As Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition continues to bask in the glow of its seemingly unrivaled hold on power, one focus of attention in the domestic political scene this year is whether or when he will dissolve the Lower House for another snap election — a prospect that looks set to intensify now that the four-year tenure of the current members of the chamber has passed the halfway point.
Since returning to the helm of government in late 2012, Abe has led his Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito alliance to an unbroken spell of landslide wins in national elections. The LDP is readying a change in its rules so that Abe can run for another term as party president next year, which could keep him in office through 2021. Abe indeed appears to dominate the nation's political landscape.
But voters, as they brace for another possible general election, should not be blinded by the prime minister's success; instead they should make a sober assessment of what the four years of Abe's administration have brought to the nation and their lives.