Japanese papers say PM Abe must go after crushing election defeat
Posted: 30 July 2007 1025 hrs

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TOKYO: Some Japanese newspapers called Monday for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to resign after his party's crushing election defeat, saying voters had rejected his agenda.

The outspoken conservative leader has refused to step down, saying he believed voters still supported his agenda despite Sunday giving the opposition control of the upper house of parliament.

Two left-leaning newspapers said Abe had to resign, while other dailies called on him to take other action such as reshuffling his scandal-plagued cabinet.

"Looking at this historic defeat, the answer by voters is clear," said the influential Asahi Shimbun, which has often sparred with Abe.

"The government failed to pass the test of credibility. This is a severe verdict worth the resignation of Prime Minister Abe," the liberal daily wrote in a front page column.

Abe has said he would press ahead with his signature policy goals, including rewriting the US-imposed pacifist constitution.

Surveys and media attributed the loss to the appearance that he neglected bread-and-butter issues, particularly after the pension agency acknowledged mismanaging millions of payments.

"People said 'no' to Abe's agenda which is focused on ideology and not on their everyday lives," the Mainichi Shimbun said.

"The prime minister's responsibility is all too obvious. For him to stay in power does not reflect the people's will."

Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan almost continuously since 1955, was projected to have lost nearly half of its seats in the upper house.

The more powerful lower house, which chooses the prime minister, was not up for grabs.

If Abe insisted he will "stay in power despite the defeat in the upper house, he should dissolve the lower house at an early date to seek voters' response," the Mainichi wrote in an editorial.

Both the Nikkei business daily and the Tokyo Shimbun also called for fresh elections to the lower house -- an option Abe ruled out Sunday.

The best-selling Yomiuri Shimbun called on Abe to work with the opposition to "rebuild the foundation of his administration."

The conservative daily blamed the loss on dissatisfaction among workers and rural people "who believe they are not benefiting from the nation's economic expansion." - AFP/ac