As was expected, the Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito ruling coalition took a beating in last weekend’s Upper House election. The clock is now ticking on the government of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. What comes next is not clear.
The ballot revealed no real preference for Japan’s next government. There is profound dissatisfaction with the country’s ruling elites but that is not enough to address the challenges that Japan faces. The mainstream traditional parties must commence a bottom-up review to do that. They have shown little inclination to do so.
The election results were a clear repudiation of the ruling coalition. The LDP won 39 seats, a loss of 13 from the previous parliament. It won nearly 20% of votes cast, the lowest in the party’s history. Komeito claimed eight seats. Collectively, the two parties did not win the 50 seats that they needed to maintain control of the Upper House.
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