Sanae Takaichi will be able to push through a right-wing agenda now that the Liberal Democratic Party has a supermajority in the lower house
Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi scored a landslide victory in snap parliamentary elections on Sunday.
With a two-thirds majority in the lower house, secured together with coalition partners, the LDP leader will be better positioned to push through her right-wing agenda, particularly on defense.
A hardline conservative, Takaichi was elected as Japan’s first female prime minister last October. She has advocated revising Japan’s pacifist constitution and beefing up the country’s offensive military capabilities, among other policy changes. Takaichi called Sunday’s snap elections with a view to capitalizing on her popularity and securing a fresh mandate for “major policy shifts.”
The LDP, along with its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, will likely receive at least 310 seats in the 465-member House of Representatives, according to Japanese media. This would mark one of the largest lower-house majorities in postwar Japanese history.
Now that the ruling coalition has secured this overwhelming representation in the lower house, Takaichi will be able to override resistance in the upper chamber, potentially paving the way for amending Japan’s constitution.
Takaichi’s predecessors from the LDP aligned themselves with the West by imposing sanctions on Russia following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: rt.com
