As his second official spell as prime minister began on Monday, Shigeru Ishiba was asleep at the wheel.

Ishiba drew headlines for a moment after he was caught napping in parliament during proceedings for his own nomination as Japanese leader. It’s common for Japanese politicians, who must sit through hours of tedious parliamentary debates that most global peers don’t, to catch up on microsleep. Ishiba’s spokesman blamed cold medicine.

But Ishiba might well wish he had stayed asleep. He already had plenty to worry about. He’s still smarting from a resounding election defeat and has just formed a minority government, Japan’s first in three decades, which is sure to be unstable. The head of the party whose help he needs most to pass legislation is in trouble, having just admitted to an extramarital affair. Two of Ishiba’s own Cabinet ministers and the leader of his coalition partner lost their seats in the election rout. That the Liberal Democratic Party didn’t join the growing list of global incumbents turfed out of power this year might just be due to timing, with Japan’s main opposition party also in the midst of a reorganization.