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Abe is the best man to make Japan stand up for itself

Japanese PM Shinzo Abe is pleased that he made the right call. Naturally. Snap polls were not an easy decision to make particularly with a raging North Korea in the vicinity touting its nuclear and missile prowess while taunting the United States, South Korea and Japan. Many analysts thought the PM was committing political harakiri but Abe has proved them wrong. It was a smart, well-thought out move that could serve Japan's national (read defence) interests, though it's not known how and when the PM intends to embark on revisiting its post war constitution written under humiliating circumstances following Japan's defeat to the Allied forces. When Abe announced the polls, the opposition parties were in  a mess and the PM's ratings were inching up. The Hope party lacked the ammunition to bring him down, and all it did was to strangle the opposition further.
Now that the PM's bloc has won a supermajority, he can exhibit a streak of political independence. In fact, Abe is set to become the country's longest serving PM. The prime minister's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Komeito party now have 313 of the 465 seats in the Diet, Japan's lower house of parliament. For Abe, these numbers give him the confidence he needs to attempt a constitutional amendment that elevates the status of his armed forces to more than a Self Defence Force under Article 9. After Japan's defeat in World War II, the country had to agree to tough conditions that cramped its ability to wage war and become a brutal occupational power again. The PM will need to tread a fine line to make the changes he envisages that will help Japan stand up for itself again. With this majority, Abe can get amendments passed in parliament but he will still need to hold a referendum. Tokyo's ties with China, which is breathing fire in the region, have gone cold, while its relationship with Pyongyang has hit a nadir. These are dangerous times in a dangerous region for Japan, and Shinzo Abe is the best man to get the job done.