Aso defies pressure for early election

By Mure Dickie in Tokyo
Published: January 4 2009 17:34

Taro Aso, the beleaguered Japanese prime minister, on Sunday dismissed opposition calls for an early general election, insisting he would not consider dissolving the Diet’s lower house until it passed budget legislation intended to boost the economy.

Worries about the social impact of the recession gripping the world’s second largest economy have been highlighted during the new year holiday by the sight of hundreds of newly homeless, redundant workers queuing for food in a tent village in a Tokyo city centre park.

Photo: Taro Aso, Japanese prime minister, writes the characters for “peace of mind” and “vitality” before his first press conference of 2009 at the Prime Minister's residence.

Support for the ruling Liberal Democratic party has plunged in recent weeks, in part because of complaints that Mr Aso’s three-month-old administration has failed to respond effectively to the recession.

The opposition Democratic party, which controls the Diet’s upper house and could delay passage of the record ¥88,548bn ($964bn, €692bn, £662bn) annual budget for fiscal 2009, is seeking to force Mr Aso to call an early election.

However, Mr Aso struck a defiant note at a press conference on Sunday, saying he was confident about the effectiveness of the LDP’s economic action plan.

“The need for haste in acting on the economy is clear,” the prime minister said. “The important thing is to pass the budget and related legislation and I will not be thinking about dissolving parliament until that is done.”

Mr Aso chose the Chinese characters for “peace of mind” and “vitality” for a symbolic new year demonstration of calligraphy, but analysts say the prospects for his government remain grim.

Polls suggest the Democratic party could win a general election, which must be held by September, potentially ending the LDP’s near-unbroken dominance of postwar Japanese politics.

The LDP has become a target for complaints that Japanese industry’s increasing use of informal, short-term and part-time workers has left much of the nation’s workforce highly vulnerable to economic downturn.

Many temporary workers fired by cost-cutting companies have also been ejected from their employer-supplied accommodation.

In a move to highlight the problem and to assist such victims of the recession during the holiday period, labour unions and social groups set up a temporary tent village in Hibiya Park, close to Tokyo’s Imperial Palace and the government district.

At the park on Sunday hundreds of people queued for free food and paper cups of amazake, a fermented rice brew often drunk at this time of year, while musicians gave free performances and volunteers offered advice about state benefits.

Organisers had provided tents for 250 people but more than twice that number came to the park, prompting the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare to open one of its halls for overnight use.

However, with the tent village and hall scheduled to close on Monday, the prospects for Tokyo’s newly homeless are unclear.

Masayuki Nishimura, who lost his job and accommodation on December 27, said he saw little prospect of the economy recovering in 2009. “I think things will get worse,” Mr Nishimura said.

Such pessimism is widely shared. A survey of the heads of 30 big companies conducted by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper found that only five thought the economy would hit bottom and rebound before the end of this year.

The newspaper said 27 of the company heads believed that a US recovery would be necessary for a return to growth in the Japanese economy, while nine said the government would have to implement further stimulus measures.