Japan Biz Community Welcomes LDP’s Stunning Election Win

Tokyo, Feb. 9 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s business community welcomes the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s landslide victory in Sunday’s House of Representatives election to regain a single-party majority in the all-important lower chamber of the Diet, the country’s parliament. “We welcome (the LDP victory),” Yoshinobu Tsutsui, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, said. The biggest Japanese business organization hopes that the administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, also LDP chief, “will steadily implement important policies under (Takaichi’s) powerful leadership backed by the huge public trust, Tsutsui noted. The final vote tally showed that the LDP alone won more than two-thirds of the 465 Lower House seats. The election outcome suggests that voters are “eager to see a strong economy and political stability ahead,” said Ken Kobayashi, chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry. But both ruling and opposition parties that have pledged to cut the consumption tax “should carefully discuss the matter by taking into account worries about heavier load on businesses and the erosion of financial market confidence,” Kobayashi stressed. While observing high public expectations on Takaichi to push ahead with key policies, Akio Yamaguchi, chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives, or Keizai Doyukai, pointed out that “concrete funding and timetable discussions were insufficient” during the campaign period. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]