Kishida says he will carry on Abe’s legacy, promises to ‘dramatically boost’ Japan’s defensive capabilities

July 11 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Japan’s Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, said Monday that he will continue the political legacy of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, assassinated on Friday during a campaign year, and has promised to “drastically boost” the country’s defensive capabilities, after that his party won the by-elections to the Sangiin or House of Councilors, the upper house of the Japanese Parliament.

“I will inherit the ideas of the former prime minister (Abe) to deal with difficult issues such as the kidnappings (of Japanese by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s) and the amendments to the Constitution,” he said, referring to to the will of his party to reform the Magna Carta and put an end to its pacifist character through the modification of Article 9, which specifies the country’s renunciation of war as a foreign policy tool and therefore renounces the sovereign right to belligerence.

“We are in one of the most difficult situations of the war — in reference to the Second World War — and we have to manage the administration in an emergency,” said Kishida, whose formation, the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD), was the great winner of Sunday’s elections after winning at least 63 of the 125 seats at stake, while its ally, the Komeito party, adds another twelve seats, according to official results.

The conservative Initiatives from Japan party and the Democratic Party for the People also support the constitutional reform, with which the reformist bloc adds 82 seats in these elections and reaches 170 seats in the Sangiin, above two thirds of the chamber (166 seats) necessary to promote a referendum for what would be the first reform of the Magna Carta currently in force, which dates back to 1947.

“I would like to promote the efforts that lead to generating the (reform) proposal as soon as possible,” he said, before emphasizing that the strengthening of military capabilities will focus on an increase in the budget allocated to defense matters in a two percent within five years. “I have to make an effort to clarify what kind of figure will be prepared for this year,” he defended, according to the Japanese newspaper ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’.

Kishida also stressed that the vote could be carried out after Abe’s assassination and stressed that “he will continue efforts to protect democracy.” “After dealing with major issues such as the novel coronavirus and measures against rising prices, we will make efforts for economic revitalization,” the Japanese prime minister promised.