Japan leader vows to stay on after gambit backfires

Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has vowed to stay on and promised to restore political stability after his ruling coalition failed to win a majority in the lower house for the first time since 2009.

Ishiba called Sunday's election days after taking office on October 1, but the gamble backfired as voters angry at a slush fund scandal punished his Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed Japan almost nonstop since 1955.

Ishiba, 67, insisted yesterday he is staying put, saying he will not allow a "political vacuum" in the world's fourth-biggest economy.

He said the biggest election factor was "people's suspicion, mistrust and anger" after the party scandal, which helped sink his predecessor Fumio Kishida. "I will enact fundamental reform regarding the issue of money and politics," Ishiba said.

According to projections by national broadcaster NHK and other media, the LDP and its junior coalition partner Komeito missed Ishiba's stated goal of winning 233 seats - a majority in the 456-member lower house.

The LDP won 191 seats, down from 259 at the last election in 2021, and Komeito 24, according to NHK's tallies. Official results were yet to be published.

"As long as our own lives don't improve, I think everyone has given up on the idea that we can expect anything from politicians," restaurant worker Masakazu Ikeuchi, 44, said in Tokyo.

LDP's election committee chief, former premier Junichiro Koizumi's son Shinjiro Koizumi, resigned to "take responsibility" for the outcome.

The most likely next step is that Ishiba will now seek to head a minority government, with the divided opposition probably incapable of forming a coalition of their own, analysts said.

Ishiba, who has 30 days to form a government, said he is not considering a broader coalition "at this point".

A minority government will likely slow down the parliamentary process as Japan confronts a host of challenges - from a falling population to a tense regional security environment.

It could also push figures within the LDP to try and unseat Ishiba.

"Lawmakers aligned with [former prime minister Shinzo] Abe were cold-shouldered under Ishiba, so they could potentially pounce on the opportunity to take their revenge," said Yu Uchiyama, a political science professor at the University of Tokyo.

"But at the same time, with the number of LDP seats reduced so much, they might take the high road and support Ishiba for now, thinking it's not the time for infighting."

A big winner was former premier Yoshihiko Noda's Constitutional Democratic Party, which increased its projected seat tally to 148 from 96 at the last election.

Noda had pounced on media reports that the LDP was financially supporting district offices headed by figures caught up in the slush fund scandal.

Mirroring elections elsewhere, fringe parties did well, with Reiwa Shinsengumi, founded by a former actor, tripling its seats to nine after promising to abolish sales tax and boost pensions. The anti-immigration and traditionalist Conservative Party of Japan won its first three seats.

The number of women lawmakers meanwhile reached a record high of 73, according to NHK, but they still make up less than 16 percent of the legislature.

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