In the specter of Shinzo Abe’s shocking assassination, the party to which he dedicated his life secured a resounding victory in Sunday’s upper house election.
Now Fumio Kishida, Abe’s sometimes rival, long-serving foreign minister and now successor, must use his mandate to secure what Abe never could: the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s long-held goal of constitutional reform.
The 75-year-old constitution, written by the occupying American army and forbidding Japan the right to possess an offensive military force, has not once been altered despite the best efforts of generations of Japanese politicians, including Abe. Before he was murdered on the campaign trail Friday, Abe was the movement’s most prominent voice, and lobbied to the end for his long-held goal.
