Election losses set back Abe's plans

Significance

Abe's conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its long-time coalition partner won a comfortable majority but not the two-thirds supermajority in the house that Abe would need to ensure passage of revisions to Japan's constitution, even with the support of the 16 representatives of the pro-revision Japan Innovation Party.

Impacts

• The nucleus of a new centre-left main opposition may be forming.
• Women were poorly represented, undermining Abe's professed commitment to gender equality.
• Japan's younger voters show a preference for the conservative ruling party, suggesting generational change will not bring political change.