunday after three years in opposition, exit polls showed, signaling a rightward shift in the government that could further heighten tensions with rival China.The victory means that the hawkish former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will almost certainly get a second chance to lead the nation after a one-year stint in 2006-2007. He would be Japan`s seventh prime minister in six-and-a-half years.
The LDP will stick with its long-time partner New Komeito, backed by a large Buddhist organization, to form a coalition government, party officials said. Together, they will probably control about 320 seats, NHK projected — a two-thirds majority that would make it easier for the government to pass legislation.
The LDP is the most pro-nuclear party, and has said Japan should decide over the next 10 years what sort of energy mix is best.
Abe, 58, is considered one of the more conservative figures in the increasingly conservative LDP.
It remains to be seen how he will behave this time around, though he is talking tough toward China, and the LDP platform calls developing fisheries and setting up a permanent outpost in the disputed islands, called Senkakus by Japan and Daioyu by China — a move that would infuriate Beijing.
It`s not clear, however, how strongly the LDP will push such proposals, which have been kicked around by conservatives for decades but usually make no headway in parliament because they are supported only by a fairly small group of right-wing advocates.
"The economy has been in dire straits these past three years, and it must be the top priority," Abe said in a televised interview. "We must strengthen our alliance with the U.S. and also improve relations with China, with a strong determination that is no change in the fact the Senkaku islands are our territory."
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