Right-wing governing coalition loses parliamentary majority in Japan

Japan’s governing coalition, formed by the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (PLD), of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, and the center-right Buddhist party Komeito, lost its majority in the lower house of Parliament in this Sunday’s general elections (27).

Together, the two parties won 215 seats, falling short of the 233 that represent the majority in the chamber.

The PLD won 191 seats, well below the 256 it obtained in the previous election in 2021, while Komeito won 24, a drop of eight, according to a count released this Monday (28) by the state television broadcaster NHK before the announcement of official numbers.

The big winner of the elections was the left-wing Constitutional Democratic Party (PDC), led by Yoshihiko Noda, the main opposition force, which increased its parliamentary representation from 98 to 148 seats.

The PDC leader said in a press conference after projections indicated victory for the party that his objective was “to break the majority of the party in power, and we achieved it, which is a great achievement”.

This is the first time since 2009 that the PLD has lost its majority to govern, either alone or with its traditional coalition partner.

These results open a period of great political uncertainty for Japan. Both the PLD and the PDC have expressed a willingness to seek possible alliances that would allow them to govern, although, for now, they have ruled out any option of doing so together.

The LDP’s negative result is mainly attributed to the succession of scandals in which it has been involved in recent years, the most recent being a series of cases of irregular financing of its parliamentarians that led to the resignation, last month, of the former prime minister. Minister Fumio Kishida.

Ishiba won the party’s primaries and campaigned for the general election on the theme of “respecting the rules” and promoting the principles of honesty and transparency, but that message appears to have failed to convince voters.