TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba vowed on Monday (Oct 28) to stay in office despite his bet that a snap election backfired with the ruling party’s worst result in 15 years.

Ishiba, 67, called Sunday’s election after taking office on Oct. 1, but voters angered by the crazy funds scandal punished his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has ruled Japan almost non-stop since 1955.

With forecasts suggesting the LDP-led coalition will lose its ruling majority, Ishiba vowed to stay in office, saying he would not allow a “political vacuum”.

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

He said the biggest electoral factor was “people’s suspicion, mistrust and anger” over a scandal that saw LDP members send pocket money from fundraising events and helped sink his predecessor Fumio Kishida.

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

The yen hit a three-month low, falling more than 1 percent against the dollar, as 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 the last 15 years.

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

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

Before the election, Japanese media had speculated that if this happened, Ishiba might resign, becoming the nation’s shortest-serving prime minister in the post-war period.

On Monday, the head of the electoral commission of the PLD, the son of former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, Shinjiro Koizumi, resigned.

The most likely next step is that Ishiba will now seek to lead a minority government, with the divided opposition seen as likely unable to form a coalition of its own, analysts said.

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

“Lawmakers aligned with (former prime minister Shinzo) Abe were confident under Ishiba, so they may take the opportunity to retaliate,” Yu Uchiyama, a political science professor at the University of Tokyo, told AFP.

“But at the same time, with the LDP seat count so reduced, they may take the high road and support Ishiba for now, believing that this is not the time for infighting,” he said.

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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 had offered 20 million yen ($132,000) each to district offices headed by these people, who were still running in the election.

“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 parliamentarians, meanwhile, reached a record high of 73, according to NHK, but still made 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. – AFP