Japan Polls: No clear winner seen
also unhappy with Noda's centerpiece achievement during his nearly 15 months in office: passing legislation to double the nation's 5 percent sales tax by 2015. He says the increase is necessary to meet growing social security costs as the country grays.
Recent polls show about 25-30 percent of voters back the LDP, while support for the DPJ is in the low teens. With scattered support for a few other parties, that leaves nearly half of the public undecided, meaning the outcome is still quite unclear.
“I really don't know who to vote for,'' said 62-year-old taxi driver Tetsuo Suzuki. ``I voted for the DPJ in the last election, but they couldn't seem to get things done. I don't really want to go back to the LDP, either.''
“Japan doesn't seem as perky as it used to be,'' he said, ticking off the economy and the territorial dispute with China as the two most pressing issues. ``We want a strong leader who won't bend his principles.''
Tapping into that voter dismay, outspoken leaders in the two biggest cities in Japan have decided to form their own national political parties, but they may not have enough time to get organized for the election.
The nationalistic governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara _ who stirred up the flap with China by saying the Tokyo government would buy and develop the disputed islands called Senkaku by Japan and Diaoyu by China – resigned recently to create the Sunrise Party.
Toru Hashimoto, the brash, young mayor
Be the first to comment.
