Sato Firmly In Control

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31730, 13 July 1968, Page 12

Sato Firmly In Control

The security agreement between Mr Sato’s LiberalDemocratic Government and the United States Government is now likely to remain virtually undisturbed. Defence was the dominant issue in the election for Japan’s second chamber, the House of Councillors; and the Prime Minister was able to persuade the electorate that the treaty is vital to the country’s security. The main Opposition groups, the Socialist, Communist, and Komeito (Buddhist) parties, went to the polls with widely-differing policies on the treaty. The Socialists urged its immediate abrogation, saying that bases in Japan should be available to the United States only for the emergency deployment of forces. Komeito favoured revocation of the treaty in stages. The Communists took the more realistic line that a new Government should be elected before termination of the treaty was considered. The treaty is due for review, at the end of its first ten-year period, in 1970. Mr Sato has refused to dissolve the Lower House and call a General Election on the treaty issue. He said Japan had had too many elections, and the country was in need of a period of quiet The voting, which preserved the Government’s solid Upper House majority, suggests that this view is widely shared, in spite of recurrent student demonstrations against American bases. The Prime Minister has indicated, however, that the whole question of bases, particularly their siting near cities, could usefully be reexamined. The number of bases had already been reduced since the setting up of the mutual security plan; and he thought there might be a further reduction of about 20 per cent within five years of the remaining 145 bases. Mr Sato has clearly seen some need to make concessions to nationalist feeling; but further unrest as the reviewing period in 1970 approaches must be expected.