This nation's democracy will face a crossroads this year.

The damage that has been done by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s long stay in power could spread further. Alternatively, the process of healing the damage could start.

If his first one-year term is counted, Abe has become the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history. If he remains in power until the end of August, he will also break the record of uninterrupted service as the nation’s leader, surpassing that set by Eisaku Sato (1901-1975), who served as prime minister for seven years and eight months from 1964 to 1972.

After the Tokyo Olympics, which will end on Aug. 9, the focus of political attention is expected to shift to who will succeed Abe, whose term as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party will end in September 2021.

But the central question should not be who will be the next prime minister. It should be what must be done to repair the dire situation created by Abe’s politics.

DIVIDED BETWEEN ‘FRIENDS,’ ‘FOES’

Video footage of the cherry blossom-viewing event he hosted last spring is still posted on the prime minister’s office website.

In the video, Abe starts his speech by saying, “This is the seventh cherry blossom-viewing party since we regained power together with you.”

These words indicate that he is oblivious to his responsibility to the entire nation including people who have voted for opposition parties and pays attention only to his friends and allies. This speech accidentally offers a good insight into his basic thoughts about politics.

A half year later, Abe came under fire for using the tax-financed event for his personal gain by inviting many friends and allies as guests. That is hardly surprising.

Scenes that revealed the other side of Abe’s political posture unfolded during his campaign speeches for the Upper House election last summer.

Abe was surrounded by supporters holding up placards expressing support for the prime minister, a crowd who built a human “wall” to keep Abe critics within the audience at bay. At some rallies, citizens who heckled Abe were taken away by police.

There is one common thread running through the series of political scandals that have rocked the Abe administration.

These run the gamut from the dubious sale of state-owned land to Moritomo Gakuen, an Osaka-based school operator linked to Abe’s wife, and the government’s decision to allow the Kake Educational Institution, run by a close friend of Abe, to open a new veterinary medicine faculty, to the controversy over the cherry-blossom event.

All these scandals center around the suspicion that people close to him may have unfairly been given special political favors.

On the other hand, Abe has openly exhibited hostility toward people and organizations critical of his policies, such as opposition parties and their supporters.

Japan is facing two alternatives: continuing politics designed to fuel division and solidify unity among followers and supporters; or switching to more inclusive politics that is open to the views and opinions of a wide range of people.

FAR FROM CONSTITUTIONAL IDEAL

“Now that this Constitution is established, the legislative branch of the government should play the leading role in state politics while the administrative branch should serve as an organ that supports it.”

This is a passage from the speech that Yukio Ozaki (18581954), a Japanese politician who was revered as “the father of parliamentary politics” in Japan, delivered in August 1946 at the Lower House plenary session that passed the postwar Constitution.

Learning lessons from the failure of politics in Japan before and during World War II, when the legislature’s power was weak, Ozaki argued that the parliament, which embodies “the collective will of the people,” should be at the center of politics.

The current state of politics, however, is far from the ideal envisioned by Ozaki. Abe’s dominant political power has turned the ruling coalition into his loyal followers while the weak and fragmented opposition has been unable to become a serious challenger to his rule.

During the seven years since he returned to power in late 2012, the nation’s system of parliamentary democracy, a product of decades of efforts by Japanese political leaders, has been seriously eroded.

One recent survey has revealed the seriousness of the Japanese public's cynicism about politics. The survey, conducted in September by the Genron NPO, a citizens' group promoting liberal democracy, found that 70 percent of Japanese did not think political parties or politicians could solve key problems facing Japan.

Only 9 percent of the respondents said the Diet deserved to be called a “citadel of discourse.”

What must be done to restore the Diet’s ability to perform its core role is one of the most vital and urgent questions.

The LDP will mark its 65th anniversary in November. When it was formed in 1955, the LDP defined itself as “a national party” and declared that it is not a political bloc representing the interests of a specific class or social stratum that causes a division among the people.

It may have been a self-portrait designed to differentiate itself from its main rival at that time, the Socialist Party. For a long time, however, the LDP continued to be a party composed of various groups of different political stripes. It was never dominated by any specific view or opinion about topics such as history, society and the Constitution.

LDP AS MONOLITHIC PARTY

Since the system of single-seat constituencies was introduced, however, the party leadership’s control over its members has become gradually tighter and reached its zenith under Abe’s tenure.

Almost all factions within the LDP have joined the Abe camp as dissenting groups have been given a raw deal.

With lively policy debate now missing from the party, the LDP is impotent to clean house.

LDP lawmakers hoping to succeed Abe should ask themselves whether they are happy with the current state of their party.

Opposition parties also have an important role to play. During the latest extraordinary Diet session, some opposition parties including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Democratic Party for the People formed a joint Diet bloc and also worked with the Japanese Communist Party to hold the Abe administration accountable for allegations concerning the cherry-blossom party and other problems, with a certain degree of success.

Strong opposition can put pressure on the administration and thereby influence its policy decisions and actions, to some extent.

The CDP and the DPP are now in merger talks with an eye to the next general election. But they cannot hope to win broad public support if they only seek to form a larger group composed mostly of former members of the now-defunct Democratic Party.

The success of the merger will depend on whether the new party can offer a future vision for Japanese society that the current administration of the LDP-Komeito coalition cannot realize and send out strong messages that attract the attention of people who have become deeply disillusioned with politics.

Abe still has one year and nine months to go until the end of his tenure. There is also no ruling out the possibility that Abe may opt to dissolve the Lower House for a snap election by the end of 2020.

This year will be crucial for shaping the future of Japanese politics. It will be vital for Japan to confront the positive and negative consequences of Abe's unusually long stint as prime minster and make serious efforts to find a remedy to the declining health of democracy in this nation.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 5