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Election losses set back Abe's plans

Monday, July 22, 2019

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.

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