For the first time in 12 years in the Lower House
For the first time since 2012 in Japan, the Liberal Democrats (LDP) at the head of the government coalition lose their majority in the Lower House, decreeing a solemn setback for the newly elected Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, leader of the party for just a month conservative who has governed the Land of the Rising Sun almost continuously from the post-war period to today. A few minutes after the closing of the polls, based on the first exit polls, out of 465 seats contested in the parliamentary elections, the LDP will not be able to confirm the 256 seats it held before the dissolution of the Chambers.
The decline in support for the conservative party was affected by the scandal over irregular funds that exploded last December, which engulfed various factions of the LDP, including some ministers of the previous executive led by former prime minister Fumio Kishida – forced to resign, and the discontent general on economic measures considered inadequate to contain the general rise in prices. According to projections, Komeito, a Buddhist-inspired party and main ally of the government, will also be unable to confirm its 32 seats, reducing the total 288 that the two forces held before the vote.
The 67-year-old Prime Minister Ishiba – fresh from polls that before the elections gave the government’s performance at around 40% of the vote – was aiming for a simple majority of 233 seats in the most influential chamber of Parliament. The LDP is considered one of the most successful parties globally among liberal democracies, in power for the past 69 years in Japan except on two occasions. In 1993, he was ousted for the first time, after the speculative bubble of the 1980s burst and following corruption scandals. More recently, between 2009 and 2012, when the centre-left CDP party took over in the period that saw the Fukushima nuclear disaster occur in 2011. If the results of the exit polls were to be confirmed, a new phase of uncertainty, say political analysts, with alliances that appear anything but obvious to guarantee the governability of the country.
