Japan ruling party loses majority in disastrous election result

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s now shaky minority government is at risk of being derailed.

Populist party Sanseito makes strong gains fuelling political instability in the weeks ahead, ‘The Telegraph’ informs.

Japan’s ruling coalition lost its majority in upper house elections on Sunday, exit polls projected, in a disastrous result for prime minister Shigeru Ishiba.

Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its partner Komeito won about 41 of the 125 seats contested, short of the 50 needed to retain a majority, local media said, with the populist party Sanseito projected to have made strong gains.

The results will likely fuel political instability in the world’s fourth largest economy as a tariff deadline with the United States looms.

While the ballot does not directly determine whether prime minister Shigeru Ishiba’s shaky minority government falls, it heaps pressure on the embattled leader who also lost control of the more-powerful lower house in October.

The LDP, which has ruled Japan for most of the post-war period, had its worst showing in 15 years in October’s lower house election.

That has left Ishiba vulnerable to no-confidence motions that could topple his administration and trigger a fresh general election.

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