Japan’s Shinzo Abe wins landslide party vote, looks to three more years as PM

Abe on course to become Japan’s longest-serving premier and realise his dream of reforming the constitution, securing 553 votes against 254

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Liberal Democratic Party President Shinzo Abe receives applause from the LDP lawmakers soon after winning a third term as LDP leader, paving the way for him to serve as prime minister for up to three more years. Photo: AP

Published: 2:15pm, 20 Sep 2018Updated: 11:33pm, 20 Sep 2018

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won comfortable re-election as leader of his ruling party on Thursday, setting him on course to become Japan’s longest-serving premier and realise his dream of reforming the constitution.

The 63-year-old conservative secured 553 votes against 254 won by former defence minister Shigeru Ishiba, a hawkish self-confessed “military geek”, in a two-horse race for leader of the Liberal Democratic Party.

The win effectively hands Abe three more years as prime minister, giving him the chance of breaking the record for the nation’s longest serving premiership held by Taro Katsura, a revered politician who served three times between 1901 and 1913.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, third from left, dreams of reforming Japan’s post second World War Pacifist Constitution. Photo: AP

Public support for Abe – a political thoroughbred whose grandfather and father both held power – has recovered despite a series of cronyism and cover-up scandals. Disaster responses by Abe’s government and his recent diplomatic activities have worked in his favour, some political experts have said.

With the victory, Abe is expected to speed up the pace of preparations to revise the supreme law for the first time since it took effect in 1947.