Japan's youth cheer pop-savvy Aso for PM
TOKYO (AFP) — He may be the underdog in the race to become prime minister, but with his love of comic books and streetwise talk of pop culture, Taro Aso has plenty of support among Japan's disillusioned youth.
"Aso understands the youth culture," said 16-year-old Riku Shimoda, one of those who turned out to hear the two candidates vying to replace Shinzo Abe stump for votes in the neon-infested, teeny-bopper haven of Shibuya.
"Old folks usually do not care about what we do or say," added his friend Naotoshi Orii.
Their support is unlikely to help Aso. At 16, both are too young to vote and in any case it is the ruling conservative party that will choose a new leader from within its own ranks on September 23.
Yasuo Fukuda, 71, is widely seen as the frontrunner in the race with the support of a majority of members of the Liberal Democratic Party, while Aso, 66, is being spurned for being too close to Abe's scandal-hit government.
Abe was slow to focus on young Japanese people's concerns, including the quality of jobs and the perceived rising divide between rich and poor.
But as the two contenders took to the streets outside Shibuya station, overlooked by giant TV screens and advertising hoardings -- symbols of Japan's unstoppable youth culture -- it was Aso who drew the loudest cheers.
Aso, who as foreign minister started an international cartoon award, talked at length about comic books.
He has often riled other Asian nations with nationalistic remarks, but local television often shows his soft side, including his recent skit at a regional foreign ministers' meeting clad as a medieval samurai knight.
"Do you know this game to play on your cell phone that checks your mind-set?" Aso asked the crowd, waving his mobile phone.
"You can do so much on your mobile phones these days. This is because the state-run telecommunication firm was privatised thanks to deregulation," he said, applauding the LDP's reform policy.
His rival Fukuda, who stressed his own links to hip Shibuya as he commuted from primary school to university via the station, received a mild reaction to his own campaign speech.
Yet despite Aso's apparent popularity on the street, polls show that for voters across the country, Fukuda is the favourite.
Some 61 percent of general LDP supporters back Fukuda while 27 percent prefer Aso, according to a survey published in the top-selling Yomiuri Shimbun on Monday.
After listening to both speeches, 64-year-old Takashi Asari believes Fukuda is the best candidate to fight the resurgent opposition, which took control of the upper house of parliament in July elections.
"Fukuda was more concrete in his speech and clear how he would win in the battles against the Democratic Party," Asari said.
Whoever becomes Japan's next premier faces the task of continuing reforms and trying to extend a military mission to support the US-led operations in Afghanistan even as the opposition tries to block key legislation.
But among the elderly -- a significant force in this ageing nation -- Aso also has his supporters.
"It is very important to build a society that is stable and sustainable," said Kazuhiko Miura, 79, who wants the next prime minister to focus on issues concerning both the young and the old.
"Aso has his own belief and studies hard in many areas," Miura said.
"Many LDP members all flocked to support Fukuda, which showed nothing but the ugly, old power politics in the party."
