TOKYO (AFP) –
Japan's embattled Prime Minister Taro Aso on Friday pledged to fix the recession-hit economy and create millions of jobs, seeking to claw back fading support as he heads to the ballot box.
Aso's party, which has ruled Japan almost without a break for more than half a century, is lagging badly in opinion polls against the untested centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) ahead of the crucial August 30 vote.
To win over undecided voters, still a third of the electorate, the party promised a range of measures, from free pre-school education and day care to steps boosting the economy which is stuck in its worst post-war slump.
By early 2011, Aso pledged, the world's number two economy would once again be humming along at a healthy 2.0 percent growth, a far cry from the 3.4 percent contraction the central bank has forecast for this fiscal year.
Aso also pledged to create two million jobs within three years and vowed that, a decade from now, household incomes would have grown by 10,000 dollars a year and that Japan would lead the world in per capita income.
Approval ratings for Aso -- a political veteran with a gruff demeanour, often derided for his gaffes and erratic policy changes -- have dipped into the teens, badly lagging the opposition Democratic Party of Japan.
On the day Aso spoke, new government data showed that in June the jobless rate rose to 5.4 percent, close to the post-war record, while deflation deepened with the steepest-ever consumer price drop.
With the elections looming, Aso's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has sought to paint itself as the experienced party fit to steer Japan through its economic slump and represent the country on the world stage.
"I want to stress our ability to take responsibility," said Aso. "Campaign pledges must be backed up and consistent... The Liberal Democratic Party has the power to realise them. That's what makes us different from other parties."
The ruling party has attacked the opposition's "people first" campaign pledges unveiled this week -- including generous social welfare spending and scrapped highway tolls, all without tax hikes -- as fiscally irresponsible.
It has also charged that the DPJ, which has routinely opposed the deployment of Japanese forces overseas citing the pacifist constitution, lacks a solid foreign policy agenda and cannot be trusted to ensure Japan's security.
The LDP has stressed its international contribution to "fighting terrorism", including through a naval refuelling mission in support of US-led forces in Afghanistan, which the opposition has said it would scrap.
In its campaign pledges the ruling party also said it would seek a law to enable the government to dispatch troops to missions overseas, doing away with rules that require parliament to pass a temporary law for each mission.
On environmental policies, the LDP said it would seek to increase solar power generation 20-fold by 2020 and 40-fold by 2030.
The party also said it would try to increase the food self-sufficiency rate to 50 percent for Japan, which now imports most of its food.
Like the DPJ, the party said it supports ending "hereditary politics", although about one third of parliamentarians are children of politicians, and both Aso and his opponent Yukio Hatoyama are grandsons of former premiers.
