The 186th ordinary Diet session, which all but ended on Friday, was characterized by a confident and energetic Liberal Democratic Party as laying strong foundations for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's security-related political goals.
It was a fraught time for the opposition camp, which remained weakened by internal disputes and fractures.
In his policy speech in January, Abe said the focus of the 150-day Diet session would be the creation of a "virtuous economic cycle," apparently aware that his government had benefited from an economic uplift and that it would be critical to keep the economy afloat if he was to proceed with his pet issues of collective self-defense and constitutional revision.