Voters Give Abe an Opening for Constitutional Debate (Sheila A. Smith, CFR)

As elections go, yesterday’s Upper House vote was not a compelling display of popular interest in governance, yet it was an undeniable victory for the prime minister and his party. Voter turnout was only 54.7 percent, on the lower end of postwar Upper House election turnouts but larger than the last Upper House contest in 2013. But Japan’s younger voters gave their ruling party a boost. 40 percent of Japan’s newest voters, eighteen-and nineteen-year-olds, opted for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

http://blogs.cfr.org/asia/2016/07/11/voters-give-abe-an-opening-for-constitutional-debate/