japanese prime minister Shigeru Ishiba On Monday he vowed to stay in office even though his bid for early elections backfired, with his party's ruling coalition falling short of a majority for the first time since 2009.
Ishiba called Sunday's elections days later taking office on October 1But voters angry over an illicit funds scandal punished his Rumboso Democratic Party (LDP), which has ruled Japan almost non-stop since 1955.
Ishiba, 67, insisted on Monday that he would stay and said he would not allow a “political vacuum” in the world's fourth-largest economy.
He said the most important electoral issue was “people's suspicion, distrust and anger” following the party scandal, which helped bring down his predecessor, Fumio Kishida.
“I will enact fundamental reforms regarding the issue of money and politics,” Ishiba told reporters.
The yen hit a three-month low, falling more than one percent against the dollar.
According to projections by national broadcaster NHK and other media, the LDP and its junior coalition partner Komeito fell short of Ishiba's stated goal of winning 233 seats, a majority in the 456-member lower house.
The LDP won 191 seats, compared to 259 in the last elections in 2021, according to NHK counts. The official results had not yet been published.
“As long as our lives don't get better, I think everyone has abandoned the idea that we can expect anything from politicians,” Masakazu Ikeuchi, 44, a factory worker, told AFP in rainy Tokyo on Monday. a restaurant.
On Monday, the head of the LDP's election committee, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's son Shinjiro Koizumi, resigned to “take responsibility” for the result.
The most likely next step is for Ishiba to seek to lead a minority government, with the divided opposition likely unable to form a coalition of its own, analysts said.
Ishiba, who has 30 days to form a government, said on Monday he was not considering a broader coalition “at this time.”
A minority government would likely slow down the parliamentary process as Japan faces a host of challenges, from a declining population to a tense regional security environment.
It could also prompt figures within the LDP to try to overthrow Ishiba.
“Lawmakers aligned with (former Prime Minister Shinzo) Abe were ignored during the Ishiba government, so they could take the opportunity to take revenge,” Yu Uchiyama, a political science professor at the University of Tokyo, told AFP.
“But at the same time, with the number of LDP seats so small, they could take the high road and support Ishiba for now, thinking that this is not the time for infighting,” he said.
A big winner was former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's opposition Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), which increased its projected number of seats to 148 from 96 in the last election.
In the campaign, Noda took advantage of media reports that the LDP was financially supporting district offices headed by figures caught up in the slush fund scandal.
“Voters chose which party would be best suited to push through political reforms,” Noda said Sunday night, adding that “the LDP-Komeito administration cannot continue.”
Like elections elsewhere, fringe parties did well: Reiwa Shinsengumi, founded by a former actor, tripled its seats to nine after promising to abolish the sales tax and increase pensions.
The traditionalist, anti-immigration Conservative Party of Japan, founded in 2023 by nationalist writer Naoki Hyakuta, won its first three seats.
Meanwhile, the number of female lawmakers reached a record 73, according to NHK, but they still make up less than 16 percent of the legislature.
“I think the result was a result of people all over Japan wanting to change the current situation,” said voter Takako Sasaki, 44.
Ishiba said before the election that he was planning a new stimulus package to ease the pain of rising prices, another hacedor contributing to Kishida's unpopularity.
Another big area of spending is military, as Kishida has pledged to double defense spending and boost military ties with the United States as a counterweight to China.
Ishiba has backed the creation of a regional military alliance similar to NATO to counter China, although he has warned that this “will not happen overnight.”
China's Foreign Ministry said on Monday it wanted a “constructive and stable China-Japan relationship that meets the requirements of the new era.”
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