Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will face a major electoral test on Sunday, July 10, when voters will select half the members of the upper house of the Japanese Diet. If he can lead the ruling Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito coalition to victory, Kishida will secure stable control of the legislature and will have up to three “golden” years without having to contest an election, a window of opportunity for defense reforms, Kishida’s redistributionist “new capitalism” initiative, and perhaps even constitutional revision.
Please join the Center for American Progress following the election for a virtual discussion of where Kishida and Japan will go following the upper house elections, and how the July 8th assassination of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo may change Japan’s political landscape.
In conversation:
Tobias Harris, Senior Fellow for Asia, Center for American Progress
Sheila A. Smith, John E. Merow Senior Fellow for Asia Pacific Studies, Council on Foreign Relations