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

Ishiba had promised not to actively support LDP politicians caught up in the funding scandal.

But the opposition pounced on media reports that the party offered 20 million yen (US$132,000) each to district offices headed by these people, who were still running.

“Voters chose which party would be best suited to promote political reforms,” ​​Noda said late Sunday, adding that “the LDP-Komeito administration cannot continue.”

Mirroring elections elsewhere, fringe parties fared well, with Reiwa Shinsengumi, founded by a former actor, tripling its seats to nine after promising to abolish the sales tax and increase pensions.

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

The number of female MPs has since hit a record high of 73, according to NHK, but still make up less than 16 percent of the legislature.

“As long as our own lives don’t improve, I think everyone has given up the idea that we can expect anything from politicians,” restaurant worker Masakazu Ikeuchi, 44, told AFP in rainy Tokyo on Monday. year old.

“I think the result was a result of people in Japan wanting to change the current situation,” said fellow voter Takako Sasaki, 44.