In a surprising turn of events Shigeru Ishibaʼs decision to call snap-elections backfired badly causing his Liberal Democratic Party to lose its long-held majority. The ruling coalition managed to get just 215 seats in the 465-seat lower house which is their worst result in about 15 years
The pre-election period showed Ishibaʼs weak leadership skills — he changed his mind about late-PM Abes economic ideas and didnt take a strong position on the partyʼs funding problems. This led to voters losing trust in the party that ruled Japan for most of its post-war history
Our goal was to break the ruling partys majority‚ so the fact that we have achieved it is a huge accomplishment; this is not the end but the beginning
The Constitutional Democratic Party got 148 seats (up from 98) making them the main challenger to form a government. Now both major parties need help from smaller groups to get control:
- Democratic Party for the People with 28 seats
- Japan Innovation Party with 38 seats
- Other minor parties
The political mess already hit markets — yen dropped to its lowest point in 3 months against dollar. Japan has just 30 days to form a working government; if they dont succeed Ishiba will have to rule without proper support making it hard to pass any laws
The shake-up could slow down Japanʼs plans to work closer with US on China-related security issues. Some experts think that making new deals with other countries will be harder until theres a stable government in place (which might take several months to achieve)