Struggling Japanese PM hails pensions boost

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

TOKYO -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday hailed hard-won pension reforms and said they would boost his flagging support in next month's upper-house elections.

Lawmakers engaged in fierce debate through the night over the ruling coalition's highly sensitive bills until they were finally passed before dawn.

Abe's poll ratings have nosedived after a government agency admitted it misplaced millions of payments to the pension system, a sensitive issue in the rapidly ageing country.

"It is really good that important bills for our people were enacted, and I think that's a great achievement," Abe said early Saturday.

"I believe we will surely gain understanding by voters on our achievement," he said, adding: "We'll appeal to voters with this achievement ahead of the upper-house election" on July 29.

The ruling bloc extended the current parliamentary session by 12 days to pass the bills and allow the scandal to cool, shoring up support for the beleaguered prime minister.

The reforms allow more people to claim for past pension payments, with plans to set up a government-backed organisation to deal with compensation for bungled payments.

In an effort to block the reforms, opposition parties on Friday submitted a motion seeking the resignation of Abe's cabinet but it was easily defeated.

Naoto Kan, the acting president of the main opposition Democratic Party, said Abe "has failed to recognise the gravity of the pension-related problems and is only taking stop-gap remedies."

Abe, an outspoken conservative, was hailed when he took over nine months ago for his young image and foreign policy successes. But his popularity has since plummeted, with many voters now seeing him not as youthful, just inexperienced.

In the latest poll out Monday, 49 per cent of voters wanted Abe's coalition to lose its majority in the July 29 election, surpassing the 35 per cent who hoped the ruling bloc would keep it, the Nikkei economic daily said. -- AFP