Old problems persist despite new poll

Restaurants and bars are always full in Tokyo in December, as it is the time for year-end parties and people tend to go drinking with their colleagues or clients for fun.

It is definitely not the time for politics. But Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has dampened the festive mood this year, at least in the first half of this month, by dissolving the House of Representatives, the more powerful chamber of Japan's parliament, and calling a snap election to be held on Sunday.

The other night when I was at a small restaurant in Tokyo's business district, the young company employees at the next tables were talking about who they will vote for.

It ought to be a hard choice for many of the voters. Nearly 1,200 candidates from nine political parties or as unaffiliated independents will vie for the 475 seats in the lower house.

Yet opposition parties have had to accept battle in haste, some of them can't file their candidates in several constituencies. And many voters can't be bothered to figure out what these parties' campaign platforms are, or else their manifestos are too shallow, failing to strike at the core of Japan's big issues with the policies truly needed to revive the country's economy.

Although Abe's three economic "arrows" have missed their target and his controversial agenda to change the Constitution has stirred up a domestic hornet's nest, many voters would rather keep Abe's less-than-ideal Liberal Democratic Party in power than put an inexperienced party at the helm of Japan. They can't afford political and economic instability in the country as it has already "lost" two decades.

Despite the urgings of people, such as Japanese newspaper Mainichi's chief editorial writer Hiroshi Komatsu, who have encouraged voters to exercise their political power and think hard about where the country ought to be going, the voter turnout on Sunday is expected to be even lower than in 2012, when a record postwar low of 59.32 percent of voters went to the polling stations. This will benefit the LDP.