Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba remains in power and blames the election results on ‘suspicion, distrust and anger’ over the scandal

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Monday (Oct 28) vowed to remain in office even as his gamble on snap elections backfired, with the ruling party’s worst showing in 15 years.

Ishiba, 67, declared Sunday’s election days after coming to power on October 1, but voters angry over a slush fund scandal punished his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has ruled Japan virtually non-existent since 1955. -stop rules.

With forecasts pointing to the LDP-led coalition losing its ruling majority, Ishiba vowed to stay in office and said he would not allow a “political vacuum.”

“I want to fulfill my duty by protecting people’s lives and protecting Japan,” Ishiba told reporters.

He said the biggest election factor was “the people’s mistrust, distrust and anger” over a scandal in which the LDP made pocket money from fundraising events that helped scuttle his predecessor Fumio Kishida.

“I will implement fundamental reforms on the issue of money and politics,” Ishiba told reporters, reiterating that voters had passed a “severe judgment” on the party.

The yen hit a three-month low, falling more than one percent against the dollar, after exit polls and results reported by national broadcaster NHK and other media showed the worst result for the LDP and its junior coalition partner Komeito in 15 years .

They were expected to fall short of Ishiba’s target of at least 233 seats – a majority in the 456-member lower house.

The LDP won 191 seats, up from 259 in the last election in 2021, and Komeito 24, according to NHK. Official results were expected later Monday.

Before the election, the Japanese media had speculated that if this happened, Ishiba could potentially resign and become the country’s shortest-serving prime minister in the post-war period.

On Monday, the head of the LDP’s election committee, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s son Shinjiro Koizumi, resigned.

The most likely next step is that Ishiba will now try to lead a minority government, with the divided opposition unlikely to be able to form its own coalition, analysts said.

Ishiba said Monday that he is not considering a broader coalition “at this time.”

“Lawmakers who aligned themselves with (former Prime Minister Shinzo) Abe were given cold shoulders under Ishiba, so they could potentially seize the opportunity to retaliate,” Yu Uchiyama, a political science professor at the University of Tokyo, told AFP.

“But at the same time, now that the number of LDP seats has been reduced so much, they might take the high road and support Ishiba for the time being, because they think this is not the time for infighting,” he said.

– Started –

A big winner was former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), which increased its expected number of seats to 148 from 96 in the last election.

Ishiba had promised not to actively support the LDP politicians involved in the financing scandal.

But the opposition responded to media reports that the party provided 20 million yen ($132,000) each to district offices led by these figures, who were still running for election.

“The voters chose which party would be best suited to implement political reforms,” Noda said late on Sunday, adding that the “LDP-Komeito government cannot continue.”

Following elections elsewhere, fringe parties performed well, with Reiwa Shinsengumi, founded by a former actor, tripling its seats to nine after promising to abolish sales taxes and increase pensions.

The anti-immigration and traditionalist Conservative Party of Japan, founded in 2023 by nationalist writer Naoki Hyakuta, won the first three seats.

According to NHK, the number of female lawmakers has now reached a record high of 73, but still represents less than 16 percent of the legislature.

“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, told AFP in rainy Tokyo on Monday.

“I think the outcome was the result of people all over Japan wanting to change the current situation,” said fellow voter Takako Sasaki, 44. – AFP