Victorious Abe warns N. Korea
His coalition likely to retain 2/3RD majority; reform of pacifist law will be His priority
tokyo — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe swept to a resounding victory in a snap election on Sunday and immediately vowed to “deal firmly” with threats from North Korea that dominated the campaign.
Abe’s conservative coalition was on track to win 311 seats in the 465-seat parliament, according to a projection from private broadcaster TBS, putting the nationalist premier on course to becoming Japan’s longest-serving leader. The resounding election win is likely to stiffen Abe’s resolve to tackle North Korea’s nuclear threat, as the key US regional ally seeks to exert maximum pressure on Pyongyang after it fired two missiles over Japan in the space of a month.
“As I promised in the election, my imminent task is to firmly deal with North Korea,” Abe said. “For that, strong diplomacy is required,” stressed Abe, 63.
Abe was heading for a “landslide win”, the topselling Yomiuri daily said on its website, as the premier’s gamble to hold a snap election appeared to be paying off. But it was unclear in the immediate aftermath of the vote whether his coalition would retain its two-thirds “supermajority,” requiring 310 seats, as some media had it falling just short.
A “supermajority” would allow Abe to propose changes to pacifist Japan’s US-imposed constitution that forces it to renounce war and effectively limits its military to a self-defence role. —
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling bloc was headed for a big win in Sunday’s election, bolstering his chance of becoming the nation’s longest serving premier and reenergising his push to revise the pacifist constitution.
Abe’s Liberal Democratic Partyled (LDP) coalition was set to win 311 seats, keeping its two-thirds “super majority” in the 465-member lower house, an exit poll by TBS television showed. Public broadcaster NHK also said the ruling bloc was closing in on a two-thirds majority, although some other broadcasters had the ruling bloc slightly below the two-thirds mark.
A hefty win raises the likelihood that Abe, who took office in December 2012, will have a third threeyear term as LDP leader next September and go on to become Japan’s longest-serving premier. It means his “Abenomics” growth strategy centred on the hyper-easy monetary policy will likely continue.
Final official results from the election are expected early on Monday.
The US-drafted constitution’s Article 9, if taken literally, bans the maintenance of armed forces. But Japanese governments have interpreted it to allow a military exclusively for self-defence.
Backers of Abe’s proposal to clarify the military’s ambiguous status say it would codify the status quo. Critics fear it would allow an expanded role overseas for the military.
Abe said he would not stick to a target he had floated of making the changes by 2020. “First, I want to deepen debate and have as many people as possible agree,” he told a TV broadcaster. “We should put priority on that.” The LDP’s junior partner, the Komeito, is cautious about changing the constitution, drawn up after Japan’s loss in World War Two. Several opposition parties favour changes, but don’t necessarily agree on details.
Amendments must be approved by two-thirds of each chamber of parliament and then by a majority in a public referendum.
“Now that pro-constitutional change parties occupy more than two-thirds of the parliament, the constitution will be the most important political issue next year,” said Hidenori Suezawa, a financial market and fiscal analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities.
“And as we saw in the UK ..., a referendum could be tricky. So while Abe is likely to be prime minister for the time being, it is too early to say whether he can stay in power until 2021.” Abe declined to say if he’d run for a third term.
Abe had said he needed a new mandate to tackle a “national crisis” from North Korea’s missile and nuclear threats and a fast-aging population, and to approve his idea of diverting revenue from a planned sales tax hike to education and child care from public debt repayment. He called the poll amid confusion in the opposition camp and an uptick in his ratings, dented earlier in the year by scandals over suspected cronyism and a perception he had grown arrogant after nearly five years in office. —
Shinzo Abe Japanese Prime Minister first, i want to deepen debate and have as many people as possible agree. we should put priority on that.”