Japan will hold elections on December 14. That’s for sure. The question is why? And what’s behind them? And, take note, these are not questions that people in Japan are supposed to ask.
When Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling coalition was preparing to dissolve the lower house of parliament last month, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told the national media what sort of election coverage they should consider out of bounds. Constitutional reform to allow collective self-defense “isn’t an issue,” he said, even though the remilitarization of Japan is hugely controversial. “We shouldn’t question the details of the secrecy laws one by one,” he said. (Remember, this is a government that insists “the idea that the people’s right to know is more important than the security of the state is fundamentally mistaken.”) So, the ruling party decides what the vote is all about, and it has decided it wants an endorsement of Abe’s economic policies.
Let’s repeat that. The election on December 14th isn’t about Japan’s oppressive (and United Nations-condemned) Designated Secrets Law which went into effect on the December 10, four days before the ballot. It’s not about constitutional reform, or the public right to know. It’s about the virtues of “Abenomics,” stupid, because that’s what the government says it’s about. Got it?
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