The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has been rocked by its humiliating defeat in the July 29 House of Councilors (Upper House) election. The LDP's loss was generally attributed to the government's long-standing mismanagement of public pension accounts, but in my opinion, two United States-related issues contributed significantly to the downfall.
First, the leadup to the the election was marked by reports that the U.S. House of Representatives was moving toward adoption of a resolution urging an official Japanese apology for the systematic coercion of thousands of young women into sexual slavery for wartime military personnel. This caused growing public doubt about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's diplomatic policy with its slogan of making a "departure from the postwar regime." (The U.S. House passed the "comfort women" resolution July 30.)
Second, then Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma's remarks, which appeared to accept the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, stirred public anxieties over security policies inherited from former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government and aimed at strengthening military integration with the U.S.