In Japan, the long dominant Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, lost its parliamentary majority for the first time in 15 years yesterday. The results come just a month after new PM Ishiba Shigeru won the LDP’s leadership election and quickly called snap elections in a gamble meant to strengthen his mandate. (Washington Post)
Our Take
The election outcome puts Japan in a somewhat unprecedented position. The last time the LDP lost its parliamentary majority was in 2009, but that was an outright loss that put the party in opposition. This time, the LDP won the vote but, even with its junior coalition party, fell short of a majority, introducing uncertainty into Japan’s famously stable political environment.
For Ishiba, the results mark a clear sign that his gamble in calling elections a year before they were due backfired. He took over as leader of the LDP in large part because the party has suffered from low approval ratings since being rocked by a financial scandal late last year. As a maverick with a reputation for criticizing some of the LDP’s policies as well as its leadership over the years, Ishiba was meant to reinvigorate support for the party. But after Ishiba backtracked on some of his more iconoclastic positions, instead of cleaning up the LDP’s image, he appears to have been tarnished by it.