Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's strategy of a surprise battle, by calling a snap election shortly after taking office, seemingly backfired on Sunday, with early media polls showing the ruling Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito coalition suffering its worst results since returning to power in 2012.
But the fact that opposition parties failed to form a united front in many battleground districts and their indistinguishable economic policies compared with those of the ruling coalition might have cushioned some of the damage for the LDP and Komeito.
Ishiba, who is also LDP president, dissolved the Lower House only eight days after assuming office on Oct. 1, setting a postwar record for the shortest interval between a new prime minister taking office and the dissolution of the Lower House, which leads to a general election.
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