ASIA / PACIFIC
March 20, 2017
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
Rule change could make Abe longest-serving leader in Japan
THIRD TERM? Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe, center, shouts traditional banzai (long life) cheers
with lawmakers and members of his ruling Liberal
Democratic Party during its annual convention in To-
kyo. Japan’s ruling party has approved a change in
party rules that could pave the way for Abe to become
the country’s longest-serving leader in the post-World
War II era. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
By Ken Moritsugu
The Associated Press
OKYO — Japan’s ruling party
approved a change in party rules
that could pave the way for Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe to become the
country’s longest-serving leader in the
post-World War II era.
It is a remarkable turnaround for Abe,
who lasted only a year during an earlier
stint as prime minister, and in a country
that had six prime ministers in the six
years before Abe returned to office in
December 2012.
Analysts say that Japan’s 62-year-old
leader learned from his first term in office,
when he focused on divisive issues such as
constitutional revision and patriotic
education that contributed to his early
downfall. This time, he has made an
expansionary economic policy with a
catchy name, “Abenomics,” front and
center at election time.
“The interesting thing is that formerly
Abe did not seem to be interested in
economic policy,” said Yu Uchiyama, a
professor of politics at Tokyo Univer-
sity.
He said that Abe, a conservative, had
been more interested in things like
constitutional change. “But right after he
got power for the second time, he did not
put forth such a right-wing agenda.
Instead, he introduced and emphasized
the economic issue.”
T
That doesn’t mean Abe has given up on
goals such as revising the constitution,
which was drafted by a U.S.-led occupation
force after World War II. However, Abe
needs to win over a reluctant public — any
amendment
requires
approval
by
two-thirds of the legislature and a national
referendum — and that will take time.
“The constitution represents the shape
of our country, and it should describe
Japan’s ideal future,” Abe told the annual
convention of his Liberal Democratic Party
(LDP). He said the LDP will take the lead
in promoting discussion over details of a
revision.
The party rubber stamped a decision by
its leaders last fall to allow the head of the
party to run for a third three-year term,
rather than be limited to two. In Japan’s
parliamentary system, the ruling party
leader generally becomes the prime
minister. The change would allow Abe to
stay until 2021, if he can maintain the
support of his party and voters, rather
than step down in September 2018.
Abe, now in his fifth year in office, is
Japan’s sixth-longest serving prime
minister since 1945. The recordholder is
Eisaku Sato, who led the country for more
than seven years from 1964 to 1972. He is
also the brother of Abe’s grandfather,
Nobusuke Kishi, who was prime minister
from 1957 to 1960. If Abe can hold on, he
would surpass Sato in August 2020.
Uchiyama said Abe has maintained his
hold on power in part by taking advantage
of electoral and administrative reforms
that strengthened the prime minister’s
control of both his party and the
bureaucracy.
Jeff Kingston, a Japan expert at Temple
University’s Japan campus in Tokyo,
called Abe the most powerful prime
minister in the postwar era.
“There has been an incredible
concentration and centralization of power
in the prime minister’s office under Abe,
unlike his predecessors, where power was
widely distributed and the prime minister
was one among many,” he said.
Still, given public opinion, Kingston
gave Abe only a 50-50 chance of achieving
constitutional revision: “Polls suggest he
has got a long battle to get the public with
him.”
A third term would also give Abe more
time to try to resolve a thorny territorial
dispute with Russia that has kept the two
countries from signing a peace treaty to
end World War II hostilities.
Associated Press writers Kaori Hitomi and
Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this report.
Nepalese police tear down
earthquake victim camp in the capital
By Binaj Gurubacharya
The Associated Press
ATHMANDU,
Nepal
—
Authorities have torn down
hundreds of makeshift huts in
Nepal’s capital, using bulldozers to level
the largest temporary camp housing
people who were made homeless when a
devastating earthquake rocked the
country nearly two years ago.
Wearing riot gear, police said they
destroyed about 440 huts made of bamboo
and plastic sheeting that had been home to
about 2,000 people near Kathmandu’s
Boudha Shrine.
Settlers had been given one month’s
notice, but still were taken by surprise
when the bulldozers appeared. Many
rushed to collect their belongings, saying
they had nowhere else to go after
authorities
offered
no
alternative
housing.
“Our home is destroyed. I have no idea
where I am going to go and live with my
one-year-old baby,” said Chameli Pariyar,
40, who said she was too sick to work and
planned to beg in nearby temples.
Authorities said they were urging the
residents to instead apply for government
aid to help rebuild their homes.
“We gave them enough time to leave and
told them to go back to their villages, so
K
they can collect the grant given by the
government,” said Him Nath Dawadi, a
government administrator in Kathmandu.
Nepal has been sharply criticized for
moving slowly in helping people rebuild
after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake
ripped across the Himalayan nation in
April 2015, killing 9,000 people and
destroying nearly a million homes and
structures.
Only about $250 million in aid has been
dispersed to some 554,614 homeless
families, out of a total $2.6 billion Nepal
has collected from $4 billion pledged by
foreign governments, according to the
National Reconstruction Authority.
The payments already made cover just
the first $450 installment out of a planned
total of $1,890 for each qualifying family.
The destroyed Boudha camp was the
largest makeshift camp for those displaced
by the earthquake. There are dozens of
other smaller makeshift camps around the
Nepalese capital, but officials said there
are no immediate plans to demolish those.
The
government-funded
National
Human Rights Commission criticized the
Boudha camp destruction, and said it
would press the government to help the
displaced residents.
“This was an inhuman act by the
authorities,” said Mohna Ansari of the
commission.
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