【英语国际】日本民主党在议会选举中遭遇重挫

Japan's voters handed a stunning rebuke to the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, just 10 months after giving the party the keys to government in a historic transfer of power.

Sunday's vote seems likely to usher in a new period of political instability in Tokyo, making it difficult for Prime Minister Naoto Kan to move forward on key policy matters, such as curbing the government's massive outstanding debt to prevent a Greece-style meltdown, or implementing an unpopular agreement with the U.S. on siting a marine base on the southern island of Okinawa.

The new weakness also is likely to stall a controversial push to expand the role of the government's postal system into the nation's financial-services sector, a move that has been opposed by Japanese and U.S. financial firms worried about tougher competition from the publicly subsidized behemoth.

The bigger-than-expected defeat will hurt Mr. Kan's standing within his ruling party, just five weeks after he took office, and could fuel challenges to his leadership in coming weeks. Mr. Kan follows four prime ministers who failed to hold on to the office for longer than a year. At a post-midnight news conference, Mr. Kan was asked directly if he would step down, a notion he rejected, saying: 'I will humbly accept the latest result . . . And I will start anew from a new starting line.'

Japan's major television networks all forecast that the DPJ failed to meet its goals of winning a majority in the upper house of parliament -- and even Mr. Kan's more modest goal of maintaining existing strength. As of 2 a.m. in Japan, networks projected the party won as few as 44 seats of the 121 seats contested -- or less than 40% of the total -- down from 54. In last year's election, the DPJ took 64% of the seats at stake.

Sunday's election was, in many ways, a statement of disenchantment by Japan's voters, who had embraced the DPJ with such high hopes last summer, only to find the party was in many ways like the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party it had displaced -- indecisive and hampered by scandals -- and had the added disadvantage of inexperience.

Since the DPJ has a huge majority in the more-powerful lower house, it will remain the ruling party despite Sunday's setback. But it will become much harder for the party to govern, as most legislation needs the approval of the upper house.

Investors, in particular, are worried about Mr. Kan's ability to meet his pledge to limit borrowing. In light of the election results, the promise 'is meaningless,' said Makoto Yamashita, chief Japan interest-rate strategist at Deutsche Bank. 'There is a high possibility that the . . . pledge will be broken.'

Over the next few days -- and possibly weeks -- Japan's political leadership will be consumed with horse trading, as Mr. Kan struggles to find friendly opposition parties to work with in parliament while fending off critics in his own party.

Associated Press东京的一个计票点10个月前，日本选民把组阁的钥匙交给了日本民主党，实现了日本上具有历史意义的政权更替。然而仅仅10个月后，他们又向执政党发起了令人震惊的责难。

周日的投票似乎很可能又把日本带进新的政治不稳定阶段，让首相菅直人(Naoto Kan) 难以向前推进部分关键政治问题，例如抑制政府的大规模未偿债务以防止日本出现希腊式的垮台以及把美海军基地迁往冲绳南部岛屿这一不受欢迎的日美协议等。

由于政府处于弱势地位，这一新变化还很可能使政府把邮政系统的业务扩大到金融服务领域的计划停转。这一计划遭到了日本和美国金融公司的反对，他们担心遇到这个接受公共补贴的庞然大物的更严酷竞争。

Reuters菅直人的执政之路将遇到重重困难由于失败大于预期，执政仅五个星期的菅直人在民主党内的地位也将受损，未来几周，他的领导力将受到挑战。在菅直人之前，日本已经有四任首相未能在这一宝座上坐满一年以上。在午夜之后的新闻发布会上，记者径直问菅直人会否下台，他否认了这一想法，说，我将谦逊地接受最新的结果，我将从新的起点开始全新的历程。

日本的主要电视台均预测民主党不能实现其在议会上院赢得多数席位的目标，甚至不能实现菅直人提出的保持现有实力这一更谦虚的目标。截至日本时间凌晨两点，各电视台预计民主党仅赢得了121个竞争席位中的44席，不到总数的40%，少于原先的54席。去年的选举中，日本民主党在紧急关头赢得了64%的席位。

在许多方面，周日的选举是日本选民觉醒的声明。去年，选民们以如此高的期望欢迎民主党上台，却发现它与长期执政的自由民主党在许多方面不出左右，不但在政策方面犹豫不决且丑闻缠身，还多了一条缺乏经验的缺点。

尽管日本民主党周日遭到挫败，但由于在权力更大的下院中的席位占多数，它仍将保留执政党的地位。但由于大多数法案需要得到上院的批准，民主党的执政之路将更为艰难。

投资者尤其担心菅直人难以实现其限制债务的承诺。德意志银行(Deutsche Bank)首席日本利率策略师山下诚(Makoto Yamashita)说，根据这一选举结果，他的承诺“毫无意义”。他很可能无法实现承诺。

接下来几天，也可能是几个星期内，日本的政治领袖将深陷讨价还价的泥潭。菅直人一边要力争在议会中寻找友善的反对党进行合作，一边又要招架自己政党的批判。