Japanese voters just gave Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “three arrows” economic revival plan another shot. But they face a long wait for the plan to hit the target.
“I believe the results show that we have received a public mandate for the Abe administration’s achievement over the past two years,” Abe said after the results were announced Sunday. “But we should not be complacent about the results.” Though Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party could claim victory, calling it a mandate was a stretch.
With just a month to prepare for a snap election, the opposition Democratic Party of Japan fielded candidates for less than half the 475 seats in Parliament—giving the LDP a lock on the outcome. That may be why voter turnout—estimated by the Kyodo news agency turnout at 53 percent—hit a post-World War II low.
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