Voters apparently called for a change in the nation's politics in Sunday's elections for the House of Representatives. The Democratic Party of Japan consolidated its position as the No. 1 opposition party by winning an additional 35 seats, although it failed to win enough votes to allow it to establish a coalition government with other opposition parties.
At the same time, the voters dealt a heavy blow to the current coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the Conservative Party, which have jointly commanded about two-thirds of the Lower House seats. They suffered a combined loss of nearly 20 percent in strength.
In a special session of the Diet that will be convened July 4, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori will again be named premier and will launch a largely shuffled Cabinet, one that will be his own rather than that which he inherited from the late Keizo Obuchi. With a lot of problems to solve before an Upper House election scheduled for next summer, Mori will face difficult challenges managing the government and the coalition.
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