Kirk Spitzer

USA TODAY

TOKYO — Japan’s ruling coalition swept to victory in key parliamentary elections Sunday, setting the stage for potential revision of the country’s post-World War II pacifist constitution — a long-sought goal of Japanese conservatives.

Late returns and news media projections showed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Komeito Party, gaining a solid majority in the upper house of Japan’s parliament, called the Diet.

More important, the ruling coalition and other pro-revision parties appeared to win a two-thirds “super majority” necessary for revising the constitution.

Abe said in a televised interview after the polls closed that a review commission would decide the scope of constitutional changes.

"Through thorough debate in the Diet commission and a deepened understanding among the people, we can hope for a convergence (of opinion) on which articles will be amended," Abe said about the constitution. He did not set a timetable or details for the commission.

Abe and supporters had largely avoided constitutional revision during the run-up to the upper house election, focusing instead on economic issues.

Abe said Sunday that the victory showed widespread support for his economic policies, dubbed Abenomics, a combination of loose monetary policy and heavy government spending.

Abenomics is designed in part to spur consumer spending and end nearly two decades of stagnant economic growth. It has succeeded in boosting corporate profits and share prices, but has largely failed so far to boost wages or spending.

Tobias Harris, vice president and an Asia specialist with Teneo Intelligence in Washington, D.C., said Sunday's vote was a “solid victory, as expected,” for Abe, but it does not guarantee that Abe will be able to assemble the full two-thirds majority — 162 seats — in the upper house necessary for changing the constitution.

“The more actors that are involved, the harder it will be to agree on constitutional revision that actually unites 162 members,” said Harris, a former Diet aide.

Nonetheless, changing the 70-year-old charter has long been a dream of Japanese conservatives, who view the document as a legacy of Japan’s defeat in World War II.

A particular source of ire is Article 9, which “renounces” Japan’s right to wage war. Until Abe issued a controversial “reinterpretation” of that section in 2014, Japan’s self-defense forces had authority to fight only if Japan came under direct attack.

The constitution was adopted in 1946, the first year of the U.S. post-war occupation, and has not changed since.

By law, the constitution can be revised with a two-thirds vote of each house of the Diet and a majority vote in a nationwide referendum.

Abe's party and its coalition partner already have a two-thirds majority in the lower house. Opinion polls show that only about a third of Japanese voters favor revising the constitution.

At stake in Sunday’s election were 121 seats in the Diet’s House of Councillors. Half the seats in the 242-member body are up for election every three years.

Kyodo News reported voter turnout of 54%, up slightly from 53% in the 2013 upper house election. A final vote tally was expected Monday.

On Sunday, those ages 18 and 19 were able to vote for the first time. The voting age was lowered from 20 last year.

Abe's Liberal Democratic Party introduced a draft constitution in 2012 that reflected a strong conservative agenda, including a reduction in press freedoms and designation of the emperor as head of state. The charter also would impose new, nationalist-tinged legal requirements on citizens, such as showing “respect” for Japan’s rising-sun flag and Kimigayo, the national anthem.



