Japan’s parliament re-elected the prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, on Monday after his governing coalition suffered the worst election loss in more than a decade.
Ishiba’s ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) and its junior partner, Komeito, together lost their majority in the 465-seat lower house, the more powerful of Japan’s two-house parliament, in the 27 October election amid voter outrage over financial misconduct by his party and its lukewarm response.
A special parliamentary session was held on Monday to pick a new leader in a vote required within 30 days of a general election. In the past, these votes did not attract much attention because an LDP leader was virtually assured to be prime minister. Ishiba beat top opposition leader, Yoshihiko Noda, 221-160 in the first runoff in 30 years.
Most of his previous cabinet members will be reappointed, but Ishiba will have to replace three who lost their seats or were affected by the election results.
Since the election loss, Ishiba has refused to step down, saying he is willing to cooperate with additional coalition partners to boost stability and help him pursue his party’s policies. Noda, the head of the centrist opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, has sought to form an opposition coalition – so far unsuccessfully.
Ishiba will struggle in the coming months as he must gain consent from the opposition on policies including the budget and other legislation.
He is eyeing a rising smaller, conservative opposition, the Democratic Party for the People, whose seats quadrupled to 28 under its popular leader, Yuichiro Tamaki.
A Harvard-educated former finance ministry bureaucrat, Tamaki has proposed raising the basic tax-free income allowance and increasing take-home wages, ideas that have attracted low-income earners and younger voters in the election. He only wants to cooperate with Ishiba’s party on policy – not as part of a coalition –since he wants to use his leverage to increase his party’s standing ahead of the next election.
Tamaki was recently stung by a magazine article exposing an extramarital affair, which he admitted to on Monday, adding to political uncertainty.
Ishiba’s government is preparing for his trip later this month to Asean and Group of 20 summits, as well as a possible meeting with the US president-elect, Donald Trump, on his way home.