Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on
Monday vowed he would try to persuade a sceptical public of the need to
revise Japan's pacifist constitution, the day after scoring a thumping
election victory.
The premier,
who was re-elected by a landslide in Sunday's polls, pledged to pursue
his nationalist agenda while promising to follow through on much-needed
economic reforms.
"Revising the constitution... has always been an objective since the Liberal Democratic Party was launched," Abe told reporters.
Abe's desire to water down Japan's constitution, imposed by the US after the end of World War II, has proved divisive at home and strained already tense relations with China.
His
attempt earlier this year was abandoned, with the bar of a two-thirds
parliamentary majority and victory in a referendum thought too high.
The
conservative leader has also said he wants reforms to education that
would instil patriotism in schoolchildren and urges a more sympathetic
retelling of Japan's wartime misdeeds.
His
ruling LDP and its junior partner Komeito swept the ballot on Sunday
with a two-thirds majority in the lower house of parliament.
The
coalition won a combined 326 of the 475 seats, crushing the main
opposition Democratic Party of Japan. Their slightly-improved tally of
73 did not include leader Banri Kaieda, who fell on his sword on Monday.
- Abenomics go-ahead -
He
insisted the election had been a necessary plebiscite on his
big-spending, easy-money policies, known as Abenonmics, although critics
said the record low turnout of around 52 percent tarnished his mandate.
"We
must go ahead with Abenomics swiftly, this is exactly what has been
shown in the vote. We have to respond to that," Abe said, pledging to
"compile an economic stimulus package immediately, within this year".
The
60-year-old stormed to power in 2012, pledging to revive the animal
spirits of Japan's flagging economy with a blend of monetary easing,
government spending and structural reforms to cut red tape.
The
printing presses at the Bank of Japan have run hot ever since, pushing
down the value of the yen -- to the delight of exporters -- and giving
the stock market a huge boost, as stimulus programmes have provided an
economic shot in the arm.
But
the premier has shied away from tough reforms that economists say are
vital if Japan is to get back on a firm footing, including employment
deregulation and tackling the entrenched interests of the agriculture
lobby.
"From now on, he
has to show results in line with his promises," said Hideo Kumano, chief
economist at Dai-ichi Life Research institute.
On the diplomatic front, his election victory may temper frayed relations with China, which has painted him as a dangerous revisionist, said Gerald Curtis, a veteran Japan watcher and professor at Columbia University.
Relations began to
thaw last month after more than two years of chill, which Beijing
blamed on Abe's provocative nationalism, including a visit to a war
shrine and equivocations on Japan's wartime record of enslaving women
for sex.
"In
the short-term, at least, Sino-Japanese relations are on a better
track... signals coming from Beijing and from Abe (are aimed at trying)
to improve the relationship," Curtis said.
Masaru
Kohno, a politics professor at Waseda University in Tokyo, said despite
his professed desire to retell the history of Japan's aggressive
warring -- an instinct largely unshared by the Japanese public -- Abe
will be pragmatic.
"Many of
the issues Japan is facing such as depopulation and women's advancement
should be resolved with liberal policies," he said.
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