Japanese PM’s victory is good news for India
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's decisive victory in the snap election that he had called for is good news for India. Mr Abe has long been an India-friendly politician. What is important is that he has struck a close and warm rapport with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi at a time when New Delhi and Tokyo have begun to greatly enhance bilateral engagements, and when both are involved in kick-starting their respective economies.
While this is not to presume that another leader in Mr Abe's place would have turned the clock back on ties with India, it helps that the person at the helm there is the one with whom this Government has been doing business with the most satisfactory results. Only recently, Japan committed $35 billion investments into India over the next five years to build infrastructure and smart cities and possibly bullet trains. With Mr Abe in command, this commitment will get the push it needs in the coming months. There is another reason, beyond the economy, for India to be secure about in Mr Abe's victory: That of Tokyo maintaining its assertive position on issues relating to China.
The Japanese Prime Minister has steered his country away from the traditional pacifism which had become Tokyo's foreign policy calling card, to a more belligerent approach to his country's national interests. This suits New Delhi's geo-political designs at a time when Beijing is showing no signs of backing down on its own aggressive nationalism and rubbing countries, especially in South and South East Asia, the wrong way. Of course, Mr Abe is no anti-China hawk; nor does New Delhi would want him to be. At the same time, it helps to have a resurgent Japan on New Delhi's side.
But, despite his resounding victory in a low voter-turnout election, Mr Abe is not going to find governance smooth sailing. If he fails to manage the challenges and gets caught in the quicksand of domestic politics, his position could weaken — and this will have a direct impact on the ambitious bilateral hopes India and Japan share for the next decade or so at the least. He has to reset the economy, as it is clear from the low turnout that people are upset with his handling of the issue. He has to quickly demonstrate tangible deliverables on what has come to be known as ‘Abenomics'. Can he reform the over-protected farm sectorIJ What can he do to revive an economy which has to contend with the demographic of an ageing, contracting and less productive populationIJ
While the desertion of the long-held pacifist policies has come as welcome relief to the Japanese people by and large, it has ruffled many feathers in the neighbourhood, giving rise to new challenges. Besides China, even South Korea is upset over Mr Abe's attitude (towards a set of islets that are a bone of contention between Seoul and Tokyo). The re-elected Prime Minister has enough to ponder over.