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Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has vowed to use her dominance of Japan’s parliament after her huge election win to attempt to amend the country’s constitution for the first time in almost 80 years.
Speaking on Monday evening at her first press conference since her victory, Takaichi said her more powerful mandate from voters had left her feeling a “heavy, heavy responsibility to strengthen Japan”.
As part of that effort, she said her Liberal Democratic Party would now start making arrangements to amend the constitution, which was drawn up under the US occupation of Japan in the aftermath of the second world war.
“The constitution tells the story of the nation’s ideal form. With a firm eye on this country’s future, we will also advance the challenge towards constitutional revision,” said Takaichi.
Any successful effort to do so would represent a landmark in Japanese politics and one that has eluded dozens of Takaichi’s predecessors in the LDP, which was formed in 1955 with the central purpose of trying to change the constitution.
But constitutional changes require a two-thirds majority in both the lower and upper houses of parliament, the National Diet, as well as a majority in a public referendum. No referendum has ever been held.
In Sunday’s snap election, Takaichi and the LDP’s coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, secured 352 lower house seats, a so-called supermajority of more than two-thirds that puts the bloc in a starting position to clear the hurdles to constitutional change.
However, the LDP lacks even a simple majority in the upper house and would need deals with opposition parties in order to secure the necessary votes.
Takaichi did not specify which parts of the constitution she could seek to amend.
Her pledge came as her victory in the snap election sent the Japanese stock market to a record high, as investors bet that the government would implement an economic stimulus plan.
The Nikkei 225 closed up almost 4 per cent and the broader Topix rose 2.3 per cent.
Past LDP leaders have often raised the possibility of modifications, including granting the prime minister greater powers in a natural disaster or military crisis and lowering the barrier for making future amendments.
Most controversial have been proposals to change the constitution’s Article 9, which enshrines Japanese pacifism and states that “land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained”.
Subsequent reinterpretations of that line have allowed the existence of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, but a change to the constitution would give the military greater political and practical legitimacy.
Takaichi also vowed to push forward with a controversial suspension of consumption tax on food for two years, contrary to some expectations that she would walk back the pledge after bond investors worried that it would overstretch Japan’s finances.
“We intend to proceed . . . with discussions on setting the consumption tax rate on food and beverages at zero,” she said. Seeking to ease fears in the market over borrowing to fund the tax cut, Takaichi said that it “will not rely on special deficit-financing bonds”.
Takaichi fought the election in the shadow of a row with China, from which she has not backed down. In Monday’s press conference she fortified her position by pledging to seek further development of Shinzo Abe’s “free and open Indo-Pacific” regional policies.
Days after becoming prime minister in October, Takaichi responded to questions in parliament around Japan’s response to a hypothetical Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Her response — that such a scenario could be deemed “survival threatening” and potentially trigger the mobilisation of Japan’s military — sparked a furious response from Beijing.
In response to Takaichi’s victory, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Monday the election had revealed “certain deep-seated structural problems” and that the lessons of history should not be ignored.
Lin called on Japan’s government to “follow a path of peaceful development instead of retracing the road of militarism”.
The statement warned Japan that China was unwavering in its determination to “defend the outcomes of the victory” in the second world war.
“If Japan’s far-right forces misjudge the situation and act recklessly, they will inevitably meet resistance from the Japanese people and be dealt a head-on blow by the international community,” said Lin.