Abe wins Tokyo despite rating decline

The Liberal Democratic Party and its ruling coalition partner, New Komeito, on Sunday won a majority in Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, which also has a number of regional and smaller parties. The LDP itself won 59 seats, replacing the Democratic Party of Japan as the largest party in the assembly.

Since the election to the Tokyo assembly is seen as a precursor to the outcome of Japan's upper house election on July 21, the ruling coalition's victory next month seems imminent.

The Tokyo election was the first verdict of voters on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration since it took office in December. The Tokyo election victory should also come as a shot in the arm for Abe, especially after a Jiji Press survey showed that public support for his cabinet had dropped to 57.4 percent, the second consecutive month of decline and the first below-60-percent approval rating.

The LDP's victory is also seen as Tokyo residents' approval for Abe's and his cabinet's three-pronged economic strategy, consisting of unprecedented monetary easing, fiscal stimulus and plans to boost private investment. Japan's GDP in the first quarter of 2013 was up 4.1 percent year-on-year, compared with 1.2 percent in the previous quarter. But the recent turmoil in the financial market has raised concerns about the effectiveness of Abe's economic policy, dubbed "Abenomics", in the future.

Last week, the LDP announced its campaign platform for the upper house election by emphasizing its plans to revive the economy. It repeated Abe's bold vows to double the annual GDP growth to 2 percent in 10 years, and to halve the primary balance deficit by 2015. The LDP has even boasted that "the dark and heavy air looming over Japan has drastically changed".

Amid the backdrop of optimism, 28.8 percent of the respondents to a Kyodo News survey released on Sunday, said they would vote for the LDP, compared with the 8.2 percent who backed the opposition DPJ. And more than 56 percent said they wanted the ruling coalition to get a majority in the upper house.