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July 11, 2022

Japan: Abe's Party Secures Supermajority in Upper House Days After His Assassination
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Voters in Japan went to the polls for parliamentary elections on Sunday,
two days after a gunman assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
while he was campaigning for a candidate. In Sunday's election, Abe's
right-wing Liberal Democratic Party won in a landslide, gaining enough
seats with its coalition partners to form a supermajority in the upper
house. By picking up more seats, the LDP appears poised to rewrite the
country's pacifist constitution, which bars Japan from using - or
threatening to use - military force. The rewriting of the constitution
was a longtime goal of Shinzo Abe.


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