Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was on thin ice on Monday after his ruling coalition was projected to have lost its parliamentary majority in disastrous snap elections.
Ishiba, 67, called Sunday’s vote days after taking office on October 1, but voters angry at a slush fund scandal punished his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
“We are receiving severe judgment,” Ishiba, who the LDP chose as leader last month precisely because he was popular among voters, told national broadcaster NHK after polls closed on Sunday.
The Japanese people “expressed their strong desire for the LDP to do some reflection and become a party that will act in line with the people’s will”, he said.
National broadcaster NHK and other media outlets reported that the LDP—which has governed almost nonstop since 1955—had fallen short of an absolute majority for the first time since 2009.
Even worse, the projections suggest that the previous coalition of the LDP and the smaller Komeito party had missed Ishiba’s election goal of winning 233 seats in the 456-member lower house.
The LDP won 191 seats and Komeito 24, according to NHK tallies as of Monday morning.
In Japan’s last general election in 2021, the LDP won a majority in its own right, with 259 seats in parliament’s powerful lower house. Komeito had 32.
The CDP appeared to have made considerable gains, with NHK indicating it had won 148 seats as of early Monday — up from 96.
Ishiba had promised to not actively support LDP politicians caught up in the funding scandal that saw party members pocket money from fund-raising events and helped sink his predecessor Fumio Kishida.
But the opposition jumped on media reports that the party has provided 20 million yen ($132,000) each to district offices headed by these figures, who were still standing in the election.
The number of women lawmakers meanwhile reached a record high at 73.
