Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s gamble to call snap parliamentary elections paid off. Exit polls on Sunday showed his party won a landslide victory in the election.
While official results are still being tallied, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said Abe’s ruling coalition won two-thirds majority in Parliament’s Lower House, securing 326 out of 475 seats, according to CNN.
The conservative Liberal Democratic Party, while has ruled Japan for most of the post-World War II era, won at least two-thirds of the House of Representatives along with its coalition partner, the Buddhist-backed Komei party.
In several television interviews, Abe said the economy is his top priority, adding that he would tackle other issues such as national security. The win will give Abe four more years to institute policies designed to revive Japan’s economy while encouraging corporations to add jobs and increase government spending.
This year, Japan slipped into an unexpected recession, dealing a blow to his “Abenomics” stimulus program.
[quote text_size=”small” author=”– Taro Aso” author_title=”Finance Minister”]
I believe this shows that voters gave the Abe administration a positive evaluation over the past two years. Abenomics is still halfway through, and I feel a strong sense of responsibility to push it further.
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The U.S. government hopes Abe will win passage of many bills necessary to expand Japan’s military role so it can play a larger part in their alliance, according to ABC News.
An election was not required until late 2016 and many wondered why Abe, with a large majority in the Lower House with 295 out of 475 seats, would risk ceding power early. As exit polls show, it seems Abe’s coalition has managed to pick up more than 30 additional seats with a two-thirds majority that gives the party a chance to propose amending the Constitution and enacting bills that the Upper House rejects.
Prior to the vote, Abe’s support levels were slipping. Along with economic woes, his popularity was hurt by bills that stiffened penalties for leaking government secrets and a cabinet resolution that re-interpreted the pacifist constitution to allow Japan to defend its allies, according to Bloomberg.
