Prime Minister Shinzo Abe asked Japanese voters for a renewed mandate to pursue his economic-revival program, and on Sunday they gave it to him. To breathe new life into his reforms at home, he should now look abroad.
Japan's entrenched bureaucracy waters down reforms almost instinctively. That means small changes are all but certain to be whittled to nothing.
Abe has also walked too gingerly around the issue of immigration reform. The economy desperately needs new blood--from nurses to care for the elderly to construction workers to high-skilled entrepreneurs who can teach Japan Inc. how to innovate again.
There is a chance that Abe could mistake his mandate as license to push ahead with more controversial elements of his agenda, including revising Japan's postwar constitution. He would strengthen Japan far more if he instead worked toward his own Nixon-to-China rapprochement with Beijing next year, the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. While tensions with the mainland are inevitable, the current chill in relations risks more harm to Japan than to China: By some estimates, China might need to import as much as $4 trillion to $6 trillion in services over the next decade--a huge potential opportunity for Japanese businesses.
Some of the strongest resistance to all of these moves will continue to come from within Abe's own party. But voters returned the Liberal Democratic Party to power because they saw little alternative and want to believe Abe can bring Japan's economy back. His party needs to let him try.
Editorial on 12/16/2014