Shinzo Abe, President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), attends a press conference in Tokyo, Japan, on Oct. 23, 2017. Japan's ruling camp grouped by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's LDP and its junior partner, the Komeito Party, has won a two-thirds "supermajority" in Sunday's lower house election. (Xinhua/Ma Ping)
TOKYO, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- Japan's ruling camp grouped by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner, the Komeito Party, has won a two-thirds "supermajority" in Sunday's lower house election.
The ruling camp secured a total of 313 seats of the 465-seat lower house of parliament, with the LDP taking 284 seats and the Komeito Party winning 29 seats.
The victory will give the ruling bloc a new impetus to pursue the prime minister's long-term ambition of revising the postwar pacifist constitution, local analysts have pointed out.
"I want to accept this victory with humility," Abe told a television program after the election on Sunday.
He added that he expects "discussions on revising the constitution to deepen" at the parliament in an attempt to seek more support from various forces on the issue.
The victory is also expected to boost Abe's chance for winning a third term as President of the LDP in an election next autumn, which would make him the longest serving prime minister in postwar Japan.
Meanwhile, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), set up only about a couple of weeks ago by the collapsing Democratic Party's liberal wing, won 55 seats and become the largest opposition.
The party members agreed on Monday to work together with former members of the Democratic Party who successfully ran as independents to form a unified front in the lower house.
The "reform conservative" Party of Hope led by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike took only 50 seats, less than its 57 seats before the election as the people's initial enthusiasm for the party ebbed.
The Party of Hope, while sharing the LDP's conservative views on constitutional change and security laws, has been against consumption tax hike and criticized Abe's economic policies dubbed Abenomics.
The Communist Party and the Japan Innovation Party took 12 and 11 seats, respectively, both less than before the election. Meanwhile, 22 independent candidates were elected.
Yoshihiko Noda, former prime minister, said that the opposition forces should have been able to win more seats with support rating for Abe's cabinet dropping amid scandals, but the splitting-up of the opposition benefited the ruling camp.
Voter turnout was 53.68 percent, the second lowest in postwar history following the record low of 52.66 percent in 2014, according to government data.
A powerful typhoon approaching the Japanese archipelago, bringing rain and strong winds and disrupting traffic, was expected to weigh on the turnout, but a record high of 21 million people, or around 20.1 percent of the eligible population, have cast their ballots early.
Due to the typhoon, ballots counting in some municipalities was delayed to Monday.
