Barely 24 hours after the ruling party in Japan won its biggest-ever victory in a general election, speculation mounted that a triumphant Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi would pursue amending the 1947 constitution to expand the role of the military and legitimize the right of self-defense.
In 2014, Takaichi's mentor, the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, issued a "reinterpretation" of the Constitution's Article 9 — which renounces war as a means of resolving international disputes.
Through a decision of his Cabinet, Abe issued a new interpretation of Article 9 permitting collective self-defense.
Abe's move has generated a fierce outcry in and outside Japan.
Writing in the Iowa Law Review in 2016, Jeffrey P. Richter concluded that "the unstable legal basis on which Abe's reinterpretation rests creates the very real danger that Japan's newly-declared right of collective self-defense could eventually be retracted, leaving the United States without the support upon which it has based new foreign policy commitments."
Richter called on the U.S. to encourage Japan to pursue self-defense through traditional legal structures such as amending Article 9 through the Parliament (Diet).
On Sunday, the first step toward this goal was likely taken as Takaichi — barely three months after becoming Japan's first female prime minister — led the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to a record win.
Takaichi captured a two-thirds majority in Parliament's lower House (316 of 465 seats).
Hideya Yamamoto, former Washington Bureau Chief for the Japanese news service Sankei Shimbun, told Newsmax: "This surpassed the previous parliamentary record of 308 seats won by the Democratic Party when it defeated the LDP in 2009.
"Even LDP's major Prime Ministers, such as Shinjiro Koizumi (296 seats in 2005) and Abe (294 seats in 2012), who both won landslide elections, failed to reach this record," Yamamoto said.
Yamamoto and others agree that the big win must be largely credited to Takaichi — dubbed the "Lady of Steel" because her political hero and role model was British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, known as the "Iron Lady."
In leading her party to its historic triumph, Takaichi supported cutting taxes and specifically suspending the consumption tax on food for two years.
Less noticed in the wake of the big LDP win, but nevertheless significant, was the showing of the new MAGA-style Sanseito Party, which shot from two to 13 seats in the Sunday elections.
Clearly taking his cue from Donald Trump, Sanseito (officially translated to "Participate in Politics") leader Sohei Kamiya rallied disenchanted voters with his cry of "Japanese First!" and calls for greater restrictions on foreign workers and investment.
At 64, it is not certain how long Takaichi will be in the prime minister's chair.
But given the size of her victory Sunday, signs are strong that she will make some dramatic moves and very soon.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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