For the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the Oct. 31 Lower House election turned out better than predicted.
In addition to party-backed victors, a few who won as independents joined afterwards, giving the LDP a total of 263 seats — a loss of only 15. It also has 109 members in the Upper House, giving it a total of 372 Diet members.
Of these, 70 are unaffiliated with any party factions, but the remaining members belong to one of seven groups.
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