Japan's Landslide Election Result Sets Stage For Constitution Fight

[bananas]

Source: Reuters

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling coalition won a landslide victory on Sunday in an election for parliament’s upper house, despite concerns about his economic policies and plans to revise the nation’s post-war pacifist constitution for the first time.

Media projections showed Abe’s coalition, like-minded parties and independents had won the two-thirds “super majority” needed to try to revise the constitution’s restraints on the military, a step that could strain ties with China, where memories of Japan’s past militarism run deep.

Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) fell short of winning a simple majority, which would have increased its clout within the coalition. Earlier projections had shown it was within their grasp for the first time since 1989.

Nevertheless, the overall victory will still bolster Abe’s grip over the conservative party that he led back to power in 2012 promising to reboot the economy with hyper-easy monetary policy, fiscal spending and reforms.

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Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/japan-election-result_us_57825da5e4b0344d514faf70

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Neocons now have a firm grip on Japan.

[bananas]

1. Japan PM Shinzo Abe claims victory in parliamentary election

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36757872

Japan PM Shinzo Abe claims victory in parliamentary election
5 hours ago

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has claimed victory in an election for the upper house of parliament, saying voters backed his economic policies.

Exit polls suggest his coalition will win most of the 121 seats in contention, increasing its majority.

If he secures a two-thirds majority to match that in the lower house, he could hold a vote on constitutional change, easing constraints on military action.

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[bananas]

2. Japan Vote Strengthens Shinzo Abe’s Goal to Change Constitution

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/11/world/asia/japan-vote-parliamentary-elections.html?_r=0

Japan Vote Strengthens Shinzo Abe’s Goal to Change Constitution
By MOTOKO RICH
JULY 10, 2016

TOKYO — Voters helped Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan move closer on Sunday to securing the lawmaker support he needs to revise a pacifist Constitution that has been in place since American occupiers created it in 1947.

Although national election results were incomplete, all major Japanese newspapers reported that the governing coalition and its allies had captured two-thirds of the seats in the upper house of Parliament, the amount required to proceed with the constitutional revision. A final count was likely to be announced on Monday morning.

Despite a weak economy and divided public opinion on the expanded role for Japan’s military that Mr. Abe is seeking, exit polls by NHK, the country’s public broadcaster, indicated that his Liberal Democrats and their allies had again won a commanding majority in the upper house.

“This is the people’s voice letting us firmly move forward,” Mr. Abe said. When asked whether he would proceed with a revision of the Constitution, he said it had long been the Liberal Democrats’ goal.

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[Ghost Dog]

3. Deep shit, then,

according to plan.

[Night Watchman]

4. Worth Watching

[yuiyoshida]

12. THANKS for posting this

doumo arigatou gozaimashita!

[Night Watchman]

13. Well, I Understood your Headline

[Coventina]

5. While I am pro-peace and don't want to see the constitution changed....

Please remember that Japan is very close neighbor to both North Korea and an increasingly aggressive China.

NK has already launched missiles over Japan, and China is outright seizing more and more territory.

Japan has good reason to be nervous....

[Yo_Mama]

7. Also there is a loss of faith in the ability of the USA to back them up, come the worst.

They no longer believe in either our capacity or our willingness, and this is the only realistic thing for them to do.

[Coventina]

9. Yeah, I wonder how many who will criticize Japan are also critical of the US

being the "World's Policeman."

What's Japan supposed to do, exactly?

[Feeling the Bern]

6. And Sino-Japanese relationships sour to its darkest levels since the bombing of Shanghai in 1933.

[roamer65]

8. ...and President Trumpf will let them develop a nuclear arsenal.

[sakabatou]

10. Great....

-_-

[forjusticethunders]

11. Japan please.

Abe is a fascist, pure and simple.