A week after a general election that saw the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito lose their majority — and seven days before parliament opens and selects a new prime minister — Japan’s political situation remains unsettled, its future uncertain.
Over the next week, both parties and those in the opposition will lobby as many of the 465 recently elected lawmakers as they can to elect their candidate of choice as the nation’s next leader — especially in the event of a deciding round between the top two finalists — even as the question of what the next ruling coalition might look like is still unclear.
The Oct. 27 Lower House election resulted in the LDP-Komeito coalition finishing with 215 seats (191 for the LDP and 24 for Komeito), 18 seats shy of a 233-seat majority. An Asahi Shimbun poll over the weekend and another by JNN showed Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s Cabinet support rate dropping in comparison with last month — to 34% in the Asahi poll and 38.9% in the JNN poll.
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