TOKYO, July 10 The policy chief of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Sunday called for changing the nation’s pacifist constitution after the ruling coalition won a landslide victory in an election for parliament’s upper house.
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Japan’s ruling bloc is expected to win at least 61 of the 121 seats up for grabs, exceeding Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s stated target, the polls showed.
Abe has delayed a sales tax increase by 2-1/2 years, until October 2019, saying he aims to win more than half the seats in contention to gain a mandate for his decision and his economic policies.
It remained unclear now that whether the ruling camp that groups LDP and the Komeito, as well as other two small opposition parties could win together two-thirds majority in the chamber so as to launch a Constitution amendment motion in the future.
The House of Councillors, as the upper house is formally known, is the less powerful chamber in Japan’s bicameral legislature, and half its seats come up for election every three years.
Any attempt to revise the constitution will still be politically fraught and LDP heavyweights have suggested that amending the pacifist Article 9 would not be the first priority.
Some voters who cast a ballot for Abe’s LDP said they wanted the same. “I’m concerned about the Abe government”, she said.
A police officer walks past Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) poster (2nd from right) for the July 10 Upper House election with the image of Shinzo Abe, Japan’s Prime Minister and leader of the LDP, and other candidates’ posters at the LDP headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, July 10. Revising the charter needs the approval of two-thirds in both houses of parliament and a majority in a referendum.
Noting that many undeclared remaining seats were very tight contests, DP Secretary General Yukio Edano said it vindicated his party’s controversial strategy of teaming up with the communists. “It doesn’t want change”, he said.
The Japanese constitution, written by the United States after Japan’s defeat in World War II, limits its military to a self-defense role, although Japan has a well-equipped modern army, navy and air force that work closely with the U.S., Japan’s most important ally.
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Tetsuro Kato, professor of politics at Waseda University, said the election showed an opposition in shambles.
