Reluctant Policy Speech

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday made his policy speech in the Special Session of the Diet convoked after the election of House of Representatives. What he had appealed in the election campaign was continuity of his administration. He actually made no change in the list of Ministers of Abe Cabinet after the election. That is why there was nothing new in his policy speech, weakening political momentum of Abe administration.

Asahi Shimbun reported that Abe’s policy speech contained about 3,500 letters, the second shortest one in these 30 years following Prime Minister Jun-ichiro Koizumi’s speech right after general election with his Postal Service Reform Dissolution in 2005. There was no attractive quotation of famous words by old figures or historical episode, which had been usual in Prime Minister’s policy speech to the Diet.

The speech was titled as “Activation of Policies for Cultivating Future.” “Situation of North Korea with rising tension and acceleration of aged society with low birth. Now, our country faces many problems, precipitating it into a national crisis,” Abe began his speech with recognition of crisis, ignoring a survey by Cabinet Office in which 8 Japanese people out of 10 realized their country was in good security.

Abe then introduced himself to continue his administration as a result of last election of House of Representatives. “Activate your policies with stable political basis was the voices of the people expressed in the election,” boasted Abe, even though his Liberal Democratic Party could achieve less than a half of all general votes in spite of getting overwhelming majority of all the seats in the House.

Although he raised North Korean issue after the preface, newspapers did not miss his ambition for constitutional amendment. Abe proposed constructive discussion for the future beyond the aisle. “In the effort of sharing wisdom and leading to a conclusion, I believe that we can promote the discussion on constitutional amendment,” told Abe without stepping forward from what he had been saying. To justify his policy of raising consumption tax rate in 2019, Abe stressed importance of education for free, taking advantage of additional fiscal budget produced by the tax increase.

Abe did not want to deliver his policy speech in this session. It is usual for the opposite parties to ask questions on Prime Minister’s policy speech. When he accepted the questions, it would be inevitable to be asked about Moritomo and Kake scandal, which had caused the decline of public support for Abe administration in the first half of this year. Having noticed the decline of Abe’s political power, the leaders of LDP accept the request of the opposite party to test Abe’s survivability.