Shinzo Abe gets Japan upper house election boost as opposition leader Yukio Edano rules out merger to challenge LDP
- The ruling coalition does not currently hold a two-thirds majority in the upper house
- A recent government report suggesting many elderly Japanese will not be able to live off pensions alone looms as a major campaign issue
A senior member of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party has indicated the ruling party aims to win at least 63 seats, or a majority of the 124 up for grabs, with Komeito, its coalition partner.
The ruling coalition does not currently hold a two-thirds majority in the upper house, the threshold necessary if Abe wants to amend the pacifist constitution. Abe has said he hopes to see a revised constitution in 2020.
An upper house election needs to be held as the six-year terms of half of the current members end on July 28.
Speculation had grown in recent months that Abe might dissolve the more powerful lower house for a snap election to coincide with the upper house race. But he decided against a double election, senior administration officials have said.
The idea of a merger “is objectively mistaken … If we join together, our votes will decrease,” because policy stances would become blurred, said Yukio Edano, head of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ).
