Election 2014: LDP Looking to Secure 300 or More Seats (Yawn)

You know that the LDP-Komeito coalition is in good shape when the virulently anti-LDP Nikkan Gendai kiosk sales pitch for Dec. 4 reads “DPJ 1 Win 24 Losses in Tokyo (Single-Seat Districts)” (for their featured article, click here). The Kyodo Tsushin, Asahi, and Nikkei polls (Dec. 2-3; in Nikkei’s case supplemented by on-the-ground research by its local bureaus) each indicate that the LDP will take 300 or more seats, with Komeito also showing gains and JCP doing even better.

This is, of course, an indictment of the opposition, not a public endorsement of the Abe administration and its policy preferences. So any “mandate” talk from the Abe administration and its opinionating followers will ring hollow. Komeito will make sure of that with regard to any attempts to push the markers further on collective self-defense. And nothing will have changed on the socio-economic agenda beyond the LDP promise to make good on consumption tax exceptions. And that decision technically has preceded the election.

I’m thinking of a “What If” series to do in my spare time instead of obsessing over the election (harder and harder to pay attention to). Like, What if China made Okinawa an offer it couldn’t refuse? or What if the Narita Airport Project Had Gone Ahead as Planned? Please stay tuned.