I

would like to respond to '€œAbenomics undelivered'€ [referring to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe] in the Opinion section on Nov. 19 as a Japanese citizen. Regarding the relationship with neighboring countries, such as China and Korea, I think it is difficult to improve our relationship with both countries if they insist upon their present stances, because, in the case of the Senkaku Islands, which are disputed with China, they were owned by a Japanese family, and the family sold them to the Japanese government.

Surprisingly, a large number of Japanese people don'€™t know about this fact about the landowner, because the post-war generation has never learned at school about the history of disputed islands such as Senkaku and Takeshima, which has been occupied by South Korea since 1953, while Chinese and Korean people have learned about them at school. Therefore, it is unfair for us not to study them at school.

Regarding the election on Dec. 14, the majority of Japanese people disagree with his decision. In my opinion, it will only ruin Abenomics. Of course, his ruling party will win because of miserable opposition parties in Japan, but it was clear that Abe tried to come up with some way to prolong his life, and also it revealed his poor ability to analyze the present situation in Japan. He decided to postpone a further sales-tax increase when gross domestic product (GDP) in the July-September quarter shrank an annualized 1.6 percent, but I thought it was a very risky choice, because Japan has huge debts.

However, he didn'€™t seem to be concerned about huge financial deficits and enormous easy-money policies that have been carried out by the Bank of Japan. He only said that Japan had to get out of deflation and carry out an increase in pay. He asked for companies to raise their employees'€™ salaries, but it was like a leader of a socialist country.

As you mentioned, a big fundamental problem in Japan is an aging society. Today, one-quarter of the population of Japan is more than 65 years old and it will be more in the future, so welfare for the aged costs a lot, including the state pension. That'€™s why we had to increase our sales tax, but Abe failed and relied on the election. It showed that Abe was a leader who had no decision-making ability. What he has done so far was only huge monetary relaxation, but the decision maker of this policy was the governor of the Bank of Japan, not Abe. I think a good leader is firmly determined to carry out whatever policy is unpopular if needs be. Unfortunately, Abe is not a leader of that nature. In Japan, a big force of resistance to change is the Japanese people themselves, and many media always favor them, but there is no way to revive the Japanese economy but all-out reform.

Therefore, what we need in Japan is another strong leader. I have no doubt that Abe is not qualified for it.

Yuko Nakahata
Jakarta