After the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan’s ruling party and its junior coalition partner won a significant victory in a parliamentary vote on Sunday that was infused with significance due to the potential impact of Abe’s death on party cohesion.
In the elections for half of the seats in the less powerful upper house, the Liberal Democratic Party and its secondary coalition partner Komeito increased their combined share in the 248-seat chamber to 146 – far over the majority.
With the increase, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will be able to continue in office until the planned election in 2025.
Kishida would then be able to engage on long-term initiatives like national security, his trademark but still nebulous “new capitalism” economic policy, and his party’s ardent desire to change the postwar pacifist constitution that the US authored.
Now there’s a chance for a charter reworking suggestion. The governing bloc now has the two- thirds majority in the chamber necessary to submit an correction, making it a likely prospect. This was made possible with the backing of two opposition parties who are in favour of a duty reform. The opposition chamber has formerly pledged support to the ruling coalition.
Given the loss of Abe and the grueling task of unifying his party without him, Kishida appreciated the significant triumph but was not beaming. Kishida reiterated” Party harmony is more vital than anything otherwise” in interviews with the media late on Sunday. He declared that his top priority will be the COVID- 19 answers, Russia’s incursion of Ukraine, and price increases. He declared that in addition to a constitutional reform, he’ll continue to endorse for strengthening Japan’s public security.
At the party election headquarters, Kishida and top party MPs spent a moment of silence for Abe before attaching victory ribbons next to the names of aspirants who won their seats on the whiteboard.
Abe, 67, was shot on Friday while making a political address in Nara, a city in western Japan, and passed away after severe blood loss. With two terms in government, he was Japan’s longest- serving political figure. Indeed, after leaving office in 2020, he continued to hold a significant measure of power inside the LDP as head of Seiwakai, the party’s largest group.
“This could be a turning point” says Mitsuru Fukuda, a crisis management professor at Nihon University, criticised the LDP for its contentious policies on gender equality, same-sex marriages, and other problems that Abe-backed ultra-conservatives with paternalistic family values had rejected.
Abe had already made significant modifications, making it doubtful that Japan’s existing security and diplomatic posture will shift. He caused a great deal of controversy because of his pragmatic policies and ultra-nationalist beliefs, especially in China and the Republic of Korea.
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