Japanese Governing Party Wins Control of Upper House
Via the BBC: Japan election: Abe ‘wins key upper house vote’
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has won a majority in the upper house, exit polls suggest.
His Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner New Komeito were set to get at least 71 of the 121 seats being contested, broadcaster NHK projected.
This would give him control of both houses of parliament for the first time in six years.
Japan’s upper house is not as powerful as is the case in the US, but has blocking powers. As such, this is a significant win for the Abe government.
Sounds like things may get a bit more tense over the Daioyu Islands.
What the Liberal Democratic Party really wants is a 2/3rds super-majority, which they already have in the House of Representatives, because that’s the threshold for putting their unappetizing package of constitutional amendments to a referendum. I think that their coalition partners, the Kōmeitō, a lukewarm on the idea.
For a little while there, it looked like Japan might just finally get a competitive bipartisan system, but it’s just back to the same all LDP all the time deal as before.
I happen to be in Tokyo. My son and I watched about 20 minutes of coverage before we figured out it was politics and not a somewhat dull game show. Note to CNN: brighter colors, more slot machine sound effects, and lots of cutaways to guys yelling “Banzai!” So much better that way.