Japan's main opposition leader blasts Abe's economic polices

Japan's main opposition Democratic Party leader Renho on Wednesday blasted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for his failed economic policies, in the first head-to-head match up of the two leaders since Renho was elected to lead her party on Sept. 15.

Regarding a policy speech Abe gave on Monday at the beginning of an extraordinary Diet session, she accused the prime minister of lying to the electorate and carrying on with his "Abenomics" economic policies charade, despite the fact that not only has no tangible headway been made in terms of economic growth through "virtuous cycles," but rising disparities in society had transpired.

"(Prime Minister) Abe's slogans are cycling around, but it's about time for him to face up to the reality that the economy hasn't reached a virtuous cycle at all," Renho said in the question and answer session in the upper house of parliament.

"Individual consumption will start moving when we remove the anxiety about education, employment and retirement that Abenomics has left unresolved," she added, as her party along with three other opposition parties have agreed in principle to join forces to better keep Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition in check ahead of future elections.

She slammed Abe's decision to further delay a planned consumption tax hike before the upper house election as being deceitful and breaking pledges he had made earlier to people voting.

The tax hike, already delayed, had been pitched to voters as a vehicle for his government to drive the economy clear from recession by generating more public revenue. The economy, however, has essentially remained stagnant, according to the latest gross domestic product figures, with the nation still mired by deflation with the central bank's recent policy shift being described as "vanilla" by a number of leading economists.

The Japanese currency continued to remain firm against its major counterparts, hampering exports and stifling production. Corporate earnings were not being converted into wage increases, which has choked private consumption.

Under Abe the world's third-largest economy is also buckling under an ever-increasing demographic crisis.

Japan's senior citizens are continuing to increase in numbers while the birthrate has dropped off in a social phenomenon being dubbed a "silver tsunami."

The silver tsunami has seen social welfare costs skyrocket and pushed up government debt, which stands at more than 240 percent of the national gross domestic product and the highest in the industrialized world.

Renho on Wednesday chastised Abe for his social welfare policies, describing them as inadequate and said the prime minister needs to do more to help those who are struggling in society.

In particular she told Abe he needed to do more for both the young and the elderly in the society, as two of its most vulnerable components, and said his policies thus far had been "insufficient."

As the opposition bloc sets about grilling Abe, former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who currently serves as the main opposition Democratic Party's secretary general, demanded a day earlier that Abe ditch a draft version of an amendment to the pacifist Constitution that would effectively pave the way for Japan to remilitarize and renounce its vow to remain a peaceful country.

Noda and Democratic Party policy chief Hiroshi Ogushi, also took Abe to task over his plans to swiftly ratify the contentious Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact (TPP) in the current session of parliament.

They said the pact as it stands does not live up to a prior agreement to protect some of Japan's sensitive agricultural products. Endit