Tokyo, July 11 (BNA) The Japanese ruling party and its coalition partner scored a big victory in Sunday’s parliamentary elections saturated with meaning after the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, amid uncertainty over how his loss will affect the party’s unity.
The Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner Komeito raised their combined share of the 248-seat chamber to 146 – far above the majority – in elections to half of the seats in the less powerful Senate.
With the reinforcement, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stands to rule without interruption until elections scheduled for 2025, according to the Associated Press.
This would allow Kishida to work on long-standing policies such as national security, his signature and the still murky “neo-capitalist” economic policy, and his party’s long-awaited goal of amending the pacifist constitution drafted by the United States after the war.
A charter change proposal is now a possibility. With the help of two opposition parties supporting the charter change, the ruling bloc now has the two-thirds majority in the House needed to propose an amendment, making it a realistic possibility. The ruling bloc has already gained support in the other room.
Kishida welcomed the big win but did not smile, given Abe’s loss and the difficult task of uniting his party without him. “Party unity is more important than anything else,” Kishida repeated in media interviews on Sunday evening.
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