TOKYO, April 24 (APP/AFP): Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe’s ruling party won an important by-election on Sunday, media projected, welcome news for Japan’s leader before summer elections at which revising the pacifist constitution will be a key issue.
In the upcoming upper house elections the hawkish Abe is aiming to secure a two-thirds majority for his Liberal Democratic Party in combination with coalition allies and supporters so that he can alter the charter.
Analysts said the lower house by-election on the northern island of
Hokkaido was a test for Abe’s national security agenda, including new laws that ook effect last month.
Under that legislation the military, known as the Self-Defence Forces, could under certain conditions go into battle abroad to protect allies.
The changes sparked nationwide protests, but Abe continues to press his long-cherished ambition to revise the constitution — imposed by the United States after World War II — which renounces the right to wage war.
The LDP and allies already have a two-thirds majority in the more powerful lower house, where elections are not due until late 2018, unless Abe chooses to dissolve the chamber before then.
But constitutional revision requires two-thirds majorities in both houses and the support of a majority in a national referendum.
LDP candidate Yoshiaki Wada won the Hokkaido by-election in a tight race against an independent backed by opposition parties, according to exit poll projections by public broadcaster NHK and Jiji Press.