Abe’s election super majority puts Japan’s pacifist constitution in his crosshairs
The resounding victory for the hawkish PM will re-energise his drive for constitutional recognition of the military – an alarming prospect for East Asian neighbours
Buoyed by a huge election win, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe signalled a push towards his long-held goal of revising Japan’s post-war, pacifist constitution on Monday, but will need to convince a divided public to succeed. At the same time, China called on Japan to continue along its “peaceful path”.
Parties in favour of amending the US-drafted charter won nearly 80 per cent of the seats in Sunday’s lower house election, media counts showed. Four seats remain to be called and final figures are expected later on Monday.
Formed by liberal members of the Democratic Party, which imploded before the election and no longer exists in the lower house, the CDPJ won 54 seats, a fraction of the ruling bloc’s two-thirds majority in the 465-member chamber.
Abe said he wanted to get other parties on board, including Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike’s new conservative Party of Hope, and was not insisting on a target of changing the constitution by 2020 that he floated earlier this year.
