Ruling bloc wins 2/3 majority in lower house; Abe says he won't become complacent

Goodbye Japan, Abe will continue to take from the poor and give it to his big business buddies.

While Komeito, the Party of Hope and the smaller Japan Innovation Party are all in favor of amendment, 

Well, what can we do if every Japanese party wants the army back?

More Abenomics please! :/

Turnout was extremely low again but that’s what you get with no compulsory voting.

I also voted LDP as the others options would have been too chaotic and untested. This result is for the best

I also voted LDP as the others options would have been too chaotic and untested. This result is for the best

So you chose ineffective leadership anyway?

I'm not surprised that fear mongering,yet again,won out in the end. I called this months ago. I was holding out hope for some semblance of change but sadly the inability to care for the future has doomed the nation.

That's it. What little hope I had left for the future of Japan has evaporated.

Fantastic result almost 70 years of rule, breakout the adult nappies because I'm going to wet myself. I am looking forward to a further reduction of my income as these grumpy old men will want tax payers money to pay for their funerals. I'm excited to see who will die first. That's before my grandchildren are sent on Kamakazi missions.

I also voted LDP as the others options would have been too chaotic and untested. This result is for the best

So you fell for the party line. Just the the rest of the people who voted for the LDP as well.

How do you KNOW what is going to happen if you don't give them a chance? Koike's party came across as being "Abe Lite" and didn't give the voters enough to recognize any difference between her and the LDP.

Buy on rumor, sell on fact.

Higher chance of war, when constitution changed.

54% voter turnout and they are bragging about it being more than the record lowest turnout of 52.36%? Bwahahaha!

dcog9065Today  07:28 am JST

I also voted LDP as the others options would have been too chaotic and untested.

Yes, with the LDP you always know you're getting corrupt, ineffectual government.

Good bye hope ...

Dcog9065 is just voting the way is grandparents and parents voted and how his or her children and grandchildren (unless the LDP leads them to an unwinnable war) will vote: no one is testest except the LDP.

Same thinking as “I’ve only owned a Datsun so I will continue buying a Datsun; I’ve tested no other car.”

This should be great for the real estate market!

I also voted LDP as the others options would have been too chaotic and untested. This result is for the best

When your ship is headed for the rocks, better an untested deckhand to turn the wheel towards safety than a captain who insists on staying the course full speed ahead.

I would imagine, based on the comments, alot of people will be leaving Japan as a result of this election.

The same old LDP folks remain in power, but I am not sure any of the alternatives are any better. Who knows? I am not Japanese and cannot vote but I do not profess to be better or smarter than Japanese people so maybe they have a good reason for the outcome of this election.

My dad taught me long ago not to put stock or hope in any politician "saving" me or "taking care of me" as they all are looking out for themselves. His advice was to learn to adapt to different situations, work hard, and don't be a burden on others. He was a bit old school, grew up on the farm and called alot of this "horse sense". He never let election results bother him, just got on with his business and adapted to the winds of change. Worked out OK for him so I guess this is good advice. Not sure if this is applicable today or not or even applies in the case of Japan but I still try to follow this advice.

In the case of Japan, neither Abe nor any other politician will "save us" and frankly none of them give 2 cents about Japan's foreign tax paying residents. Any other thought on this matter is delusional.

Tokyo-EngrToday  08:39 am JST

The same old LDP folks remain in power, but I am not sure any of the alternatives are any better. 

Going by their record I find it hard to imagine anyone worse in charge.

He is made of Teflon. Scandals, low ratings, you name it, yet he keeps getting reelected. Anyway, its all downhill from here, I was hoping we would've reached the bottom by now.

This LDP supermajority victory was made possible thanks to the "Divine Wind" that arrived the same day as the election day.

Congratulations PM Abe.

Hope to see you in India again.

Jai Japan Jai Hind

Spoke with the wife yesterday and even she was considering moving abroad to retire.

Talking about politics with her;it's anything but the LDP.

However, most of her countrymen and women just want the same old music again and again.......

Abe call it a big win. In fact less people voted. Very strange, only in Japan.

@RationalReader: The only reason real estate is up right now is because there is a labor shortage. I've seen ads on facebook hiring construction workers that "must have refugee visas" in Japan. The cost of building has increased not the value of the land. Come 2020 after all the Olympic construction finishes... poof economy!

I also voted LDP as the others options would have been too chaotic and untested. This result is for the best

This is exactly why the LDP has held power for most of the passed 70 years. If Japan had an Apathy Party, it would win every election!

At this point, Edano and his movement is the best hope for Japan.

When we look around the world, Japan is not so bad, Abe is not so bad and Japanese politicians not so bad. We are basically conservative people. Abe's scandal is small. He is not stealing public money and taking it to foreign lands as it is often reported in foreign countries. You know, Japan is modernized only 100 years ago. Until then, we were more or less the same with other undeveloped countries.

i love how upset so many in the foreign community are with all "hope" lost now that abe has reaffirmed his mandate for changing the consitution. look, the constitution party had no chance of having a major impact and the kibo party would've just been the same monster with a different head. there were so many things wrong with the kibo party, the least not being that they didn't propose any radical change and played it safe. perhaps if koike was bolder and announced a more substantial difference from the ldp kibo would've garnered more votes.

regardless, this is not the death of japan or of the liberty that exists in it. life will go on.

Majority in hiouse and majority in people are two fundamentally different things. I hope Abe knows it. He should stop using majority terms to fool people.

LDP wins 2/3 majority, followed by a powerful typhoon the next day.  Celestial messaging?

What with the typhoon outside and the election results on the telly indoors, it was a pretty miserable Sunday.

At least the typhoon will soon be gone.

Gotta put up with smirky Abe for a few more years.

Yuck.

One good thing to come out of this is that Edano effectively took over leadership of the liberals, and will hopefully be able to build on that and put up a proper party capable of toppling the dinosaurs in the next election. I could never understand how or why Maehara got elected to the leadership post.

Pretty hard for me to even choose who to vote for as they all are uninspiring and the same old nonsense.

Koike is actually more conservative than Abe in many ways by what Ive heard.

Iam Blaming the typhoon!

Schopenhauer

When we look around the world, Japan is not so bad, Abe is not so bad and Japanese politicians not so bad. We are basically conservative people. Abe's scandal is small. He is not stealing public money and taking it to foreign lands as it is often reported in foreign countries. You know, Japan is modernized only 100 years ago. Until then, we were more or less the same with other undeveloped countries.

It is not bad when the average income in the third largest economy in the world is lower than

that of Bermuda, we are not talking of Switzerland.

It is not bad when the standard of living is lower than that of some 3rd world economies.

It is not bad when the buddy of the prime minister gets free land and construction cost of his

private school subsidized with taxpayer money up to the tune of 9.6 billion yen while the

average Taro and Hanako lives on moyashi.

It is not bad to make believe and console oneself.

In fact and clearly, majority Japanese people didn't vote for Abe.

great he now can further his agenda to go to war abroad and raise out taxes to pay for it!

Akie, does it matter whether the majority voted or not, his party won with a landslide

and he can steamroll all his pipe dream policies unpeturbed.

Turnout isn't 'that' bad considering the abysmal weather conditions in Western Japan.

Abe call it a big win. In fact less people voted. Very strange, only in Japan.

Not quite. Not uncommon to see a 50-60% turnout, happens all the time in the us and western Europe (and probably in other parts of the world where voting isn't compulsory). Voter disengagement isn't a Japanese-only trend.

Rules are rules, they are the same for all parties and whether we like it or not this is a massive win for Abe. And as the great David Brent once said after receiving 3-4 votes at a board meeting 'Naaa, you don't need luck when 70% of the population is behind you. This is a landslide'. (or something to that effect ;)

I voted for Communist party as I didn’t have much options.

Drlucifer, it does matter. Abe boats democratic values around the globe. Now it is time to practice it at home. Abe has to choose between his personal agenda and Japanese people's agenda. We will see.

What is the average age of those leaders and their life expectancy? I for one are way more concerned about my children's future than theirs.

This LDP supermajority victory was made possible thanks to the "Divine Wind" that arrived the same day as the election day.

What utter rot, the divine wind was supposed to protect the people of this country, not make their lives even more miserable.

Akie

Drlucifer, it does matter. Abe boats democratic values around the globe. Now it is time to practice it at home. Abe has to choose between his personal agenda and Japanese people's agenda. We will see.

Surprised, you have forgotten so soon about the undemocratic State Secrecy law or

his strong desire to change the constitution, militarize Japan and allow Japan fight America's wars

which is totally against the wish of a vast majority of Japanese.

I am not holding my breath as I know he will choose his personal agenda over that of

the people even more now that he knows that despite he Abe shafting the people he

was still rewarded handsomely with a landslide victory.

The victory by Abe and his LDP sends the message to Abe that the public likes whatever

concoction he has been giving them and I only see him increasing the dosage.

drlucifer- read some of Akie's previous posts. He/she clearly knows what is going on.

Cucashopboy,

He/she didn't sound like he/she knows what is going on.

In the case of Japan, neither Abe nor any other politician will "save us" and frankly none of them give 2 cents about Japan's foreign tax paying residents. Any other thought on this matter is delusional.

Actually the Communist party did, as well as some former DPJ members that didn't accept the Party of Hope manifesto. I'm not sure if he won his seat back but former DPJ leader Ozawa also supports foreigners rights specifically the right to vote in local elections.

LDP and Komeito have shown excellent performance in the election which was expected . Prophecy of those who were predicting less than two third majority for the ruling coalition , have dashed to the ground .These media predictions have exposed their biased mentality before the public . This election result is a big victory for PM Abe and his policies which he wants to pursue for the benefit of the Japanese public & make Japan a strong country and vibrant progressive economy .

Abe said the results indicate that voters support his policies and want to see his political leadership continue….He said he hoped to gain the public's understanding for his proposed revision to Japan's war-renouncing constitution, though he retracted his earlier goal of achieving a revision by 2020.

In this election, Abe made the best use of the North Korean missile launchings, saying this is Japan's national crises and thus fanning voters’ fear of an imminent missile attack of Japan by North Korea. It's reported he was in close contact with the U.S. in launching thise snap election, assuring them of a comfortable win for the LDP (according to Satoshi Mizushima: Oct. 21 Channel Sakura Okinawa talk show).   

Thus, his wish itching to amend the current constitution is coming near to realization.

The U.S. is, of course, eagerly waiting for this to happen and Article 9 to be scrapped so that the JSDF can fight global wars along with U.S. forces.

People must know that the revision of the constitution is like summer bugs plunging into fire of their own choice; that a fool only hunts for misfortune.

I called this months ago

LOL... Just you and you alone, eh? Didn't get credit much as a kid, clearly...

Oh my, gods waiting room, please place your flowers on this white board. They know they have less than 10 years left but insist on giving younger generations no hope at all.

Tokyo-Engr, couldn't have said it better myself. So true.

Tokyo-Engr: “In the case of Japan, neither Abe nor any other politician will "save us" and frankly none of them give 2 cents about Japan's foreign tax paying residents.”

Others might have done less to destroy us, however. Alas, the sheeple are waking knowingly into the slaughter. Abe “won’t become complacent” because he already is, hence the snap election when he knew he would win.

Japan is not only a land of confusion but a land of excuses. Koike seems to think her party lost because of her not willing to be PM. No you insipid ding bat, you lost because you are the LDP and equally infected with Nippon Kaigi vampires. It seems Ms. Koike needs to pen a tome entitled: How I Lost An Election Intentionally.

Abe said the results indicate that voters support his policies and want to see his political leadership continue. .... He said he hoped to gain the public's understanding for his proposed revision to Japan's war-renouncing constitution, though he retracted his earlier goal of achieving a revision by 2020.

In this election, Abe made the best use of the North Korean missile launchings, saying this is Japan's national crises and thus fanning voters’ fear of an imminent missile attack of Japan by North Korea. It's reported he was in close contact with the U.S. in launching this snap election, assuring them of a comfortable win for the LDP (according to Satoshi Mizushima: Oct. 21 Channel Sakura Okinawa talk show).  

Thus, his wish itching to amend the current constitution is coming nearer to realization.

The U.S. is, of course, eagerly waiting for this to happen and Article 9 to be scrapped so that the JSDF can fight global wars along with U.S. forces.

People must know that the revision of the constitution is like summer bugs plunging into fire of their own choice; that a fool only hunts for misfortune.

I agree there is serious media bias, in favor of the party of hope and Koike. Even this site JT was posting articles about the minority parties making waves. No evidence for that. Just hoping with no substance.

This result was predictable, the LDP and the Komeito are the only parties that have not changed their name and convoluted their ideas to merge with other parties. Nobody knows what other parties are there or what they are called.

Koike had a chance to make waves but she bungled the chances by 1) not running herself 2) not naming would be PM if her party won

Very stupid, your chance has passed Yuriiko, please focus on your responsibilities to the Tokyo citizens, after all you are the mayor (even though it didn't seem like it the last few months)

Oh yes, the Communist party also stayed true to their name and values, but honestly they are a bunch of highly educated socially backwards people who will never get a majority but only serve as an alternative.

Yeah, only 54% of people could vote. However, many of them also chose to vote early on Saturday. The typhoon did not hit Tokyo until 6am this morning. It was just raining on Sunday. However, by contrast, the car park at my local DVD and manga rental store was full day Sunday. It seems that people could go and rent movies or comics, but couldn't be bothered voting for their own future. What a pathetic bunch they!

I think Japan is still on her way to learn democracy and modernization. As I mentioned above, it has passed only 100 and some years since Japan opened the country to the west to learn from them. Until then, we were for long under feudal rulings. Recently I read a book by Ichiro Fukazawa and I was shocked how Japan was in Edo period and before. First son inherited the farming land from his father and he could only marry a woman but second son and third son could not. The farming land is limited and they had to control population. Many babies were killed and old folks when they became 69, they were carried on the back of their son and sent to a death valley called "ubasuteyama" and deserted there waiting death. Ayako Sono said in her book there is no poverty in Japan. Poverty means people have to worry about their meals for tomorrow and there are many such people in the world according to her.

Another sign of island mentality. The People are so afraid of any kind of change, they don't want to try new parties. Voting LDP has become a habit that cannot be explained, just like millions of unwritten rules that Japanese follow.

Mike - Thanks for reminding me about Ozawa's position on foreigner voting rights. I thought the party had reversed this position but if I am wrong please correct me.

Regarding the Article 9 arguments or arguments against revising the Constitution: I completely understand when people say Japan could get dragged into other people's wars and other potential ramifications. However I am torn in this issue because on the other hand it i firmly believe that the Japanese people should have a say whether or not their Constitution is re-written as the existing document was imposed after WW2.

My opinion is that the best way to deal with the Constitution issue would be to allow for a special election on the subject and allow Japanese to decide for themselves

The constitution change is a big thing, should not be taken lightly nor pushed by an engender from a person who's whole life has been subjugated to living up to a grandfathers model. 1930s it's over, not for Shinzo but certainly a fair proportion of the public.

LDP can't just change the Constitution, needs to be approved by lower and upper house and after that by a nationwide public referendum?

Right now Japan can only defend it's own territory but cannot strike(counter) on overseas territories.

Single member districts are a sham.

Basically you require strong national presence and a network big enough to support all your single district candidates.

No party, other than the LDP, had candidates for each single member districts.

For example, in my district there were only 2 options, neither of which I support, and of course one of those options was from the LDP.

Since it was introduced in 1996, this system has shown a big disparity between national popular support and the number of seats the LDP gets.

They get about 30 to 40 percent of the vote, but get more than 60 percent of all the seats, most of them coming from single member districts.

B.l. SharmaToday  

This election result is a big victory for PM Abe and his policies which he wants to pursue for the benefit of the Japanese public & make Japan a strong country and vibrant progressive economy .

Did I read Vibrant and progressive economy, he had 5 years to effect change for the good of

the general public but instead the general public got but stagnant wages and increased prices while

companies got tax breaks and his buddies favors using taxpayer's money.

Not a bad thing to Keep up dreaming and hoping.

pacint

LDP can't just change the Constitution, needs to be approved by lower and upper house and after that by a nationwide public referendum?

Right now Japan can only defend it's own territory but cannot strike(counter) on overseas territories.

With an apathetic media and people, what if they make up an excuse or deliberately misinterpret

the constitution and attack what will stop them.

Schopenhauer - Ayako Sono, lest we forget!

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/02/20/national/outrage-grows-sono-apartheid-column/#.We13eGiCyUk

Seventy years is a long time to have not yet got used to democracy! I'm particularly disappointed with the result because it sends such a clear message to Japan's leaders that they can behave as irresponsibly as they like and still get elected.

Right now Japan can only defend it's own territory but cannot strike(counter) on overseas territories.

But to be clear, this is not what Article 9 explicitly says. It's just one of the most extreme interpretations of Article 9, usually favoured by those who have a vested interest in making it sound absurd.

There are no geographical restrictions found in Article 9 and to interpret this way is at odds with international law which also doesn't place any explicit geographical restrictions on a nation's right to self=defence. Abe's own reinterpretation (which allows Japan to defend its allies overseas) shows just how flexible it already is. Article 9 is more of a principle than any serious impediment to security. Abe just hates the principle because he thinks Japan did nuffin' wrong.

Japan has to amend the Constitution, or he will become the little brother of North Korea .

B.l. SharmaToday  12:18 pm JST

LDP and Komeito have shown excellent performance in...

Hilarious as usual, well done. The fact is, though, the LDP and Komeito were, as usual, mediocre at best but they could hardly do badly against opposition parties that couldn't even compete with them in every constituency. If the opposition had mostly got organized into one party with a really charismatic leader like Junichiro Koizumi, Abe would have crushed into the dirt.

Japan voted for stability

It would require quite a rise just to reach the "complacency" level.

In fact and clearly, majority Japanese people didn't vote for Abe.

No kidding, thanks for stating the obvious. Only a little over 104,000 people voted for Abe

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/election/shugiin/2017/kaihyou/ya35.html

With all his bad karma Abe's fairy tale is not going to be "All's Well that Ends Well", and he is unlikely to "live happily ever after", either. Danger for Abe may even lurk in his playing a harmless round of golf with Trumpelthinskin who could erupt in a fit of spite and quiet fury should Abe beat him on the green. I doubt if Abe will ever be able to get his head round that flip-flopping moron as "Un-Japanese" as they come. Could Trump be the orange iceberg to Abe's Titanic Maru, sinking the smirking Liberal Demokrat's dream of "making Nippon great again"?

How can Abe become complacent when he has got so many secret money-making scams to run??

Bottom line is the constitution is going to be changed for a more proactive military. It doesn't matter which puppet is in charge as the US puppetmaster has ordered it. It has even drawn up the new constitution wording for the Japanese Vassal state.