The Liberal Democratic Party, which has led Japan since 1955 except for two minor interruptions, suffered a serious defeat in Sunday's snap elections, losing its majority in the lower house of parliament. Thus, the new president of the party, elected in September, Esipa Segeru, who declared the elections as a kind of vote of confidence, finds himself in a rather difficult situation and will have to look for new coalition partners in order to be able to govern, writes Japan today.
The devastating result for the LDP is not without precedent, as the popularity of the party and former Prime Minister Kissida Fumio, elected in the 2021 elections, have been damaged by serious scandals in recent years. First, it received a lot of criticism for the assassination of former Prime Minister Senzo Abe in 2022, as well as the closely associated Unification Church, which is often linked to the Liberal Democratic Party, which led to his resignation.
Under these circumstances, Esiba was elected president of the Liberal Democratic Party at the end of September, which wanted to strengthen its position through early elections, but it clearly did not work out for them. The party lost more than 60 seats in the lower house of parliament, and even with its coalition partner, Komeito, the party falls short of the 233 seats needed for a parliamentary majority. This is the worst result achieved by the Liberal Democratic Party since it entered the opposition for three years in 2009, while the strength of the main opposition, the Constitutional Democratic Party, improved by more than fifty seats.
The LDP probably will not get a majority even if, according to rumours, candidates who did not officially run in the elections due to the bribery scandal are allowed to return to the party.
Esiba assessed the result as having apparently failed to convince people, but he still hopes it will continue. Despite the results, there is great opportunity for this, and the ideologically diverse opposition will also face problems in cooperation. According to analysts, even in the worst case, the LDP will find independent representatives with whom it can obtain a majority, but it is almost certain that Isiba will not be able to fulfill its main promise, namely to start amending the constitution, because for this it needs a two-thirds majority.
