Voters, including teens who will cast ballots for the first time, expressed their hopes and concerns Tuesday as official campaigning for the Oct 22 lower house election got underway across Japan. In the city of Fukushima, where Prime Minister Shinzo Abe launched his campaign, Tetsuo…
Voters, including teens who will cast ballots for the first time, expressed their hopes and concerns Tuesday as official campaigning for the Oct 22 lower house election got underway across Japan.
In the city of Fukushima, where Prime Minister Shinzo Abe launched his campaign, Tetsuo Yoshida, a 71-year-old farmer, stressed that « reconstruction from the (2011) earthquake and nuclear plant accident is the most important (thing to me). »
« The prime minister showed his enthusiasm for reconstruction by choosing Fukushima as the first stop of his stumping tour, » he said.
Miwako Ogawa, a 52-year-old housewife in Fukushima, said she doubts the Abe government’s claim that the Japanese economy has been expanding for nearly five years since the premier returned to power in December 2012. « I don’t feel like the economy has gotten better. I want (candidates) to focus on stimulus measures. »
In front of JR Ikebukuro Station, where Tokyo Gov Yuriko Koike delivered her initial stump speech as head of the LDP-challenging Party of Hope, Tomohiro Yagi, a resident of Komae in the western part of the capital, expressed hope for the fledgling party’s new policy agenda.
The 68-year-old Yagi said he hopes Koike can rid Japanese politics of vested interests and bring an end to scandals like those that have hit Abe for « favoring his buddies, » referring to cronyism allegations leveled at the prime minister over a new veterinary department of a university run by his friend and the discount purchase of public land by an elementary school operator with ties to his wife Akie.
