TOKYO, July 22, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday pledged to keep alive his plans to amend the country’s pacifist constitution, despite failing to secure a “supermajority” in upper house elections.
His ruling coalition retained its majority in the upper house in Sunday’s vote for around the half the seats in the chamber, but fell short of securing a two-thirds majority in favour of revising the constitution.
“The hurdle of two thirds in both the lower and upper houses is extremely
high,” Abe told a news conference at his party headquarters.
“I want to produce a reform proposal that can be agreed upon by two thirds
beyond the borders of the ruling and opposition camps,” he said.
Abe has long harboured dreams of revising the constitution, which prohibits
the country from waging war and maintaining a military.
But public support for revising the document is low and there is discomfort
with the idea even among the ruling coalition.
Experts said that since many within Abe’s coalition were already uneasy
about the plans, the failure to secure a supermajority was unlikely to change
the prime minister’s calculations significantly.
“Losing the supermajority is not necessarily a major setback for Abe,”
wrote analyst Tobias Harris of the Teneo consultancy group in a note.
“Instead, by leading the ruling coalition to another national election
victory — his sixth in his nearly seven years as LDP (Liberal Democratic
Party) leader — Abe has cemented his status atop Japan’s political system,”
Harris added.
Abe’s LDP and its coalition partner Komeito took 71 of the 124 seats up for
grabs in Sunday’s vote, accounting for about half of the upper chamber.
The two parties already control 70 seats in the other half of the 245-seat
chamber that was not being contested.
Analysts said Abe’s coalition benefitted from a weak opposition, and voter
turnout underscored apathy among the electorate, falling below 50 percent for
the first time since a 1995 upper house election.
Abe’s win is likely however to shore up his support ahead of a
controversial hike of the consumption tax to 10 percent later this year, as
well as trade negotiations with Washington.
The outcome of Sunday’s election means Abe remains on track to become the
country’s longest-serving prime minister later this year.