by Xinhua Writer Zhu Dongyang

BEIJING, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- With his party secured a resounding victory in Sunday's lower house election, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe needs to decide how to deal with his country's alarming rightward drift, as it has increasingly become Tokyo's liability in the long run.

According to the final results of vote counting, the Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition won 325 seats in the 475-seat House of Representatives, marking an overwhelming victory that would give Abe a third term as the country's leader through 2018.

However, while revelling in the electoral bliss, the prime minister should remember that what the vote reflects is the constituency's longing for political stability, rather than their affirmation of Tokyo's increasingly nationalistic diplomatic and security agendas.

In fact, the public has been rattled by the country's chilly interactions with nearly all of its East Asian neighbors, as can be seen by this year's record low turnout.

Solely in 2014, the island country has repeatedly enraged its neighboring countries by, among others, flagrant visits of cabinet members and lawmakers to the notorious Yasukuni Shrine, and their blatant denials of the so-called "comfort women" system which forced over 20,000 foreign women into sex slavery for the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.

Besides those provocations, Japan has also get on the region's nerves by pushing for the removal of the long-standing ban on collective self-defense in an attempt to enable the country to battle overseas and thus virtually gut the post-war pacifist constitution.

These offensive moves have frozen the political ties between Japan and its neighbors, with severe implications on the country's struggling while highly export-dependent economy.

Moreover, Japan's frequent frictions and scarce high-level exchanges with its irritated neighbors have increasingly threatened regional stability and drawn backlashes even from the United States, its major ally.

With all these consequences in sight, no wonder that Abe sought a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the APEC forum last month, after the two sides reached a four-point agreement to ease tensions.

However, achieving a rapprochement with its neighbors demands more initiative from Tokyo to be honest with its war-time atrocities, true to its pacifist Constitution, and prudent in the simmering territorial disputes.

As the volatile region is to embrace the dawn of 2015 soon, it is highly advisable and imperative that Tokyo face up to its responsibilities, shake off the rightist ideology and translate its diplomatic commitment into real actions. Now as Abe has claimed the mandate, the onus will be on him to do that.

Related:

Japan's ruling LDP-Komeito coalition wins landslide

TOKYO, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner the Komeito Party won 325 seats, a more than two-thirds majority, in Sunday's election for the 475- seat lower house, final results of vote counting showed early Monday.Full story

Japan's opposition DPJ leader loses parliamentary seat

TOKYO, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Banri Kaieda, leader of Japan's largest opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), lost his seat in the lower house, while his party won more seats in Sunday's vote, local media reported early Monday.Full story 

Japan's LDP-Komeito bloc to win landslide victory in general election: exit polls

TOKYO, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Liberal Democratic Party ( LDP) and its small partner the Komeito Party were expected to win two thirds of the seats in the 475-seat lower house in Sunday's election and the LDP alone could gain over 300 seats, exit polls showed.Full story