Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi received a new mandate through the Liberal Democratic Party’s (ldp) landslide victory in Japan’s general election on September 11.

The election boosted the number of ldp seats in the lower house from 249 to 296, giving the ldp and its coalition partner, the New Komei Party, the two-thirds majority needed to override any votes in the less cooperative upper house.

These results were what the ldp hoped for when Koizumi dissolved the lower house of the two-chamber Diet. Koizumi made the bold move after the upper house denied passage of the controversial legislation allowing the privatization of the postal system.

Though the postal reform may lead the political agenda for Koizumi and the ldp, other intended reforms have a greater significance for the world.

The ldp backs the changing of Article 9 of the Japanese constitution. The article forbids Japan to maintain a military and pursue war. However, Japan’s government has evaded strict compliance with this constitutional law; it currently maintains the Self Defense Force (sdf), a military organization including ground, naval and air support. Japan also owns the world’s second-largest navy.

This November, the ldp is planning to review the constitution in light of this issue. New drafts mainly altering Article 9 have already been put forward, explicitly legalizing the sdf and its participation in missions abroad (Japan Today, August 15).

Not that Article 9 has stopped Koizumi from already sending non-combat troops to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Washington has put its stamp of approval on Japan’s military moves in Iraq and has been supportive of an Article 9 revision as World War ii memories fade. America knows its forces are stretched thin and needs support from allied troops.

Yet prophecy shows the reforms Koizumi and the ldp are pushing through are only giving Japan more independence from the U.S. Since Japan has relied heavily on the U.S. for its security, it has had strong incentive to support U.S. foreign policy. But as Tokyo becomes stronger militarily, it will be increasingly free from that restraint. Bible prophecy tells us that Japan will, at some point, shift its alliances away from the U.S. and toward Asia.

Another trend we will continue to see from Japan is the rise of nationalist sentiment within the country. After all, that is partly what made Koizumi so popular. On multiple occasions he has visited the controversial Yasukuni war shrine, a memorial honoring Japan’s war dead, which is considered a symbol of Japanese right-wing militarism by other Asian nations.

With the ldp’s renewed strength and Prime Minister Koizumi’s increased power, Japanese nationalism is destined to soar. Watch for Tokyo to begin to take more concrete action to reform its pacifist constitution and revive its military to pre-World War ii heights. Then Japan will be ready to take its place in the prophetic future awaiting Asia.

For more on these prospects, read our February 2003 Trumpet article “Japan’s Place in the Future.”