Japan’s ruling coalition will lose its majority in Parliament, exit polls show Reuters
By Sakura Murakami and John Geddie
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s ruling party may fall short of a parliamentary majority, it said in Sunday’s general election, raising uncertainty over the formation of a government in the world’s fourth-largest economy.
A poll by national broadcaster NHK showed the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has ruled Japan for almost its entire post-war history, and its junior coalition partner were expected to win between 174 and 254 seats out of 465 in the lower house of Japan’s parliament.
The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan is expected to win 128 to 191 seats. The result may force the LDP or CDPJ to enter into power-sharing agreements with other parties to form a government.
A poll by Nippon TV showed the coalition would win 198 seats to the CDPJ’s 157, both well short of the 233 seats needed to reach a majority, as voters punished Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s party over a subsidy scandal and inflation.
“It was a tough fight for the LDP,” Shinjiro Koizumi, the LDP’s election chief, told NHK.
Ishiba did a quick search after being elected to lead the agency last month, hoping to succeed in his prime ministership. His predecessor Fumio Kishida resigned after his support declined amid anger over the cost of living and a scandal involving unrecorded donations to lawmakers.
The uncertainty comes nine days before US voters elect a new president and as Japan grapples with economic conditions and strained relations with neighboring China.
The LDP has had an outright majority since returning to power in 2012 after briefly ending the CDPJ regime.
The political conflict could roil the markets and cause headaches for the Bank of Japan, if Ishiba chooses a partner who favors keeping interest rates close to zero when the central bank wants to raise them gradually.
Japanese stocks fell 2.7% last week on the benchmark index.
