The GPM Global Forecast is a bi-weekly, members-only article series for 2017. It provides analysis and short-term forecasting on key military, political, and economic events around the globe. 

Shinzo Abe’s LDP Cruises to another Supermajority in Japan

Shinzo Abe has scored a resounding victory in last weekend’s snap election in Japan. Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) combined with its coalition partner Komeito to take 311 seats in the 465-seat lower house of the National Diet.

The victory amounts to a big gamble paying off for Prime Minister Abe. Just four months ago, he was languishing in the polls amid two nepotism scandals, and many assumed that he would not survive a leadership challenge at the LDP conference next year. Closer to the election, Tokyo governor and ex-LDP renegade Yuriko Koike formed a new party and seemed to be on her way to splitting the LDP’s national take.