Getty ImagesPrime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party lost its majority.
Japanese elections are usually stable and boring, but this snap election was neither of those things.
This dramatic vote follows the political funding corruption scandal that came to light last year, which involved senior members and ministers of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), tarnishing the party’s image and angering the public.
It was just the perfect storm. The scandal involved dozens of Liberal Democratic Party members being investigated for personalizing millions of dollars in political fundraising profits at a time when household budgets were suffering from inflation, high prices, stagnant wages, and a stagnant economy.
In the end, angry and weary voters sent a strong message with Sunday’s vote that they will punish the Liberal Democratic Party at the polls. And it was an amazing blow. The political party that has ruled Japan almost continuously since 1955 has lost its sole majority in the powerful House of Representatives.
But there was also no clear winner. At a time when the people were looking for an alternative, the divided opposition failed to emerge as a viable alternative.
Despite suffering a severe blow, the Liberal Democratic Party won 191 seats, more than the largest opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan), which had a final 148 seats.
“This election seems to be aimed at voters who are tired of corrupt and dirty parties and politicians. But they are not trying to bring in new leaders,” said Kanda University of International Studies. said instructor Jeffrey Hall.
Still, the fate of the former leader remains uncertain. The Liberal Democratic Party's ruling coalition fell below the midpoint of 233 seats in the 465-member Diet, as its ally Komeito lost several seats, including its leadership position.
Even if Komeito gains 24 seats, the Liberal Democratic Party will not be able to gather a majority.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who won a close leadership election and took office earlier this month, called it a “tough decision.”
He said on Sunday that voters had “strongly hoped that the Liberal Democratic Party would become a party that would reflect and act in accordance with the will of the people,” and that the results were now clear.
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Japan’s aging population is one of the biggest challenges for the next government
The hope was that Ishiba would be able to save the Liberal Democratic Party with a vote, but mounting dissatisfaction and plummeting approval ratings forced the last prime minister, Fumio Kishida, to step down.
Still, Ishiba took a gamble when he announced a snap election less than a month ago, and it backfired.
Both he and his party underestimated the extent of the public’s anger and, crucially, its willingness to act on it.
In order to maintain power, the Liberal Democratic Party needs to form a coalition with other parties that fought in the election. And because they must negotiate and make concessions to survive, they do so from a position of significant weakness.
I can’t overstate how rare this is. The Liberal Democratic Party has always enjoyed a secure and stable position in Japanese politics.
And it has a strong track record of governing – when opposition parties seized power in 1993 and 2009, it ended badly.
Since returning to power in 2012, the Liberal Democratic Party has won every election with almost no votes. Resignation to the status quo has persisted for many years, and the opposition remains unable to convince the public.
“I think we (Japanese) are very conservative,” 66-year-old voter Miyuki Fujisaki told the BBC a few days before the election.
“For us, it is very difficult to challenge and make changes. And even once the ruling party changed (and the opposition took over), in the end nothing really changed, so I They tend to be conservative.”
Fujisaki said she was initially unsure who to vote for, especially because of the fundraising scandal plaguing the Liberal Democratic Party. But given that she always voted for them, she said she would probably vote the same way this time.
The main opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party, made significant gains, but those involved point out that these results are due to voters’ anger toward the Liberal Democratic Party rather than voters’ support for the opposition party.
Hall said voters want to hold politicians accountable, but “in (their) minds…there’s no one else they can trust to actually lead the country.”
As a result, all that remains in Japan is a weakened Liberal Democratic Party and a splintered opposition party.
The country has long been seen as a beacon of political stability, a haven for investors and a reliable ally of the United States in the fraught Asia-Pacific region. Therefore, this uncertainty is of concern not only to the country’s own citizens, but also to neighboring countries and allies.
Domestically, an unstable coalition government will not help rebuild the economy, raise wages and improve the welfare of a rapidly aging population.
And it will be an even more difficult task to regain the trust and respect of a nation tired of politics.
